|
Mugen Motorsports (M-TEC Co., Ltd) (無限) is a Japanese company formed in 1973 by Hirotoshi Honda, the son of Honda Motor Company founder Soichiro Honda, and Masao Kimura. Mugen, meaning "Without Limit", or "Unlimited", (hence the commonly placed word "Power" after, denoting "Unlimited Power") is an engine tuner and parts manufacturer closely associated with the Honda Motor Company. Despite the family connections, however, Mugen is not, and has never been, owned by Honda Motor Company. Things were complicated for some time as Mugen was owned and run by Hirotoshi Honda, who has been the major shareholder in Honda since his father's death in 1991. The company tunes and races Honda vehicles in the Super GT championship, and, additionally, sells aftermarket parts to amateur enthusiasts. It was part of partnerships that won the Formula 3000 championship in 1990 and 1991, and that eventually led to Mugen's involvement in Formula One, from 1992 to 2000, and up to 2005 was the exclusive supplier of Formula Nippon engines. ==Corporate history== The company has a strong racing heritage, as Hirotoshi Honda began building his own racing car in a workshop at his father's house, shortly before he graduated from Nihon University in 1965. Masao Kimura is a veteran racer with more than 50 victories in Honda sports cars and single-seaters and worked for Honda R&D and then Honda Racing Service before helping Hirotoshi Honda establish Mugen. The company specializes in tuning Honda engines. Beginning with the 1200 cc Honda Civic engine, it went on to develop, and now designs and builds, both two-stroke and four-stroke engines, manufacturing many of the major components itself. Mugen ultimately intends to build its own road cars and the first step towards this was the creation of bodykits for the Honda Ballade CR-X in 1984. Since then, the company has produced a number of body kits for Honda machinery, culminating with the Mugen NSX prototype in 1992.〔Out-of-print 'What's Mugen' Catalogue ("Mugen NSX Prototype – The 90’s Supercar That Never Was" ), ''JapClassifieds'', Retrieved on 06 October 2014.〕 Following Hirotoshi Honda's tax evasion allegation in late 2003, Mugen was restructured in early 2004 with the establishment of M-TEC. The new company retained the right to use the Mugen trademark and its headquarters in Asaka, Saitama, in the northern suburbs of Tokyo close to the Honda R&D facility at Wako. Although it is a legally separate entity, M-TEC kept Mugen's existing staff and is headed by former Mugen board member Shin Nagaosa, who was the engineering division manager at Mugen and been involved with running Mugen's NSX racing program. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mugen Motorsports」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|