Design Development: Honda Project 2&4 concept

Motorcycle designers generally regard automotive design with some distain, seeing it on the one hand as superficial and styling led, and on the other as being too restrictive to allow any major breakthroughs. Likewise many auto designers appreciate motorcycle design but fear that much of it is inevitably dictated by the engineers, with the designers being left to just tidy up the package, add a few fairings to hide the oily bits underneath.

Honda is one of a select group of car companies that employs designers from both camps and promotes internal competitions for all of its designers to loosen up and present their dreams. Car Design News talked to motorcycle designer Martin Petersson about his winning design for Honda’s latest concept, shown at the IAA in September.

Design contest

Delightful sketches include these for the suspension arms

The Honda Project 2&4 concept started in late 2013 as a global internal design competition between both the car and motorcycle design studios. “The idea was born in a conversation between the four-wheel head of design in Wako, Yoshikazu Kigoshi, and Koji Miwa, head of two-wheeled design at Asaka, both avid motorcyclists and car enthusiasts” says Petersson. They saw an opportunity to collaborate on a four-wheeled vehicle focused on a fun and exciting driving experience based on the 1000cc V4 engine from the RCV213-S superbike.

Sketch illustrates how the car was designed from the inside out

The initial sketch competition lasted some weeks, in parallel to each designer’s regular work, with more than 80 designers proposing their vision for how such a vehicle could look. That was followed by a number of selection rounds, resulting in 4-5 concept finalists chosen for further development in 3D/Alias before the final decision was taken.

Technical sketches include these for the hubs

During this digital modelling stage there were a number of requests from the four-wheel engineering side to get, for example, suspension geometries correct and overall dimensions and weight balance as ideal as possible. The selection of technical solutions and components for each area of the vehicle was also decided during this phase.

Steering wheel sketch

So, what was it about your concept that made it the winner?

“Probably the fact that I approached it from the inside-out” says Petersson. “I had a clear idea for how to construct it with existing Honda technology, so there is no science-fiction here, it’s simply a combination of elements from the two and four-wheeled worlds that come together in an easy-to-understand, logical and very exciting package.”

Driver’s seat cantilevers off the chassis, looking as though it floats between the wheels

Prior knowledge

Petersson had previously worked at Kiska in Austria, the company that designed the KTM X-Bow, giving him so useful prior experience of blending car and bike. He admits that the two disciplines are different however, but that each can benefit from the other’s knowledge.

Main frame of the concept forms its backbone and mounting point for all ancillaries

“These chassis parts are the juiciest bits, we designers love them!” says Petersson. Starting from the engine position, he let the vehicle grow to its final form, component by component, working closely with Matthieu Leslin and Masamoto Ito on the engineering side. The backbone chassis meant the seat would need to be offset and the front A-arms define the v-shaped front mask, for example.

Given that rest of the body is so sparse, the wheels play a large part in the final design

“Everything is exposed, using the best combination of parts, structures and solutions from both the car and motorcycle world” he explains. This is a unique point, since very few companies have such deep in-house knowledge in both fields.

Sketch shows how car-like levels of safety could be achieved

Unlike most car projects, there was no need to search for external design influences to provide inspiration for the final shape. Likewise, there was no clay modelling stage, with the various components designed in Alias and directly milled out or 3D printed for assembly as a mock-up. “We knew there might be surprises once we would see the real model since it’s hard to judge the scale on screen, especially in this case where the vehicle is not following any normal size-category.”

Surface challenges

Petersson admits the scale of the surfaces sometimes caught him out. “I thought it would be important to keep some areas ‘calm’, somewhere for your eyes to rest since much of the car is very busy due to the open nature. The upper bodywork is probably the main area where you find ‘rest’. Without it I think we would struggle to get acceptance from the four-wheeled world, it was important to avoid making a spaceship.”

Floating bodywork and heritage colouring communicate how Honda is looking ahead without forgetting its past

He goes on to confirm that the real sketch work was done after the final selection, while the Alias model was underway, since every single part of the car is visible and had to be taken care of. “This was a nice challenge and a learning process for everyone involved, since at this point the real collaboration between the different departments came together: seat specialists, prototype-making experts and chassis engineers all having their say about the ideal way of doing each part.”

80 percent motorbike, 20 percent design

He makes the point that motorcycle design is different from car design in the sense that it’s 80 percent ‘motorcycle’ and only 20 percent design. “You must fully understand that and make the mechanics and chassis components stay true to their function, and not to ‘over-style’ and make things look like gimmicks but make everything as a whole look natural and well put together.

Assembly of the showcar, with Mathieu Geslin

“The ergonomic imprint on a motorcycle is far more visible than on a car too. I wanted to give the same imprint for this project. It’s not so much about character lines and surfacing, but rather the architecture of the vehicle – and the driver is one of the main building blocks in that architecture.”

On your bike

Floating seat adds to the sensation of two wheels on four

In the final design the seat back is completely open to give a real motorcycle experience, although the lower back would be warmed by the exhaust. The seat is deeply bucketed and contains side airbags for some limited side protection. The seat is also fixed, with the pedal box and drive-by-wire steering column being able to slide for adjustment. For now the steering and projected HUD display are mocked-up and don’t function.

Transparent panel acts as a combined wind deflector and HUD screen

Some observers at the IAA noted the 2&4’s resemblance to a previous Honda concept, the Side-by-Side from 1997, which had perfect mid-engine balance, with a 742cc narrow-angle V-twin engine placed to the right of the driver’s cockpit.

1997 Side-by-Side was made into a 50-off race series for Honda’s Motegi Twin Ring circuit

Intriguingly, Petersson says he’d never heard of the car and only saw a photo of it just one week before the IAA, so it – fortunately – bore no influence on his thinking.

The prototype was constructed in-house at the Wako car studio but with many parts prepared and built by modellers from the motorcycle side, who are more familiar with making technical parts.

Fusing bike and car has been such a success, we’d love to see the concept developed further

Honda would like to take the concept to the next stage, a running prototype. However, that does require tackling the safety and steering issues “a huge task, but a lovely challenge” concludes Petersson. It’s one we hope the design team get to attempt to overcome.

Honda Project 2&4

Vehicle type Lightweight track car concept
Length 3040mm
Width 1820mm
Height 995mm
Weight 405kg

Motorcycle design manager Koji Miwa
Car design manager Yoshikazu Kigoshi
Designer Martin Petersson
Model chief Koji Hayakawa
Alias manager Masamoto Ito
Engineering manager Matthieu Leslin

Project started Autumn 2013
Project completed Summer 2015
First seen Frankfurt Motor Show, September 2015