What's the news?

The contraption you see before you is what you get when you leave a racing team in charge of a lawnmower. Say hello to the Honda 'Mean Mower': a 1,000cc, 109hp lawnmower that will shortly be leaving the UK for the first time in order to appear at one of the biggest premier automotive trade shows, SEMA.

Built in a joint effort by Honda and its British Touring Car Championship racing team, the Mean Mower is every little bit as mad as it sounds. Powering it is the same engine you'll find in a Honda VTR Firestorm sports bike, which runs through a specially-designed six-speed sequential gearbox and puts 109hp at the rear wheels... which come from a quad bike. Weighing in at just 140kg, the Mean Mower has a power-to-weight ratio of a colossal 532hp per tonne - more than a Bugatti Veyron. Other non-standard features include the bespoke seat, a Scorpion exhaust system and a steering rack that was sourced, rather strangely, from a Morris Minor.

Now, the question on everyone's lips at this point is: is it still a lawnmower? The answer to this question is 'yes', because even though the cutter-deck has been rebuilt in fibreglass and the grass box now contains a fuel tank, two electric motors spin a 3mm steel cutting cable at 4,000rpm underneath the mower. Unfortunately, drivers are limited to 15mph while this is going on; although this is a good decision as the Mean Mower hits terminal velocity at a predictably scary 133mph.

"Mean Mower is a fantastic showcase of Honda's spirit of innovation and pushing boundaries, and our reputation for creating extraordinary pieces of engineering," comments Ellie Ostinelli, PR Communications Manager for Honda UK. "SEMA is a perfect shop window for it, sitting alongside some of the world's best innovations in automotive products."

Anything else?

The Mean Mower's first public appearance on the Honda stand will take place at the SEMA Show that runs from 5th-8th November 2013. The 2014 Civic Coupé is also scheduled to make its world debut at the show.