In 1985 American Honda mailed this postcard to enthusiasts all over the US to help introduce them to Mugen competition parts.
Note the spelling of CRX for the US versus CR-X for Japan. How would you like to see these guys coming up behind you in your rear view mirror?
A Mugen CRX prototype in a full scale wind tunnel back in 1984- Validating all aero mods.
See also our pic of wind tunnel testing for the Mugen DC2 Type-R.
We recently dug up these wonderful Mugen catalog pages featuring the apparel, stickers and emblems they were offering for sale in 1984.
The red, blue, and navy shirt colors remind us of shirts we might have had in high school. You can see that Mugen's apparel designers were not afraid to experiment with variations of their Mugen logo and kanji.
Back in the day could have bought your very own Mugen driver suit! The back lists some of the motorsports Mugen had their hands into, including MOTORCROSS and RACING KART. Looks like there was a typo on the price ...
This blue button down would look great in the pits and have a very retro uniform / military look to them. We dig the gold collar. The white tee with red print has a very classic graphic on the front that still holds up years later.
These red, blue and white sweatshirts tug on the 80's era fashion sense. We'd rock these at the next Dyno Day!
Here's the page with hats, stickers, emblems and patches:
I'm not sure if these two hats could be any cooler. Especially the one with the mesh back! UNLIMITED POWER UNIT!
These patches play with rainbow gradations, 3D and unique layouts of the Mugen branding. COMPETITION POWER UNIT SUPPLIER just about sums it up.
CR-X fans will love that the CR-X PRO stickers are featured in this catalog. The front visor sticker properly curves to the front glass. The door graphics come in white or black. We've always loved that cool rear sticker that replaces the OEM CR-X sticker.
Hmm, can you abbreviate "suspension" as "sus."? Works for us!
More stickers! These days you rarely see the color blue used in Mugen branding.
These classic emblems came in multiple colors and sizes.
If you still have any of these unique items, let us know on the King Motorsports Facebook page!
You can see all of the currently available Mugen shirts, Mugen apparel and Mugen stickers on our online store.
Sadly we don't see too many first gen Integras on the streets these days. Even rarer were the 5-door versions. Here's Mugen's take on that very rare 5-door!
"INTEGRA CURCUIT FORM"
Check out the QUINT GSi sticker as well as the more familiar DOHC SPORTS Mugen sticker.
And here is the version with two less doors, in black! Heavy window and taillight tint really bring out the nose-to-tail graphic stripes!
Check out all our currently available performance parts for the first gen Integra in our online store!
Way back Wednesday- we are going to post the entire Mugen AT Civic Group A parts catalog. We think you'll be amazed at the depth of the parts Mugen made available. You could literally build a turn key competitive Group A Civic from this catalog.
Right-click on an image to see it larger.
The Mugen Group A Civic leads the way. The Group A series was hotly contested by Honda and Toyota with Honda typically having the upper hand...
Mugen Group A Civic engine parts. Forged Mugen pistons with special material connecting rods. There were a few iterations of the connecting rods through the years- some beautifully polished. The Mugen oil pan was a work of art! It strengthened the block and added oil capacity and helped eliminate windage resulting a a 5 hp gain all by itself. The Mugen 30/50 cams were very easy on the valvetrain and had a very sophisticated profile to work with the PGM-FI system.
Part 2 of the Mugen Group A Civic engine parts list- smaller diameter pulleys and the adjustable PGM-Fi ECU and controller. The Mugen hard rubber engine mounts were sold for both race and street cars and made a great improvement! Keeping the engine and engine oil cool was very important- anything over 225 degrees oil temp caused the engine to loose HP.....
Because FIA Group A rules state you must use the factory upper exhaust manifold, considerable time was spent developing the secondary to make the most power. Chromoly lightweight flywheel and AP racing clutch.
One of the big advantages Mugen had over the competition in Group A was a wide range of alternative gear ratios and final drives. With this gearing you could always keep the engine in it's fairly narrow power band. The Mugen Limited slip has been a mainstay of all Honda competition cars all the way back to 1973....
Moving on to the Mugen Group A Civic suspension parts. Here's where things get really interesting. Mugen Showa dampers and upper camber plates, and the really trick front reinforced knuckles designed to be used with an adjustable sleeve that gave even greater camber adjustment. All the different front torsion bar diameters made it easy to dial in the handling to suit the track.
Here we have the quick ratio Mugen steering box (RHD) and 21mm front sway bar. The Mugen rear trailing arms were made specifically to help keep the correct suspension geometry. Mugen made three rear springs rates available, However most opted for an even higher rate linear spring.
The Mugen Group A rear axle with adjustable Panhard rod. The Mugen internal sway bars really worked well and we sold quite a few to street and race enthusiasts. Check out those Mugen 15" wheels......!!!!
We have covered how Mugen made the AT Civic go and handle, so how did they make it stop? 4 piston AP calipers and full floating front brake rotors, single master cylinder and rear disc conversion with all the needed brake lines.
Here's the Mugen brake proportioning assembly and yes- the FIA required a hand brake.....
The Mugen Group A fuel system. A custom ATL 90 liter fuel cell with pump and swirl tank. Don't forget the Mugen gauge cluster with 10K tach. And Mugen SW-36 steering wheel to grab onto!
Lastly the Mugen aluminum FIA roll cage.....
Add up all those Mugen parts with a few hundred hours of labor and this will be you!
Flashback with us to 1984 and the Mugen SW-36 steering wheel. This steering wheel was a popular item back then and is highly coveted by Mugen collectors to this day. When it gets to around -20 degrees F, the leather steering pad could contract and could cause the horn to blow continuosly in the middle of the night-resulting in seriosly cranky neighbors and a visit from the local police. Just sayin.....
We have the latest version of the Mugen steering wheel in stock and on sale!
http://www.kingmotorsports.com/p-826-mugen-racing-iii-steering-wheel.aspx
If you're like us, your passion for Hondas is reflected in the artwork you buy and display. We have a few to share:
Years ago we bought this cloth print at the Honda Collection Hall at Twin Ring Motegi- it hangs proudly in our office.
This mural featuring some of Honda’s most iconic racing machinery hangs inside Honda’s closed-to-the-public R&D facility in Raymond Ohio.
The 100 foot long mural was produced by artist John Frye.
Is it levitation, or is it love?
Mugen and Honda ran a single make racing series using the City Turbos. The cars were based on the production vehicles as were the motors. The motors had larger exhaust, injectors, production type turbo (with 22psi), production type intercooler, and a modified camshaft. These cars did the standing 1/4 mile in 13.5 seconds (which isn’t bad for a frontwheel drive car set up for circuit racing).
They ran very fat tires (9” front and 7” rear). The official Mugen figure for power output is 138+hp @ 5500rpm but the torque is around 22kgm @ 3500rpm (standard twin cam VTEC 1600 has 16kgm, NSX V6 has about 28kgm). It takes little work to produce these power figure in a street motor. The cars from the one make racing series were bought by an Australian entrepreneur with the vision for continuing the series in Australia. Unfortunately all the vehicles were in a warehouse in Osaka waiting to be shipped when an earthquake struck and buried the lot.
Update 2/20/2013:
If you were racing your Mugen City Turbo II in the mid 80's, chances are are you had this Mugen competition oil cooler kit.
Time for an "image tribute" to some classic Mugen wheels over the years. Let's start with the radiating-heat goodness of the CF-48. These are the uber rare black versions with black center caps. The black CRX ain't too bad either!
You have to have the black aero discs (and gold-colored logo / lettering) to go along with them! If you've ever owned CF-48 wheels you know there aren't many aero discs in circulation today...
The MR-5 was easily the most popular wheel of that era. The black-center version with polished lip is hard to beat!
Mugen CR-X Circuit Racer with Mugen MR-5 wheels.....
The M7 wheel is quite rare as very few were sold back in the day. It's all about the SUPER FACTORS!
1. SUPER PRECISION
2. SUPER DYNAMIC-BALANCED
3. SUPER DURABILITY
4. SUPER STRONG
5. SUPER LIGHT
*Update*
Here are a few more additions to our classic Mugen wheel tribute!
Mugen CF-48 wheels with the aero disks. American Honda provided the entire SCCA SSC class field with these wheels at the Runoff in 1985. Quite a sight! This brochure showed them available in GUN METALLIC, CHROME CUT SILVER and CHROME CUT BLACK.
A closer look:
From our image library. Old school shot of a Mugen-equipped EF with Mugen CF-48 wheels.
Update 2/14/2013:
Check out this Mugen 1985 Accord with CF-48 wheels! Brings back memories. Check out all the color and style variations, including a metallic aero disc version!
