Before, parts made by Honda Performance Development, the automaker’s racing arm, were meant for race cars. The idea now is to make tuner kits and other high-performance parts available to Honda enthusiasts who drive street cars.
The business has strong local and Ohio connections. Honda’s parts procurement center in Troy will have about 130 employees involved in securing, packaging and distributing the parts. (The entire Troy distribution center employs about 400 workers.) Honda also has more than 13,000 employees in Ohio, which anchors the company’s North American operations and is home to much of Honda’s research and development work.
Establishing new suppliers and securing new parts has been been an education, LaPointe said.
“Always the first project is the most difficult,” LaPointe said.
Honda is not yet identifying specific suppliers for the parts.
The first HPD Street Performance parts are for the two-seater Honda CR-Z sports hybrid coupe. The idea is to take what Honda calls “two decades of success” on the racetrack to the street.
HPD started in 1993 and has always provided engine rebuilds and track support, LaPointe said. The company has played a role in 204 race victories and 15 drivers’ championships.
“We kind of have always been trying to challenge ourselves here at HPD,” he said.
With the CR-Z launch in 2010, there was “immediate feedback” from customers and dealers wanting “a little bit more performance,” LaPointe said.
“That was a catalyst that started the project.”
The stock CR-Z provides 130 horsepower from a 1.5-liter, four-cylinder engine at 6000 rpm. Some reviewers have been critical of its performance.
Honda sells about 450 CR-Zs monthly, with a third of those being manual-transmission vehicles and two-third being Honda’s continuously variable transmissions. The new aftermarket “super-charger” kit can be applied only to manual-transmission CR-Zs.
Street-kit production will start with “relatively small volumes, but higher volume” than racing or prototype parts, said Ron Lietzke, a spokesman for Honda in Ohio.
Tuner kits for a much more popular Honda model — one gearheads have been modifying for years — is firmly within Honda’s sights, too.
“When we go to the Civic, we don’t want to have any missteps,” LaPointe said.
Super-charger kits will available early next year. There will also be chassis or handling kits, which firm up the ride. Prices for the kits have not been disclosed.
Sean Powers, owner of Beavercreek’s Motorsports Engineering Ltd., believes Honda and motorsports enthusiasts will “absolutely” embrace the new HPD street products. Powers said all of his work for racers and racing teams involve Honda products to some extent, and he is a 12-year veteran of Honda Research & Development himself.
“I think it will be good for business, for sure,” Powers said.
Honda has always been known for reliability, and these new products won’t change that, LaPointe said. Some may consider street enthusiasts “niche” customers, but Honda wants to keep them happy, he added.
“We want to execute well and make sure the customer is satisfied,” he said.
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