- If I say it wrong, you have to stop me.
Mugen, Mugen.
Mugen.
I am not gonna mess this up.
I am not gonna get this wrong.
Hey, guys, what's going on?
It's Alex from Fitment Industries,
and today, we're talking about muffins.
(bleep) (laughs)
All right, so, seriously,
we are here to talk about Mugen.
I'm not gonna get it wrong.
I'm gonna try not to get it wrong.
Pronunciation is key to the Japanese language
when it comes to performance parts
and wheels, tires, and suspension
that you can find at fitmentindustries.com.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
Don't forget to subscribe and hit the little bell button,
and today we're gonna talk to you
a little bit about Mugen,
and I'm gonna slow down when I talk,
when I say that word,
because I'm probably going
to say it wrong five or six times,
and when you notice a really uncomfortable cut in the video,
that's because I probably, you know,
pronounced it incorrectly.
Mostly the Midwestern accent,
but it may also just be my fault.
So, let's get into the story of Mugen.
It was the early '70s, 1973 to be exact.
The Sears Tower just went up.
The Vietnam war ended,
and you could hear Pink Floyd blaring
out of half of the vehicles on the road.
(funky rock music)
And in the midst of all of this, Mugen was born,
meaning without limits,
which is why some of the old boys end up saying
that it actually is referred to as Mugen Power.
Unlimited power.
(clucks tongue)
Baby.
That's, I'm confused, I don't wanna say that.
Dad.
Daddy.
Ugh.
(crew laughing)
Originally Mugen was and is an engine tuner
and parts manufacturer
that manufactures OEM parts like body kits,
exhaust, suspension, engine stuff, all for Honda.
Honda.
That's what we're doin'.
It all started when Hirotoshi Honda
started building his own race car
to workshop at his dad's house,
which was shortly before his graduation
from the Nihon University in 1965.
Good on ya, bud.
After putzing around with race cars and engines,
Hirotoshi finally decided to take his leap in 1973
and started his own race engine manufacturing company.
Since his dad was, you know, (clears throat)
the owner of Honda,
pretty good setup,
he was closely involved with Honda itself,
but not to give a low expectation,
but Hirotoshi had a relatively good idea
that he wouldn't be in his father's business.
The family pedigree of success in that department
was pretty low.
Pretty average.
But just like any angsty son,
Hirotoshi wanted travel and to do his own thing
and other random stuff like building engines.
Not really a normal thing that people like to do.
As he started on his own projects,
some of Honda's own R&D began to actually get interested
in Hirotoshi's project.
They even started working with him for free,
which was pretty interesting,
because if that doesn't show people that either
just don't care or just have
an immense passion for building stuff,
I'm pretty sure that would do it.
The individuals at Mugen wanted one thing
and that was to make the best racing engines on the market.
(bleep) yeah, brother.
More power to you.
Make the best one you can.
It was a 1,200 cc, and it was a really small boy.
They then took the project and decided to,
they decided to send it.
They entered the car into Formula FJ1300 racing series
and ended up winning their first race.
Just like when your dad told you that he was proud of you,
or maybe he didn't,
in which case we might have to talk about that
in the comment section below,
which really wouldn't help the analogy at all,
but at the point, Mugen really caught Honda's attention.
I mean, it was finally starting to take shape
in a sense that it might actually be
a pretty viable business idea,
and that's when Honda actually
started working side-by-side with Mugen.
In 1974, Mugen then started producing the MF318 engine
which also won its first Formula FJ1300 racing series,
and from there,
it went on to become one of the most dominant engines
in that series for many years.
A year later, Mugen started selling racing parts for Civics,
but not just stuff that went for the engine,
but didn't have anything to do with the engine.
They ended up getting into everything,
from body panels and things like that.
Essentially, Mugen wanted to dig into everything
and be the best at it,
so they decided to do that just,
and they got into even motocross.
And when they finished the bike,
it looked like it was made 20 years into the future.
It was practically, like, future-proof.
It was this future-lookin' (bleep) thing,
and it was awesome,
but it was a little bit pricey at the time,
but it was worth it because every single piece was,
and I quote, very, very, very high-quality.
The public saw the motocross bikes in 1977 and fell in love.
It was pretty awesome.
That's all I got.
1979 and 1980 then rolled around and Mugen
actually had their own factory
and moved into a new building.
They were moving up in the world
and having to take a name for themselves.
They just decided to become a big boy
and started doing big boy things.
They were great at what they did,
and they had more coming for them
if they were gonna continue to just build stuff.
Everybody wanted to be a part of Mugen.
That's just what they wanted to do,
but as if motocross and Formula racing wasn't enough,
Mugen then developed a 100 cc rotary-valve cart engine
in 1982.
They just pretty much just got bored super fast
and just started making (bleep) just because they could
and they put it on some sort of platform
and made it stupid fast.
It was two short years later
and they started selling aluminum alloy wheels,
body kits, suspension, and even more engine pieces,
like cam shafts and gaskets,
and pretty much everything in between.
The stuff was now for sale in the US,
which actually made it even more popular,
because it's hitting an entirely new market.
Only problem was is that it was
pretty much only through Honda dealers which was confusing,
because usually you did not go
through your OEM to get your aftermarket stuff.
But, after a few more years,
Mugen essentially started getting
into pretty much everything.
They had engines, wheels, body kits, Formula racing stuff.
They had built such a solid company for themselves
and they moved into this other new Mugen, building,
and then it's just like (claps).
They just kept going up.
I mean, do you hear it?
I think I hear it.
Is that, is that what it is?
Is that what it is, it's so, it's glorious.
It's a glorious Formula exhaust sound.
Oh my God.
They built their very first F1 engine,
which was a 3.5-liter V10.
Mugen also had a hand in the development of the S2000s
for their performance.
They used tuning technologies that they acquired
through Formula racing,
and they worked, and they tested it,
and they put it in there,
and it just was like, boom.
Bing, bang, boom, done.
You throw the peanut butter, the jelly,
the two pieces of bread,
you got yourself a solid sandwich that was the S2000.
Fast-forward a few years.
It's now 2004.
Fast and Furious culture was in full swing,
and M-Tec Co., LTD and a couple other letters
had helped Mugen restructure following
the tax evasion scandal that happened.
Long story with that one, but in short,
usually tax evasion involves taxes being avoided.
Usually, when you get in trouble, that means you got caught.
Tax guy went to jail.
Hirotoshi stepped down as the company president.
Things were rough.
Honda pulled most of its capital from Mugen,
but continued to be partner for Autocross,
because they still actually really liked to win.
It was kinda like, hey, you keep doing it, buddy,
but we're just gonna kinda stay away from ya.
Disclaimer: Hirotoshi was found not guilty of tax evasion.
Then 2006 rolled around and they were like, hey,
maybe we should have a headquarters in the US
and maybe we should probably add one in Europe.
And so they did.
And Mugen America and Mugen Euro were born,
and pretty much Mugen has been up to the same things
ever since.
They're building race cars,
building bikes, race engines, parts for cars,
and pretty much everything in between.
Even with, like, the adjustment and trouble,
they pretty much went to in the early 2000s,
they continued to be a company that has pressed on,
if you will.
They're pretty much living the life
being an engineering powerhouse,
but for a lot of people,
Mugen hasn't been in the spotlight
for news and information for a couple of years.
Mugen hasn't been at the forefront of information
and like the whole thing for a couple of different reasons.
Now, they're still a very popular brand,
but they aren't as involved as they used to be
in a lot of stuff that a lot of people used to care about.
It's just one of those things
where their parts are really expensive,
what they specialize in is more race-oriented stuff,
and for a lot of people,
that's just not something that they're into.
Mugen parts aren't cheap.
I mean, it's just, and they're Honda parts at the same time,
so it wasn't just something that wasn't widely available,
but it was also something that just didn't really pan out
for a lot of enthusiasts.
Mugen continues to be one of those big-(bleep) company names
that everybody remembers but not a lot of people know
what they're up to in current day and age.
But, if you're more on the racing side of things,
you'll probably still see their name around
because they continue to make,
really, just a neat (bleep)
for people to enjoy on the racetrack.
Let us know if you got a Honda Civic or something like that
in the comment section below,
or if you've got some Mugen parts let us know.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
Don't forget to subscribe.
Wheels, tires, suspension, fitmentindustries.com.
I am getting so much faster in that
because I'm not breathing.
Don't forget, we're doing a wheel giveaway with ESR.
I got the shirt on.
It's on the front.
It's on the back.
I got five seconds left.
We'll see you later, peace.