Honda's Project 2&4 was an open-wheel race car with the heart of a MotoGP competition bike.
There's not much to the Honda Project 2&4. The open-wheel racer concept was the most bare-bones debut at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Imagine a car that's 3 feet shorter than a Honda Fit from nose to tail and as wide as a Honda Accord, but where the driver sits at eye level with these cars' license plates.
The result of an in-house design contest that included both the automotive and motorsports divisions, Project 2&4 was half car, half motorcycle and all amazing.
At each corner, 17-inch alloy wheels of a 20-spoke design are shod in race-ready Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R tires. The car was so light (893 pounds) and low that 215-millimeter-wide treads would've offered plenty of grip.
The project's suspension was also simple: a double-wishbone setup at each corner with a set of Öhlins coilovers controlling the movement.
What made Project 2&4 unique is its "floating seat" design, which suspended the driver just inches above the asphalt.
The non-cockpit blended the open feel of piloting a motorcycle with the driving character and controls of a car.
The instrumentation was the most conceptual part of this concept car.
Rather than a traditional gauge cluster, the Project used a pico projector to cast a digital head-up display onto a piece of two-way mirror.
I could barely read the gauges indoors, so I'm convinced they'd be unreadable in direct sunlight. Still, the idea looks cool enough and probably doesn't weigh much.
The driver controlled the vehicle with a flattened racing steering wheel and paddle shifters.
There were only two pedals in the box, because the concept's six-speed dual-clutch transmission didn't need a clutch pedal.
Somewhere between the rear wheels, the RC213V engine would've screamed. This was the same engine you'll find in Honda's MotoGP racing bike of the same name.
Output was earmarked to peak at a stated 212 horsepower and just 87 pound-feet of torque.
Keep scrolling for more photos of this outstanding concept.