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[Justin Andrews]

Mugen have confirmed their 2015 Isle of Man TT Zero campaign, with 2014 podium finishers John McGuinness and Bruce Anstey returning to the Japanese manufacturer for another year.

McGuinness, who won his first electric TT on the bike in 2014, confirmed to MCN some months ago that he would be taking part once again, but the new announcement confirms Anstey as his teammate, as well as naming the updated bike as the Shinden Yon.

“We had a bit of a journey together over the past few years! It’s ok for us to turn up for a fortnight and thrash them around, but there’s a hell of a big project going on behind the scenes too. When you work with people with the credibility they have you see that; we’re not talking about any old Japanese bloke – we’re talking about Mr Honda himself!”

“They never stand still, it’s always moving forwards, and they’re predicting some serious lap times – which is scary! Winning it again this year was cool, something to be proud of, and hopefully we’ll have another good battle with old Brucey boy – I’m sure he’s got some unfinished business there himself after this year!”

The Mugen factory, which was founded in 1973 by Soichiro Honda's son and remains a key partner in many of Honda's racing operations, has made huge strides since their class debut in 2012, and are planning a longer term strategy in the class as they continue to use it to develop their technical staff.

“The challenge of participating in the Isle of Man TT electric motorcycle races, which is a new discipline to us and completely different from our core strengths as a manufacturer and developer of high-speed internal combustion engines, started in 2012 as our unique project to foster young engineers and conduct developments in a new area.”

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/sport/tt-road-races/2015/january/mugen-confirm-2015-tt-campaign/


It's not a major surprise that Mugen are working closely with Honda, in many ways Mugen are pretty much a factory team. However the impression I'm getting from this is the electric Mugen racebike is more than just a test bed for Honda. Is a commercially available Honda electric bike in the works I wonder.