of the few non-kei car Hondas to be equipped with a turbocharged engine. The City Turbo was the brainchild of Hirotoshi Honda, son of Honda founder Soichiro Honda as well as founder and owner of Mugen. In the early 1980s Mugen was a small tuning company that was beginning to make its mark producing performance parts for motorcycles and automobiles, but was yet to gain recognition outside of racing circles. When he created the City Turbo, Hirotoshi took one of Honda's most unassuming vehicles and successfully turned it into an aggressive street rocket, considered to be well ahead of its time. Impressed, Honda took Hirotoshi's idea and made a production version, introduced in September 1982. A few months earlier, Honda staffers took two City Turbos on a gruelling 10,000 km round trip of Europe, all the way from Sicily to Karasjok in the Arctic north. In November 1983, the intercooled Turbo II joined the lineup. Flared fenders, wings, side-skirts and graphics combined for a much more pugnacious appearance, making its "Bulldog" nickname very fitting. In late 1984 the original Turbo was discontinued (after some were built as 1985 models) while the Turbo II continued in production until the first generation City had a model refresh in late 1986. Engine The City Turbo shared the 1231 cc (1.2 L) CVCC "ER" engine with its more pedestrian siblings, but the addition of a turbocharger meant that at 5,500 rpm and at 3,000 rpm were available. Further changes to the engine included an aluminum/titanium alloy head and a magnesium valve cover to keep the weight down. The IHI RHB51 turbocharger, developed as a joint venture between Ishikawajima Heavy Industry and Honda, was lighter and smaller than most other turbos and could run at higher rpm. When combined with Honda's PGM-FI manifold injection and an 8-bit digital computer control unit, the result was a very efficient engine with minimal turbo lag. 0–100 km/h was possible in 8.6 seconds. The later City Turbo II's engine featured an intercooler, a revised intake plenum, a slightly larger throttle body, a modified inlet manifold, a higher AR turbo compressor, exhaust housings, and a slightly raised (7.6:1) compression ratio. It produced at 5500 rpm and at 3000 rpm. Chassis The City Turbo's suspension was more refined than that of the ordinary City. The four-wheel independent system used progressive rate coil springs, with stabilizers at both the front and the