The only stand-out memory I have of a lawnmower is the one time my father decided to take a short-cut down our neighborhood's hill—"Killer Hill," as we affectionately call it—on his way to groom a vacationing neighbor's lawn. Ask him about it today and he still pales at the memory. (His brakes locked and he flew down that hill at the mercy of the wind and his semi-steady grip on the steering wheel.) Lucky for him—or maybe not—he wasn't riding Honda's Mean Mower, with was recently named "fastest lawnmower in the world." They're not messing around—last March, the machine reached a speed of 116 MPH. I can't possibly think of a reason when you'd have to go that fast using the lawnmower for what it was actually created for, but for the sake of engine hacking and whatnot, this is pretty rad. Check out this slightly dramatic video of the Mean Mower in action:

The mower has been built up using ATV parts (suspension and wheels), a 6-speed transmission, a customized frame and a 109 HP engine borrowed from a motorcycle. Piers Ward—a writer for Top Gear—took the mower for its crowning jaunt. Here's a video from another ride:

The mower was officially given the title earlier this month by the Guinness Book of World Records. I can only wish that they would have chosen to follow suit of its slower predecessors when it came to the speed dial design—"Turtle" for slow and "Rabbit" for fast, generally visualized by tiny images of the animals, of course.

Via Laughing Squid and Guinness World Records