Honda Brio -The Underrated Driver's Car of The Decade?

Yes, I'm feeling quite the Honda mood today. It's one of my favorite brands and produces capable and potential machines all throughout the globe. So I thought "Okay, why not talk about one of my favorite and Underrated Chassis of the Decade (at least as far as I know) ?" So my friends, ANOTHER HONDA EXPERIMENT in the Indian market, which unfortunately failed unlike the City - yeah it's the Brio. 

History of the Brio:

The Brio was an experiment carried out by Honda in the Southeast Asian markets as a budget-friendly hatchback that slots below the Honda Jazz / Fit. The design of the first-generation Brio was quirky and funky, appealing to Youngsters and Gen-Z ( that's what Honda executives thought XD), who were mostly first-time car buyers. It rolled out of the factory with a 1.2-liter, SOHC, petrol, 4-cylinder (L12) that was derived from the L15, the famous 1.5-liter engine found in the Honda City. It was mated to either a 5-speed manual or a CVT. 

The Brio entered the Indian market as the entry-level model in the Honda India lineup but unfortunately, the Brio's hit-or-miss styling, limited interior space, and small boot meant the Indian masses never truly fell for Honda’s most affordable car. 

2016 saw a facelift Brio but that too failed to impress the Indian audience as there weren't noticeable improvements in the interior or boot space which is a must for any car's success in the Indian market. 

2016 Brio Facelift for India

so why do I root for the Brio so much?

The Brio might be small and compact, but it was fundamentally a Honda, staying true to its values of being fun to drive and still being economical enough to not bite your pocket. The platform was so light and agile but still was rigid enough to support the power that Brio had to offer. Heck, the Brio's chassis can support up to 400 Horsepower with the right supporting mods like braces and sway bars. The world-famous Youtube Creator Larry Chen recently covered a Brio on his Indonesian Visit which had a turbo-ed 1.5 liter L15, which is a bolt-on engine for the Brio believe it or not! It made about 400 horsepower which is a lot for the size of the car but the amazing thing about the Brio chassis is that it can support a huge variety of modifications. You can check out Larry's video by clicking here.

But the Brio hasn't always been about weighing less and supporting huge power mods. It's so light, apparently even lighter than a Honda Jazz (which is already a light car), and has great steering feedback. Despite being light, it's so stable at triple-digit speeds, standing as a testament to Honda's engineering prowess. The L12 engine that originally came with it was originally designed for Fuel Economy so it made a meager-68 horsepower but many people in India swapped the L12 for a bigger L15 engine from a Honda City. 

Gameover Motorsports, a Tuning firm based out of Mumbai, went ahead and built an absolute monster of a Brio with a K20 engine out of a Civic Type-R (yes, a K20 in a Brio sheesh!) which made over 200 horsepower even without engine mods. That build is a serious dragster and competed in drag races, only to dominate the opponents and win accolades. This just shows how potent the Brio chassis really is. 

                                          Gameover motorsports' k20 swapped Brio dragster

It's not a new thing when great cars fail in the Indian market just because they're either not fuel-efficient or lack space. I shall talk about those kind of cars in a future article. But today was all about the Brio and it's a shame that such a good product never really took off as it should have. 

Thanks for reading, the response to my first article yesterday was so overwhelming. I'm forever grateful for your support and thanks again for being the driving force behind this blog. Cheers.