Written by Andrew Jones
When someone mentions the words ?Honda? and ?VTEC? in the same sentence, you’d be excused if your mind was filled with images of stanced Honda Civics with neon lighting, tearing around your local strip on a Friday night. But as any real Honda aficionados will tell you, their famous VTEC is available in magical moto land as well. For the VFR800 and CB400SF Super Four HYPER VTEC (try saying that after a few drinks), VTEC was also trialled. And while its success and benefits are sometimes debatable, what isn’t is the fact that this Street Tracker from China’s Mandrill Garage is the coolest CB400 Four we’ve seen in a very long time.

But what the hell is VTEC" I’m glad you asked. The acronym stands for Variable Valve Timing & Lift Electronic Control, and it is a system developed by Honda which was claimed  to ?improve the volumetric efficiency of a four-stroke internal combustion engine, resulting in higher performance at high RPM, and lower fuel consumption at low RPM.? The VTEC system uses two camshaft profiles and hydraulically selects between them using an oil-pressure actuated pin, meaning that one of the two intake valves stays closed until higher rpms are reached. The net effect is that more top-end power is produced and the torque curve is smoothed significantly.
Of course, it’s not just the Honda VTEC that makes the CB400F one of Asia’s better custom bike donors – as MandrillR...