What Do These Cars All Have in Common?

"SmugAardvark" (SmugAardvark) 01/04/2018 at 06:01 • Filed to: Kei car, GT40, Suzuki, Japan, Honda

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Is your response that they’re all iconic race cars? Well, you’d be about half right. I say “about half”, because these are not actually the cars that they appear to be. They are all Kei car versions that are raced in something called the K4-GP.

During another late night session of random internet browsing, I came across the Ford GT40 seen above. At first glance, something seemed off about it. Then it dawned on me when I started looking at the cars next to it. The GT40 is way smaller than it should be.

Yay Cappuccino!

Twice a year, Fuji Speedway hosts endurance races for these adorable little race cars (other circuits around Asia also host events throughout the year). One race is 500km, and the other is 1000km. No, you don’t need to own a version of a famous race car that’s been shrunken down. Any Kei car will do. You can see all sorts of fun little cars we never got in the U.S. doing battle. Suzuki Cappuccino, Honda S660 and Beat, Autozam AZ-1, various sorts of Daihatsu, and so on. It’s considered an affordable way to get involved in door-to-door racing, and seeing cars built on a shoestring budget seems to be fairly common. Essentially, having just the basic safety features (such as tow hooks and roll cages) is enough.

On larger tracks, races have been known to host over 200 entries at once. And since power output is limited to 65hp, sometimes teams must get creative when it comes to weight reduction on their already tiny cars.

That’s one way to save weight...

The random awesomeness you can find on the internet at 3am to pass the time...

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > SmugAardvark 01/04/2018 at 06:23

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Wow, this is amazing! :D Proof you don’t need a big budget or horsepower to have fun! :)

I bet the little rascals are a blast to throw around darting in and around others of their ilk! :D

pip bip - choose Corrour > SmugAardvark 01/04/2018 at 07:13

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AWESOME!!!!!!!!

BaconSandwich is tasty. > SmugAardvark 01/04/2018 at 08:25

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I would so love to commute in one of those!

punkgoose17 > SmugAardvark 01/04/2018 at 08:43

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The blue and white cars in the back, I believe this body is used in some kind of class of American dirt track racing. Can anyone remember what it is? This is at 1:17 in the bottom video.

SmugAardvark > punkgoose17 01/04/2018 at 08:51

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I believe you are referring to the Legends cars?

Definitely a possibility, although the American ones wouldn’t technically qualify for K4, as the engines are too big and make too much power (they used 1250cc Yamaha motors pushing 125hp. So you’d essentially want half of that power and displacement.

Tareim - V8 powered > SmugAardvark 01/04/2018 at 09:24

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That’s awesome, my choice of car out of all of them would be something along the lines of the Radical’s with a central seating for optimal weight balance

punkgoose17 > SmugAardvark 01/04/2018 at 09:43

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Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking! I was thinking it was just a Legends body on a Kei chassis, but it is probably a Legends chassis with Kei drivetrain.

smobgirl > SmugAardvark 01/04/2018 at 10:18

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This made my day...thank you for sharing!