Of Miatas and not-really-Miatas

"winterlegacy, here 'till the end" (winterlegacy)
07/01/2018 at 11:07 • Filed to: We're riding on the Internet, Miata, ND Miata, Mitsuoka

So I’m sure most of us know about the fine vehicles that are the ND Mazda Miata and the based-on-the-platform Fiat 12 4, both fine entries for the roadster market. But...

... in my travels among the great tubes and waves of the Internet, I discovered something a little bit different.

In my childhood, I played a game called Auto Modellista, and it just so happened to feature the Mitsuoka Orochi - a strange, Japan-only “fashion” supercar (is it even a supercar? I dunno.) While looking it up again, I stumbled across the URL for the Mitsuoka website, and - after finding their cars decidedly retro, I discovered this.

Meet the Mitsuoka Himiko, a delightfully retro convertible. Now, before I continue, I’ll quickly rip some of the marketing pitch for this Beautiful Assassin. Apparently its “unique and attractive design” causes the “beautiful assassin steels your heart.” Oh, Japan. You have always had a taste for the elegant and slightly obtuse.

Where it gets fun is when you dive right into the specifications of this interesting retro roadster.

I see Mazda components! Mazda engine, Mazda transmission, and a Mazda part number. Let’s see where this search goes:

Looks like this appears to be the internal designation for the Japanese Miata ND roadster, given how many results appear in Japanese.

Well then.

DISCUSSION (19)

daender > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
07/01/2018 at 11:15

Mitsuoka also did it to the NC Miata as well. Jalopnik did an article about it a decade years ago .

They also did it to the NA but called it the Zero-One and it looks dramatically different!

Kinja'd!!!

interstate366, now In The Industry > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
07/01/2018 at 11:20

They also turned an unsuspecting Accord (TSX for us) into this...thing.

http://www.goo-net-exchange.com/usedcars/MITSUOKA/NOUERA/700040228520100904012/index.html

Kinja'd!!!

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > interstate366, now In The Industry
07/01/2018 at 11:21

Um... woah.

Is that some Edsel I see there?

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > daender
07/01/2018 at 11:30

So they turn the NA into a Lotus 7/Caterham 7 lookalike... hmmm!

daender > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
07/01/2018 at 11:34

They basically came up with a Locost before Locost did !

interstate366, now In The Industry > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
07/01/2018 at 11:34

Looks like it, yeah.

ranwhenparked > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
07/01/2018 at 14:08

Mitsuoka is pretty much the sole survivor of the “neoclassic” car fad of the 1970s and ‘80s that petered out in the US sometime in the early to mid ‘90s. For awhile, it was considered socially acceptable for a middle aged Floridian WASP to pull up to the country club in a cross between a pimpmobile and something Liberace would drive onto stage.

We had Spartan, Clenet, Zimmer, Tiffany, Excalibur, Johnson, Tojan, Phillips, and many others. The principle was mostly the same - take a standard production car, stretch the hell out of it in front of the firewall, and add loads of fiberglass body panels approximating the look of a coach built 1930s luxury car. Do nothing to the interior. A few were better than others - Clenet did nice interiors, Excalibur used their own chassis on 2-doors, but they were mostly cookie cutter operations.

Somehow, Mitsuoka has managed to carve out a niche for themselves in Japan and hold out long after everyone else dropped out. Their cars aren’t cheap either, kind of funny that a culture that considers the staid and elegant Toyota Century the paragon of wealth and status will also tolerate flashy fiberglass neoclassics.

AestheticsInMotion > daender
07/01/2018 at 14:09

I like that zero 1 more than I s hould...

Chariotoflove > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
07/01/2018 at 16:13

I don’t hate the idea of it. I wouldn’t buy it, but I’d drive it for a weekend.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > ranwhenparked
07/01/2018 at 18:05

Possibly because in Japan there’s a taste for the retro-classics. When I went digging I found a lot of retro-styled production cars that were generally limited run, though there appears to be a few that stay in production.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > Chariotoflove
07/01/2018 at 18:05

I would honestly buy it and own it. Seems like the NC version is slightly better due to the lack of a weird trunk bulge, which I assume is for the folding top...?

daender > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
07/01/2018 at 18:14

Nah, maybe for a spare or Mitsuoka emulating old 20s/30s/40s cars that had that bulge for additional carrying space or for the spare.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > daender
07/01/2018 at 18:54

I’d still swap that trunk for a smooth one, mostly because it just looks better that way as a roadster.

Chariotoflove > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
07/01/2018 at 19:05

Well, I won’t judge you for it, especially if you’d loan it to me for a weekend.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > Chariotoflove
07/01/2018 at 19:08

I’d probably loan it out simply so I drive something other than it.

ranwhenparked > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
07/01/2018 at 20:19

Especially during the bubble economy era in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. Toyota did a couple much later than that. Interestingly, vintage British cars seem particularly popular there. I think there’s always been a sort of Anglophile undercurrent in Japan.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > ranwhenparked
07/01/2018 at 20:23

I bet it’s because British cars are still seen as a sort of exotic vehicle there, because of brands like Jaguar and Aston Martin leading the way for “luxury GT” territory.

Milky > interstate366, now In The Industry
07/02/2018 at 09:02

I said it years ago and I’ll say it again, It’d be cool if you could buy a kit and DIY . It’d be funny seeing one over here.

Kinja'd!!!

https://oppositelock.kinja.com/hate-that-your-altima-isnt-a-rolls-royce-1728487101

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07/05/2018 at 04:45

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