It’s sacrileges, and shouldn’t be allowed to happen .. but it has. And yet again, as it was through the ’70’s and ’80’s, a Japanese car company has lifted styling from an American Muscle Car classic, and overlaid that onto a small Japanese car!
Case in point; the 1970 Toyota Celica Fastback ..
.. which has a coupe roofline, bulging shoulders and rear tail that are all vaguely familiar don’t you think 🙂
Well this time, we’re talking about small Japanese car manufacturer Mitsuoka, who felt `inspired’ by the American classic 1963 Chevrolet Corvette, to the point where they upgraded a Mazda MX-5 to look like one.
This is in celebration of the Japanese manufacturer’s 50th Anniversary, although the connection and relevance of the body shape isn’t made clear.
Also strangely, they have called the car `Rock Star’ .. again not clear why, and went to quite some effort to ensure that the proportions are scaled perfectly for the smaller chassis of the MX-5. Complete with muscle car wheels (resembling American Racing Wheels), chrome bumpers, independent tail lights, gills on the fenders and characteristic pop-up headlights, the detail is quite specific.
Of course the big block V8 is missing, and the original 97kW/152Nm, 1.5 litre 4 cylinder engine remains. In fact, all mechanics and drive-train remain unchanged from the Mazda specifications.
The colour options available include … wait for it … Washington White, Cisco Orange, Arizona Yellow, Los Angeles Blue, New York Black and Chicago Red.
I can just imagine the CEO or Director of Marketing reliving a childhood dream at the expense of credibility!
However, should you be inspired to drive a C2 Corvette inspired small Japanese car, then the Rock Star may be yours for a starting price of $AUD58,738. We’re told that’s almost twice the price of the MX-5.
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