Mitsouka - have you ever heard of them?
Discussion
I would guess that most people on PH have heard of Mitsuoka.
They used to turn Nissan Micras into (something vaguely resembling) Mk2 Jaguars.
Also, there was this featured on PH a month or two ago:
https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-spottedykywt/m...
They used to turn Nissan Micras into (something vaguely resembling) Mk2 Jaguars.
Also, there was this featured on PH a month or two ago:
https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-spottedykywt/m...
I'm surprised the OP hasn't heard of them - they're often get featured in the UK motoring press, usually on a slow news day when there's a page to fill.
Mitsuoka's bread and butter is retro pastiches of 1960s British/European cars on Nissan Micra or Mazda Carol underpinnings, which was big business during the 1990s fashion trend in Japan for old British stuff.
The Viewt (shrunken Mk2 Jaguar) is the most famous one. There's also the Yuga (an Austin 'Black Cab' lookalike based on a Nissan Cube), the Bubu (a Porsche 356 evocation), the Rockstar (a baby Corvette Sting Ray based on a Mazda MX-5) and the Ray (a clone of a Wolseley Hornet). They used to do something like looked like a Morgan Plus 4 that had been described to someone down a dodgy telephone line. More recently I think they've leaned more towards 70s Americana (iirc they do a really odd thing that's like the front of 1970s Chevy Blazer grafted onto a modern RAV-4) and wacky vaguely steam-punk sports cars that look like something dredged up from the depths of the Marianas Trench.
Other companies got in on that trend too - there was one that did an eerily good Micra-based reproduction of a Vanden Plas 1300 Princess. Of course Nissan did their own things along those lines with the Figaro, Pao and Be1, and Subaru did/does the Sambar which is like a VW Microbus shrunk in the wash.
Mitsuoka's bread and butter is retro pastiches of 1960s British/European cars on Nissan Micra or Mazda Carol underpinnings, which was big business during the 1990s fashion trend in Japan for old British stuff.
The Viewt (shrunken Mk2 Jaguar) is the most famous one. There's also the Yuga (an Austin 'Black Cab' lookalike based on a Nissan Cube), the Bubu (a Porsche 356 evocation), the Rockstar (a baby Corvette Sting Ray based on a Mazda MX-5) and the Ray (a clone of a Wolseley Hornet). They used to do something like looked like a Morgan Plus 4 that had been described to someone down a dodgy telephone line. More recently I think they've leaned more towards 70s Americana (iirc they do a really odd thing that's like the front of 1970s Chevy Blazer grafted onto a modern RAV-4) and wacky vaguely steam-punk sports cars that look like something dredged up from the depths of the Marianas Trench.
Other companies got in on that trend too - there was one that did an eerily good Micra-based reproduction of a Vanden Plas 1300 Princess. Of course Nissan did their own things along those lines with the Figaro, Pao and Be1, and Subaru did/does the Sambar which is like a VW Microbus shrunk in the wash.
Known about them for years.
I sort of think I could probably own one of these.
https://www.drivingyourdream.com/store/p764/Mitsuo...
I sort of think I could probably own one of these.
https://www.drivingyourdream.com/store/p764/Mitsuo...
2xChevrons said:
More recently I think they've leaned more towards 70s Americana (iirc they do a really odd thing that's like the front of 1970s Chevy Blazer grafted onto a modern RAV-4)
That's the Mitsuoka Buddy and I think it looks great, especially compared to the Rav4 and the various ugly Lexus SUVs.https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/mitsuo...
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