Yeah, I’m seeing it, you’re seeing it, we are all seeing it together. That is, depending on how you view things, either a tribute to or a rip-off of a C2 Corvette, one of the most stunningly gorgeous cars that GM has ever dreamed up. Here’s the sad part, though: it’s a Miata. No, really. A Japanese company called Mitsuoka, one better known for it’s Orochi sports car, does these kinds of things: they take a pre-existing car, usually a Nissan product, add their own styling flair, and sell just a few copies. So while you have a Mazda MX-5 underneath that body, you have a Mitsuoka Rock Star above for the world to see.
No, seriously…they called it the “rock star”. Well…look at the real Corvette again. They aren’t wrong, are they?
Mitsuoka is going to crank out fifty of these at a cost that translates to about $42,000. That gets you stock Miata running gear (1.5L four, 129 horsepower) and the C2-aping shape…if you live in Japan. We understand why they would go for a Sting Ray look, but to us, this smacks of the Pontiac Mera, or any other Fiero-meets-fiberglass kit car you’ve seen. There’s just enough “wrong” with this that it doesn’t really work. Unless you made a few calls and LS-swapped it…and that can be done…then we have to call this one a travesty. But that’s just us…what do you think? Honest admiration or not?
I think they must agree with you themselves. Why else would they have all that other moving graphics crap going on the whole time the video is running, if not to distract from what they’ve done?
I think you may may misspelled the companies name. I think it should be Mitsucka.
Headlights sucks, 4 cyl engine, just not feeling it.
Rock Star?
It should be called Queen for all the Freddy Mercury fans and only come in pink!
Ummm… Well first, the Miata MX-5 is quite the performance handling sports car, the car itself in stock trim is no lazy dog by any means, a popular choice amongst SCCA racing, correct? Sure, it’s not the 2018 2.4 liter 175hp version, by what you listed it sounds like the 2017 base model version (and the 2019 version I think is up to 185hp), but with your decent 1hp/ci and approx. 2400 lbs, it’ll move quite well (think your basic gen-1 350 SBC with 350hp, same 1hp/ci deal… no slouch). Sure it won’t be tearing up the drag strip, probably doing low 15’s, but that’s still not too bad for a little sports car that was designed for the twisties.. So the car itself is a decent and affordable little sports car. Now onto the styling… Ummmm… Well, like they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I’m pretty open minded about what makes something look good or not, and I’m kinda stuck on this one. In one respect it’s almost ok, but then I keep feeling a slight gag reflex coming on. There’s way too much stuff sticking out all over the place on the car, especially on the front, and on the sides as well. Looks like someone won $200 playing the numbers and went to the local chain auto parts store and bought as much fake-chrome painted plastic two-sided tape stick-on body ‘enhancements’ they could get from their winnings. It’s a shame in one way because the stock Miata is a good looking car, the idea is to make it better looking, and they failed in that respect. As far as different looking, and that is the idea I guess, it does do that at least a little bit. The huge majority of cars on the road today look exactly the same, walk through any parking lot at your local mall and good luck picking out one car that has any originality whatsoever, they’re all just cookie-cutter wet-bars-of-soap aero boringness (which is why I hate 99% of modern cars, I’ll stick to my 60’s classics thank you very much). So sure, this is a body kit car, they rarely end up looking very good… but it’s on a good platform, and it could be a lot worse. I don’t know, the more I look at it the more I feel like I need to chew on a couple of TUMS.
I don’t think it’s too bad. I mean, yeah, I would make some slight mods here and there but a custom car like this is still pretty cool. I would like to see one in the flesh.
I AM surprised they can offer such a car at that low of a price.