It looks British, it may well even sound British but by golly-gosh it isn’t British. What. And ‘what!?’ indeed is the exclamation point. What this is, is a Japanese take on the classic British two seater roadster. And being made in Japan it will probably do ‘British’ better than the British.
Its made by Mitsuoka Motors and they chose simply to call it the Mitsuoka Roadster. Its hand made in Toyama City, Japan by 45 craftsmen using traditional techniques with state of the art technology, so say Mitsuoka.
Nope we’ve never heard of them before, but the company wasn’t an overnight operation setup by a rich Japanese billionaire with money to burn. Mitsuoka Motors was founded in 1968 and predominately makes bespoke cars for the Japanese and Middle East markets.
We’re used to thinking of Europe as being the pioneers of coachbuilding but ignore countries like Japan for following the same values. That’s exactly what Mitsuoka Motors is, a coachbuilder turned maker of small volume cars.
It has to be said some of their creations are hideous and for Japanese consumption only. But Mitsuoka reckon their Roadster may well appeal to the British never say die, Queen & Country spirit and will begin selling the car as of mid-June 2015.
The Roadster will be powered by a 2.0-litre, 160PS / 188Nm engine hooked up to a six speed manual (or automatic) gearbox. All that power will be fed to the rear wheels. For all the state of the art technology within the Mitsuoka Roadster will use good old fashioned power assisted steering.
And being Japanese it offers creature comforts such as electric power windows, cruise control and even climate control. The Roadster is clearly inspired by the classic 1950’s roadster era although the interior looks as though it was inspired by the previous generation Mazda MX5.
So how much will this Mitsuoka Roadster cost I hear you ask?… £58k …. that’s thousand.