posted at the Cohort by Tim Finn
I know; most of you are not fans of this sort of thing, and you have all sorts of good reasons for your distaste and even revulsion. But I’m a proud contrarian, and I’m going to set myself the task of coming up with ten good reasons why I like it.
Here goes (this might be harder than I first thought):
- It’s amusing and funny, as in Fun House funny. You know, where you walk through the hall of mirrors and see yourself and others madly distorted; crazy tall and skinny; super short and fat. It makes us laugh. This is amusing too, but not in a snide way. It’s just funny; beats looking at another stock Miata.
- I appreciate the work that must go into making this a rolling reality. I don’t know exactly how it’s done, but I’m sure it took some doing.
- I love Bosozoku style, and those exhaust pipes are evocative of that.
- It’s keeping folks employed at tire factories, thanks to the wildly uneven wear on the tires. Note the sticker still on that rear tire. How long do they last? 5k miles? Less?
- I get a bit of a kick when others get so easily turned off and triggered by something like this, resulting in comments full of bile and repulsion. Same thing with the really giant dubs on old American cars. That’s probably not nice of me, but that’s how I roll.
- It reminds me of doing LSD when I was a teenager.
- It evokes swing axle suspensions and why I like them more than most people, by far. One of these days I’m going to write my long-delayed “In Defense Of The swing Axle” article. They are not properly appreciated, despite certain little vices.
- Although I wish there were maybe a few regulations on cars and motorcycles, like maximum loudness, I appreciate that folks have the freedom to do this here when they would not be able to in some other countries.
- It reminds me that one of the best things about getting old is that a lot of prejudices fall away. One (hopefully) increasingly appreciates more and more things in life, since it’s all just the absurd play of humans. Why be a hater? It’s so boring.
- Seeing one of these driving down the road challenges one’s sensibilities or long held assumptions. This is not supposed to be able to work, but it does. You see? There’s more than one way to mount wheels on a car. Don’t be stuck in a rut. (I admit this one is similar to #9, but I’m running out of ideas and time).
So how about you? Ten reasons why you hate this?
I like the color 🙂
I’m adding 11. Without things like Lutefisk, one wouldn’t appreciate a thick pan seared salmon as much.
Paul, you are a better man than I. Though I do agree with #9 … I have found that as I get older I am far more open-minded about some things, typically “social values” and cars. Though far less tolerant of noisy exhausts and bass-thumping sound systems. I wonder about the sticker on the outer portion of the rear tire tread; when it starts to fray, is that a sign that the inner portion is down to the cord?
No hate. A laugh or two, but no hate. Hate takes up too much energy.
I do not think that tire sticker will ever be worn off; it doesn’t look like it touches the road.
Now, that being said, my first thought when I saw the photo was Bill Mauldin. This is not hate; this is mercy.
Yeah, it’s fun/amusing and not a rare car so why not?
Gotta wonder how it drives though, does it dart all over the place or does it never go fast enough to matter?
Karma will square things up at resale time.
First thing I saw this I had a big smile on my face! There has to be a humorous intention here, right? Amongst all the other reasons for doing this. People do weird interesting things to their hair, clothes, food and decor so why would cars be any different? It’s all part of a vibrant exciting society.
You forgot that it’s Japanese, or just not American in general. God, that should be number one. I doubt you could’ve found one nice thing to say, let alone 10, if it were a Mustang or Corvette done this way.
And it hits all the orthodoxies of the Japanese Bosozoku car. It’s list day, let’s do a list.
1. Flashy paint job
2. Fender flares
3. Big wheels for the size of the car, barely fitting under the fenders
4. Low profile tires “stretched” to fit the wheels
5. Massive camber
6. Massive rear spoiler
7. Tall twin vertical tailpipes
8. Rear license plate bent up at the bottom
9. Subway handgrip ring (or equivalent) hung under rear bumper
10. Stars! (On the rear fender copper colored thing)
11. Hidden potential bonus item—front mounted exterior oil cooler with hoses.
12. Hidden potential bonus item—big shovel-nose front spoiler
13. Missing item—canted headlights and taillights—Miatas don’t easily accommodate that
This is the Japanese Bosozoku, lock stock and barrel, just as over in Japan they do the So-Cal low-rider thing, right down the checklist. Imitation as a form of cultural flattery. Looks like this one mostly hit the entire list, with no big misses.
I would not want to own it myself but I can appreciate the work and effort that has gone into it. Plus it would be boring to all be the same. It likely less safe than a standard Miata but probably still handles better than a lifted truck.
I look forward to the well articulated points in the “In Defense Of The swing Axle” article. 🙂
I see that and I think of Julius Fucik and the March of the Gladiators, and that always brings a smile to my face. Actually, I am also putting that slammed Miata above under the tush of the more femme partner of a lesbian partnership who used to live down the hall, who was a psychiatrist at Elmhurst Hospital, and drove a blue Miata, and honestly the incongruity is very, very amusing.
Nobody is playing by the rules! Let me try for 10 reasons why I hate this.
1. So much of that pink pigment used in the paint is surely causing shortages at lipstick factories.
2. All the money spent on fender flairs prevented the buyer from replacing the ragged top.
3. The rain-catcher exhausts lack those cool little hinged lids found on tractors and semis.
4. There are no whitewalls.
5. There are no fender skirts.
6. There was probably much effort spent tuning the Mazda 4 instead of just replacing it with a Ford 5.0.
7. There is no luggage rack on that white spoiler decklid.
8. It is not lowered enough.
9. There is no woodgrain on it anywhere.
10. It appears to lack a flux capacitor.
So There!!
Love it! Especially #3.
JP – 11. It lacks a supercharger sticking up through the hood. Just missed automotive perfection by that much…
No vinyl top, either…
I look at it like any other segment of automotive interest, Low riders, rat rods and jacked up 4×4’s are not my thing. I can walk through some car shows and out of all the entries find only a hand full that really interest me. I would walk right past this this car, but there are others that would love it. And that’s what it’s all about. There’s something for everyone.
I can appreciate that this is an accepted style in Japan. It’s clearly more about appearance than function. That stance would surely run through a lot of tires! My only concern would be safety. I imagine that the lower control arms are extended. I wonder about the safety of this modification and how sturdy the suspension is. I like modified cars but I like them better when they are still functional. But no hate.
I can’t come up with 10 but a few primary critiques is 1) it’s way overdone in the trendy conforming to nonconformity sense (which is something I absolutely despise about all counterculture trends, even the ones I participate in). For being so deliberately satirically non-functional you’d think there’d be some variety in the executions, but nope, you can literally go over this car with a checklist.
2) It does take time and generous money to build these(and own with the tire consumption). While people can proclaim this a care free devil may care lifestyle vehicle. If Bosozoku were truly rebellious why have a flawless $10,000 pearlescent paintjob? At the end of the day it takes just as much investment to build this Miata in this fashion as it does anything else, and if that’s what the owner’s into, hey, I respect that. If you build this to show the world how creative and youthfully rebellious you are, eh, you’re not really any different than any other car culture then.
3) While there are clear parallels between this style and old Rat fink style hot rods of the 50s and 60s, where there most certainly was an accepted “style” to conform to and emphasis on that more than function as well, the former was more quantifiable, measured by a stopwatch and whether you were ahead of the other car or not. Both old hot rods with big fat rear tires and skinny fronts and this style with excess camber on wide wheels have embellishments of function, the old emulating dragsters, the new emulating drift car setups. Mind you I find deliberately sliding a RWD car sideways a ton of fun, far more thrilling than drag racing(at least in street legal cars), drifting as a “sport” however I find super lame and cringe, it’s pure pageantry. The legend of drifting in Japan is cool with youths sliding their AE86s around mountain roads like initial D, not so much on a sanctioned racetrack with judges ranking the drivers performance 1-10 for style like toddlers in tiaras. You knew what “worked” on a winning dragster to emulate on a visual level on a street car, drift cars you’re… what? Emulating the fashion choice of the prominent drifter who won the most abstract style points?
4) You can’t get get near one of these cars without walking through a vape cloud.
Let’s face it with all that’s going on in the world, how some kid mods his car is the least of my concern.
In light of this comment, I will add that despite the 24/7 bad news, it’s nice to see that someone is at least having some fun. #11 to add to Paul’s list.
It’s proof the “the answer is always Miata” now I just need to find a Miata Rat Rod and one on hydraulics to complete the set since there are a surprising number of lifted off road cars and Miata track cars are everywhere.
What’s the point of the exhaust pipes out back? Does he drive this stupid thing under water?
Style. Pure Bosozoku style.
I don’t get it either, but it’s part of the look. Guess it’s one of those counter-cultural foreign culture things that don’t translate.
Not much mention of the interior mods yet. I’m not sure exactly what they are, though.
Also, the clear rather than red rear side market light. That’s illegal!
GOLDARN KIDS ! .
GET OFFA MY LAWN ! .
On the serious side : it’s a car, cars are meant to be driven so this sort of thing makes no sense to me .
_Any_ modification that makes it less fun to drive doesn’t float my boat .
-Nate
Oh no! A poor li’l crippled Mazda.
Paul, Tim, is it okay if I run this pic past some Japanese car-nut friends and see what they think of the look?
Yes.
Out of ten Japanese car nuts, six liked it, one loved it, and three laughed at it. Apparently to them it looks like several styles mixed up.
I could easily see Hot Wheels putting this into production as a die cast. It has a very commercial look.
No hate; I just saw a YouTube video of a car set up like this, and all four occupants had to get out to help it clear a modest ridge at the end of a driveway! 🙂
It is fine with me because I don’t own/have to maintain it.
I’ve reached the point in life where my favorite (fill in blank) is owned by someone else.
No hate here, not that I like it. I’m a practical sort, I see no point in pickups with the top of the bed over my shoulders, nor in a car like this. I would like to see what would happen with those funnel tailipipes in conditions I’ve been in with over 10″ of rain in a day, but I’m guessing it doesn’t spend much time outside.
At the end of the day, it’s the owners car, to do with as they please. And they did, even if it’s not to my tastes. But they might not like my stuff so perhaps we’re even.
Interesting. A test mule for Mercedes’ much delayed F400 Carving technology?
Some folks need their fingers broken with their own wrenches.
I love this kind of thing. And there are plenty of Miatas.
“I love this kind of thing. And there are plenty of Miatas.”
This is what they said about 1932 Fords all through my childhood…..
-Nate
A hot rod 32 ford at least tends to drive objectionably better than original, even if as a side effect of looking cool. This Miata most certainly rides like a skateboard and handles like it’s on bald tires.
As an exercise in pure style, it’s interesting. Art. All form over function. Without passing judgement on the form, I’m intrigued by the function. How does it even steer? There doesn’t look to be any gaps big enough to accommodate any change in the wheel direction. There also doesn’t look to be much room for suspension travel, but I imagine it is so stiff, that isn’t much of a concern.
Note that the tires are band new! As they are every day!
Its too ridiculously funny to hate,
1. I love screaming neon colors, especially pink, blue, and green.
2. I love bosozoku style.
3. I have a thing for functional freaks.
4. It makes me smile.
5. It’s nice to see American car nuts delving into less known genres.
6. It’s a great way to save a common version of a car that might otherwise fall through the cracks and get scrapped
7. I’d give my left nut to see a VIP ’58 Buick, or a stanced ’58 Plymouth.