For Sale, 1992 Autozam AZ-1—a Kei Automobile That Dreamed It Was a Ferrari

• The Autozam A-1 is the rarest of the sporting kei vehicles (a low highway tax class with restrictions on displacement and dimension), and one is at present listed on the market on the public sale website Convey a Trailer, with the public sale to finish on Wednesday, October 12.

• Autozam was Mazda’s small-car model, and this automotive additionally springs from Suzuki underpinnings.

• It is also a collectible fragment of the Nineties collapse of Japan’s financial bubble.

As Derek Zoolander would possibly say, “What is that this, a Ferrari for ants?” Effectively, kind of. The pint-size Autozam AZ-1 combines components of a Testarossa, an F40, and even a 512BB. The bodywork is wild, as are these gullwing doorways, however tucked underneath the sheetmetal is a turbocharged three-cylinder engine that displaces barely extra quantity than a 20-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola.

What offers? Effectively, the AZ-1 is a kei automotive, one among Japan’s shoebox-sized class of vehicles created underneath the nation’s tightly regulated highway taxation guidelines. Kei vehicles, or correctly keijidōsha (“mild vehicles”), are nonetheless the preferred type of car on the streets of Tokyo in the present day, however they’re now principally uniform containers, maximizing area on a tiny footprint. Cute, however few of them are correctly thrilling.

Not so with this throwback to the high-water mark of the hubris of the Japanese bubble financial system. The AZ-1 is about as unique as kei vehicles ever go, a mid-engined, gullwinged, turbocharged hummingbird of a factor.

This 1992 instance is at present up for public sale at Convey a Trailer, a part of the Hearst Autos group together with Automobile and Driver. With six days remaining, bidding sits at $18,250 and is certain to climb.

As Japan entered the Nineteen Eighties, spirits have been excessive and actual property costs have been by means of the roof. The county’s automakers have been caught up within the enthusiasm, embarking on moonshot product developments from the likes of the V-12–powered Toyota Century to the twin-turbocharged rotary-powered Mazda RX-7, to the world-beating R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R.

However the fascinating stuff wasn’t all on the excessive finish. Nissan broke out of its design stoop with its restricted run Pike Manufacturing facility vehicles, and that sense of enjoyable started spreading. Quickly, Honda had the Beat, a convertible, mid-engined flyweight that was like a tiny droptop Acura NSX. Small-car specialist Suzuki, largely accountable for the Beat, launched the Cappuccino, a roadster mild and nimble sufficient to make a first-generation Miata really feel like Boss Hogg’s Cadillac DeVille.

Talking of Miatas, Mazda assigned none apart from NA Miata lead engineer Toshihiko Hirai to move up growth on its wild kei-car mission. The thought was to inject somewhat pleasure into Mazda’s Autozam sub-brand, maybe shifting just a few extra common keis out of the showroom.

Three vehicles have been developed for the 1989 Tokyo Motor Present: Kind A, a gullwing sportscar; Kind B, a extra stripped out model; and Kind C, a tiny Group C automotive. The general public was overwhelmingly in favor of the Kind C, which actually put the petite in Petit Le Mans. Mazda execs, nevertheless, took a extra cautious view, and figured the corporate might truly promote a manufacturing model of the Kind A.

A lot of the growth work was executed within the U.Ok. by a small crew of engineers. The transfer was most likely a monetary error on Mazda’s half as, removed from the house workplace, the event crew went to city bettering structural rigidity and tuning the 660cc engine proper as much as the sting of what the principles allowed. The engine would nonetheless produce the identical claimed 63 hp because the Beat and Cappuccino—that being the utmost permissible—however was extra responsive and had extra mid-range torque.

As for the dealing with, the AZ-1 has the identical slight rearward bias as an F40. And, whereas the ability is a somewhat over a tenth of Maranello’s turbocharged icon, the AZ-1 can be a difficult little satan to maintain on the highway. It could look cute, however with a bent to snap oversteer it is not puppy-dog pleasant like Hirai’s Miata. It is a small however pretty critical little automotive.

In kei automotive world, it is also the one all people desires. When it arrived to clients in 1992, Japan’s financial bubble had already burst, and a toy just like the AZ-1 was an extravagance few selected to buy. Mazda bought simply 4392 of them over a yr (together with 531 vehicles branded as Suzuki Caras), as compares to the roughly 28,000 Cappuccinos and 33,000 Beats bought.

Failure makes for rarity, and rarity makes for collectability. Per pound, remaining bids on this AZ-1 will probably be up there with the likes of fresh-caught bluefin tuna at Tokyo’s Tsukiji market. Nevertheless, it is nonetheless cheaper than a Ferrari, and simply as unique. Consider it as an F.04, a mid-engine micro-supercar from the land the place the kei automotive remains to be king. And you have got till Wednesday, October 12, to put your bid.