Monday, February 11, 2008

Tired of your Miata? Throw a kit on that whip!

The world of bodykits and aftermarket aerodynamics is a weird and wonderful world of automotive personalization. On the quality side there’s decent stuff, and there’s shlock. Companies like Dobi and Zender came up in the seventies with spoilers and the first aero sideskirts for mass production – before that people did their own flares and spoilers. On modern imports "Combat" and other aggressive kits add gaping radiator intakes, wings, spoilers, side skirts, vents, and flares in occasionally cartoonish proportions. Retro-inspired kits have traditionally been more popular in Japan than US, and the Miata is a popular basis for a total makeover. Here are some examples – with varying degrees of sacrilege. Below Pit Crew Racing takes a Speedwell Sprite front end theme and molds it with a Datsun Roadster rear end taillight treatment – I kind of like it.





The Hiroshi 2000GT kit attempts to capture the glory of the Toyota 2000GT roadster (from Bond film fame) and the detailing is impressive. The rear end overhang proportions leave a little to be desired when compared to the black and white image of the real thing.






The Manta (below) is a generically Italian themed bodystyle – sort of a shrunken Iso Grifo front end.



Miata based Cobra gets it all wrong. Cobras were also copied on MGA’s and MGB’s with similar success.




Ah, the Mustang Miata – this is just weird, but the detailing is disturbingly accurate. Who’s to say there isn’t a Monster Miata 5 liter Ford underneath.




The Aston Martin is a little difficult to pull off, but it looks better than the Cobra.


Miami Vice light – a small reproduction of the Corvette based 365 Daytona Spider replicas. Brilliant!

Perhaps this is the worst, the 1955 MGTF Miata… You could park it next to your Mitsuoka Galue in the garage…

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