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2015 Mitsuoka Himiko Is the Strangest Coupe Cabrio in Japan

Bringing retro cars into modern age in a shape that won’t confuse or make you sick is pretty hard. Chrysler kinda failed with the PT Cruiser, Chevrolet did the same with the SSR (although I would buy one right now) and maybe Morgan is the only who succeeded to combine retro with new age shapes on their Aero coupe. Oh wait, the Japanese have the Mitsuoka Himiko which is almost there.
2015 Mitsuoka Himiko 7 photos
Photo: Mitsuoka
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Never heard of the Mitsuoka Himiko? You’re partially excused because the model came by in 2010. The manufacturer should ring a bell at least because it builds some of the strangest cars around, like the Orochi or the Butte (no pun intended).

Everything in their lineup is inspired by old cars, except the Orochi supercar, and so does the Himiko, which already entered its fifth year on the market, now coming with a new retractible hardtop and more colors than ever - 36 to be exact. If you also chose to apply some oldschool side wrappings you end up with 481 possible combinations.

What is the Himiko?

This interesting looking roadster came by in 2010, being designed by Takanori Aoki who claims the car’s shapes mimmic a ship riding on the waves. The name comes from an obscure shaman queen of Yamataikoku in ancient Wa, but that’s not as important as what comes next...

In case you haven’t figured out why that middle section looks familiar, the Himiko is based on the Mazda MX-5 NC version. The whole median section is the same, while Mitsuoka replaced the front and rear ends with something not looking to be from this era.

It looks almost as good as the British Aero coupe, but those aftermarket rims are totally spoiling the overall image. Still, that can be easily sorted out if you have some extra cash along with the ¥4,914,000 ($35,540/€31,510 at current rates) the automaker asks for the standard model.

It’s classy, has modern features like a proper suspension, air conditioning, an infotainment system and should be quite fun to drive given the fact it uses the same layout and a 2-liter engine making 162 hp and 189 Nm (139 lb-ft) of torque. And if additional weight is a concern, it seems that Mitsuoka only added about 120 kg (264 lb) more.
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