IN THIS FEATURE Japan's number one replicar maker Laughing all the way to the bank Something different The miniature Jaguar Mk II A nice little earner Imports and exports

Behind closed doors, Mitsuoka is working on the Orochi (meaning serpent), a sinfully swoopy mid-engined 'super coupe' with a Toyota 3.3-litre V6 that's been five years in the works and may finally get to make it to market in Japan this summer.

Mitsuoka can also offer you the Le Seyde, a baroque, Liberace-style pimpmobile that may well be the most unfortunate car you can buy in Japan today. Yes, you can smirk - in fact many do, just a bit, when the Mitsuoka name crops up.

There again, maybe it is Susumu Mitsuoka, company founder, who is having the last laugh: the cars he creates have a market in Japan and go for much stronger money than you'd expect. So Mitsuoka's laughing all the way to the bank.

Mitsuoka Le Seyde

Some Japanese journalists have a soft spot for Mitsuoka, who comes over as the little guy gamely taking on the giants of the game (Toyota, Nissan, Honda, et al), albeit in his own idiosyncratic - some would say affably misguided - way. He's selling to people who are allegedly 'disgusted' with the designs of Japanese cars, cars that all look the same and have no character, etc.