Mitsuoka's also imported London taxis and parked big chrome grilles on reworked Mk 1 Nissan Primeras (to create the deliciously named Mitsuoka Ryoga). Performing the same kind of transformation - plus new wings and lights on a trio of Nissan domestic saloons (Crew, Cedric and Fuga, if you must ask) - has given him three generations of ornate, Alvis-like saloons called the Galue. You'd want one, wouldn't you?
And then there's the Le Seyde. The first in 1990 was based off a mid-80s Mustang and, at the height of Japan's bubble economy era, when extravagance was de rigueur, proved an instant sell-out. Mitsuoka's since done a second Le Seyde. Launched in 2000, it's a bit less exotic underneath with 2.0-litre Nissan Silvia coupe bits. Probably quite a bit slower, too.
Nissans have formed the basis of many a Mitsuoka - including the Yuga which vaguely resembled a 50s Standard Vanguard - but there's no commercial link between the two. Mitsuoka buys his Nissans at trade price then goes to work with the cutting torch.
Susumu Mitsuoka, 66, who's now passed on day-to-day running of the company to his brother, is an avuncular, soft-spoken man with an unabashed love of 50s and 60s English cars - which explains all the Alvis lookalikes, the Jaguar tributes and Riley-look recreations that have emerged from his factory in Toyama, in northern central Japan.
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| The Mitsuoka range |
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Say what you like about Mitsuoka (and many do) but he's obviously found his niche, producing olde worlde cars in Japan with, ahem, 'character'. Now he's in the process of spreading the message to China and other parts of Asia: he may well succeed.
Should England also be on the list? Answers on a postcard to Mitsuoka Motor, Toyama, Japan.
