Daihatsu X-021
Car of the Day #279: 1991 Daihatsu X-021 – Stirring sports car
Yesterday, during the thick of a winter cold spell, I wanted soup for dinner. We had none.
I walked to the kitchen, shuffled around for a two-handed pot in the cupboard, unwound the cap to the olive oil, poured an amount in, and begun to process the remaining ingredients as I gently warmed up my soup’s future home.
Chopped shallots, crushed and minced garlic, in. Chopped carrot, and celery, in. A minute or so later, a can of tomato paste clumped in, with the remainder loosened up using tap water and reserved alongside. Mixing this, and watching it slowly brown, the watered-down remains from the paste can were splashed on top to halt any browning and lift all of that flavour from the pot’s surface. Rinsed white beans, four cups of water, a bay leaf — plus minestrone-coded herbs — were added, and left to reduce. Near the end, I broke spaghetti up into 1-inch pieces and added a handful of pasta (and a corresponding amount of salt), plus a splash of red wine vinegar to punch up the soup’s tomato-y base. The only measurement I needed was for the water in balancing consistency and taste; like with salt, it’s always easier to add more than to remove it.
It was lovely, and it satisfied me, and today I’m sure I’ll need to invent another meal out of thin air.
So, the X-021.
Maybe Daihatsu was exploring a Mazda MX-5 Miata competitor with the X-021, or simply pulling cans off the shelf to see what it was like to make soup from scratch?
Old scans of classic DRS marketing materials • via Daihatsu
Promotional photos for the X-021, including one of the two mid-front engined aluminum spaceframe chassis constructed for the sports car by reputable racing car manufacturer Dome Engineering, also based in Japan. Recaro seats, hell yea! Hold that thought / keep scrolling for that yellow car… • via Daihatsu, Road & Track
To someone who doesn’t know how to cook, going from zero-to-soup in under an hour might seem unbelievable, as if I am being driven by some other metric or motive than taste or hunger.
For those of us who don’t build cars, going from 0-to-sports car must mean there’s an ulterior motive: surely, Daihatsu wanted to crush the Mazda MX-5.
There’s surprise and delight in sometimes reminding ourselves that car companies build machines because that’s what they can do…that’s what they want to do…and that’s what people working within these multinational machines hunger for: a challenge.
Like with my tasty, made from scratch soup, the skill of the maker is evident in how it tastes…
Would any of you dare to argue that this isn’t a mouth-watering Daihatsu sports car? Let’s look at the specs.
Story continues after the jump…
