Mitsuoka Himiko Crazy Timer

Laugh all you want at Mitsuoka, but you're missing out: they're cool. Founded on the notion that people should be able to buy a reliable, brand-new custom car, Mitsuoka really does employ a team of craftspeople who modify regular production vehicles into rarified Mitsuoka models.

Here? First car to wear a ‘Plaid’ badge.

Mitsuoka puts it quite eloquently, at least in translation: "The car manufactured in that way…is really only in the world for you."

You may not understand why…but people really do buy their unconventionally attractive (or conventionally unattractive?) cars. 

In 1981, Mitsuoka began by making extremely small, scooter-based vehicles for local deliveries and to skirt some vehicle licensing requirements in Japan, but by 1987 had started to make neo-classics. 

Then, everything changed. Upon taking the reins from company founder Susumu Mitsuoka in 2004, his brother (and possibly also a singer in an Elvis tribute band) Akio Mitsuoka said, "We want to provide cars which arouse young people's interest.”

All indications are that classically-styled vehicles based on popular Japanese cars really do arouse young people's interest.

Though Japan is one of the most difficult countries in the world to get a driver's license and pass a car inspection — not to mention expenses for tolls, fuel, parking, and just about everything else — Mitsuoka is considered a manufacturer and enjoys a strong fan base. 

Anyway, the Crazy Timer.

The Crazy Timer is based on the Mazda MX-5 NC and first offered in 2008, however, the Himiko was updated with the ND generation of MX-5 and (great news) is still being made. 

Here’s what makes the Crazy Timer special:

• It is green.
• It is the result of a collaboration with one of Japan's most influential stores, Isetan.
• It only comes in automatic, with the shifter and handbrake done in hand-painted tartan.
• It has crocodile leather) interior.  (That said, how can anyone tell from photos?)
• Prices started at 5,994,000 jpy, about $55,000 US.
• They hoped to sell 20.

I fully appreciate this is low hanging fruit, but here's some badly translated Japanese marketing copy on the car:

"The representative crocodile tone sheet over about seven days just painting process in order to give a vivid color such as neon, starting from a special body colors that are painted by hand, feel sexy wild, Isetan tickle playful. It is a gem of gems only taste in the collaboration, such as interior parts of the tartan pattern of two types, with Isetan Shinjuku-studded commitment to everywhere."

Pre-ordering a Himiko Crazy Timer in 2014 was the only way to be invited for a factory tour, something the company had never done before at that time.

As for the Himiko, let me be the first to suggest it might do well with an MX-5 engine swap kit that imbues the roadster with a V8 of some sort.