Hooniverse Rare Foreign Car Weekend – An Autozam AZ-1 Gullwing Coupe
Let’s try and tie in our Weekend Edition with one of Rob’s Hooniverse Asks features. This past Thursday, Rob asked What is your favorite Kei Car. This car, the Autozam AZ-1 was one of the top favorites according to all of you, and there is one for sale right now…
According to the seller:
WHAT IS AN AUTOZAM (MAZDA) AZ-1?
The AZ-1 is a small 2-door, 2-seater GULLWING COUPE weighing just 725 kg (1,598 lb). The AZ1 is powered by a turbocharged, intercooled 3-cylinder, 657cc DOHC engine (just under the 660cc maximum displacement allowed for a Kei car). Its dimensions also conformed to Kei car regulations on length and width, being 3,295 mm (129.7 in) long and 1,395 mm (54.9 in) wide.
Front-rear weight distribution is 50/50% when both seats are occupied. Layout is front mid-engined and rear-wheel drive. Power output was a claimed 63 hp (47 kW; 64 PS) @ 6500 rpm to fit under the maximum power allowed for Kei cars. The AZ1 features 4-wheel disc brakes, power-assisted steering, aluminium double wishbone suspension and rear wheel drive.
It is the most fun car you can drive – giving you about 50 miles to the gallon and I kid you not – it can easily do 100 miles per hour on the highway! It is the FASTEST KEI CAR EVER MADE AND THE RAREST OF ALL OF THEM!
So who wouldn’t want one of these cars? The Buy-it-Now price for the fastest Kei Car ever is $7,900 Canadian. Having a rare Kei Car is just like having one of the rare European cars outlined previously, only this time the parts have to come from Japan. Better brush up on your Japanese if you want to have what is probably the only Autozam AZ-1 in North America. I know its your favorite Kei Car, but would you go out and actually buy it? See the listing here.
Related posts:
- Hooniverse Rare Foreign Car Weekend – A 1969 Škoda 1000MB DeLuxe Sedan
- Hooniverse Rare Foreign Car Weekend – A 1965 Vauxhall Viva DeLuxe 2-Door Sedan
- Hooniverse Rare Foreign Car Weekend – A 1973 DAF Model 66 Wagon
- Hooniverse Fabulous Fins Weekend – A 1976 Cadillac Coupe DeVille with only 33,000 Miles
- Hooniverse Malaise-O-Rama Weekend – A 1978 Ford LTD Landau Coupe
Six years before these can be imported into the US… I'll be waiting.
Here's an Autozam that was sold at that Utah US Marshals auction:
http://karakullake.blogspot.com/2010/04/utah-us-m…
One with BC plates made an appearance at the 2008 Great Pacific Northwest Microcar/Minicar Extravaganza in Portland, OR:
<img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6080/6110557792_92bdbc429e.jpg" width="450">
Looked like it was probably fun.
I think I may have seen this car in real life before – looks like it's from a Japanese import dealer in a Vancouver suburb called Japanoid.
Indeed, you're correct, as that's their phone number on the sign behind the seats:
<img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6082/6109974909_65bbc823cd.jpg" width="300">
They're listed as being in New Westminster. I never got a chance to speak with whoever drove it to the show.
Too many importation snags, unfortunately. Another Japanese gullwing we never saw in the US was the pretty Toyota Sera, though it was bigger than a kei car.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/ToyotaSera-rear.jpg/800px-ToyotaSera-rear.jpg" width=600>
Hmmm I have never heard of a Sera. Looks like a Mazda mx3 or a geo storm kinda but with cooler doors.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Toyota_Sera_AMI.JPG" width="600">
To really put it in context, a couple weeks back, I was driving in semi-rural Ontario, and stumbled across a used car dealer with a Sera, Honda Beat, and Mitsubishi Pajero Mini (which reminds me, that would've been a worthy nomination for Thursday's Hooniverse Asks) parked out front. The Sera (no large car) positively dwarfed the Beat, and was more imposing (albeit shorter) than the Mitsu.
I want this so bad it hurts my heart…
Did you get banned?
The Autozam is a great Kei car but I wonder if it would really sell well here in the US? We had some affordable mid engined cars in the past like the Toyota MR2 but they are all but history. Maybe a slightly used Boxter can be considered affordable. Its too bad because a lot of cool cars came out at the wrong time financically
Not only would it have needed conversion to left-hand drive, extensive modifications would have been required to meet all the US safety laws. Mazda had a hard enough time selling small sports coupes like the MX-3 during the 1990s.
Living in Canada seems more appealing by the minute. This 19-year old could legally drive his Kei car from the frat house or co-op down to the liquor store, purchase alcohol, and the free healthcare would take of me after the inevitable accident. And they speak English there!
Sure, but I (at 20) can drive an uninsured car with a straight pipe where the cat used to be. (Honestly, I'd rather be able to import a 15-year-old Japanese project car.) Oddly enough, the age of purchase here for both fireworks and booze is 21 – hasn't stopped me regardless.
You can drive an uninsured car? Not legally, of course. And I guess the case of beer in your trunk won't help your case, either…
This was meant to show up as a reply to Mechanically Inept above, but it didn't want to appear where it was meant to at first.
I'll use this space, instead, to mention just how much I love wedge-shaped cars with little round headlamps, particularly quirky Japanese ones that I could garage inside my 745Ti given a set of lawnmower/ATV ramps. And 'Autozam'; what a great name – to my ears, it conjures the amusing incongruity of a Soviet supercar.
Living in Michigan, where insurance is required, I had no idea there were states where it is not. What really kills me is that, at 19, with no tickets or accidents, it would be $1800 annually to get an insurance policy on my 924S. “But that's a sports car,” you say, “surely it would be cheaper to insure something like a minivan.” And it is, to the tune of a mere $1700 annually to insure the 1997 Dodge Caravan that I drive instead of said 924S. These figures are from multiple insurance agencies, liability coverage only, for a 19 year old with no tickets or accidents. Neither car is even worth that much!Thank god I'm on mommy's insurance…
Washington will accept either a certificate of deposit or a liability bond in the amount of at least $60,000 in lieu of auto insurance. The state also requires no insurance at all on motorcycles/motor-driven cycles/mopeds, or antique/collector cars more than thirty years old. For the latter, the car must be operated on special plates with restrictions on type and amount of use. If, like me, one wishes to run regular unrestricted plates on older cars, insurance (or $60,000 up front) is still required.
I would buy it in a heartbeat if it were something I could make 100% legal on US roads. Sadly though that is not to be at this time as so many other have stated.
I do find one thing odd about it though and that is the weight. It's not much lighter than a Geo Metro (89-94 Metro XFi's weigh 1623lbs if memory serves) yet it only seats two, has a much smaller (but 8-14hp more powerful) engine and is physically smaller. Maybe it's my own normalcy bias showing but I would have expected it to weigh about 100-200lbs less than it does. Perhaps the cool gullwing doors required a fairly heavy support structure?
RWD does add some weight, what with the rear differential and driveshaft.
Never mind me. I forgot it was Mid/rear. Body stiffening? *drinks first beer of morning*
Gullwing doors are heavy and it Kei cars still have to pass crash safety tests.
suzuki cappuccino
<img src=http://rocksolidshifts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Suzuki-Cappuccino.jpg>