Lately, Mitsuoka introduced that it will construct 10 examples of the Himiko for 2024. The second-generation Himiko relies on the fourth-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata and was first launched again in 2018, so it isn’t precisely new. However admittedly, since then, we fully forgot that it exists. It’s such a low-volume automotive, we’d prefer to suppose that’s an comprehensible oversight, but when any automotive website needs to be maintaining a better eye on Mitsuoka, it’s Jalopnik.

Trying on the Himiko, it’s arduous to overlook an entire lot of Morgan within the design, however on the identical time, the Miata is surprisingly well-integrated. And that’s saying lots contemplating the Himiko is a full 26 inches longer than the Miata that it’s primarily based on. We’re not saying it’s beautiful, nevertheless it may have and possibly ought to have been a lot worse.

The phantasm that you just’re something aside from a Miata rapidly falls away the second you glimpse the near-stock inside, however you’re a type of, “I want fashionable vehicles nonetheless seemed like traditional vehicles” folks, the Himiko might be proper up your alley. We will nit-pick minor points corresponding to a number of the odd proportions all we would like, however they’d an thought and executed it higher than you’d count on in case you heard somebody made a Miata two toes longer after which added a Morgan physique.

Which is de facto the place the issue lies. We don’t need “higher than anticipated” or “type of virtually works.” We would like bizarre. We would like WTF. We would like one thing nobody would ever consider making an attempt. Like the Mitsuoka Buddy, which in case you’re not acquainted, is a Toyota RAV4 modified to type of seem like a K5 Blazer. Or the Galue, an almost-Bentley primarily based on the Nissan Altima’s Japanese-market cousin the Teana. These are correct Mitsuokas.

The Himiko, then again, is so near wanting like an actual automotive, it simply doesn’t really feel like an actual Mitsuoka. The place’s the Orochi spirit? A Mazda-based Himiko may be extra dependable in the long term, however we’d take an actual Morgan as a substitute, thanks very a lot.