Nissan gave us the Pike cars, ushering the neo-retro craze. Mitsuoka took that to the next level, essentially becoming a carmaker dedicated to retro. All the big boys, from Subaru to Toyota and from Mitsubishi to Suzuki, started lathering some of their wares in plastichrome. Kit makers flourished, turning your mundane kei truck into a VW Transporter or a Citroën H van lookalike for a small fraction of the cost of the real thing. Surely, someone out there would end up making something unequivocally and purposefully ridiculous.
That would take some doing, given the competition. One would need to start off with the cuddliest little kei car and marry it with something completely opposite. Like a Rolls, for instance. So for the part of the kei car, we have the 1995-98 Autozam Carol – the second iteration of Mazda’s smallest offering.
Here is the standard-issue 2nd gen Carol – the last new car launched under the short-lived Autozam brand. Under the skin, it’s a Suzuki Alto. The rest is all Mazda-designed, and pretty similar to the first generation it was, too. It was a decent enough design, but just like those ‘70s Beetles, someone out there saw this and thought: “Hmmm… That could use a great big fake grille.”
And so history (and comedy) was made. And very well made it was, too: chrome bumpers, fender mirrors and headlight surrounds accompany the giant R-R-style schnozz, to really complete the look.
The rear end did not escape the kit-maker’s vengeful wrath: the rear window was shrunk, rear chrome bumpers added and very mildly Silver Shadow-esque taillights substituted to the stock items. The strangest part, though, is this squarish bit of fiberglass protruding slightly on the hatch.
The crowning achievement has to be the hood ornament, which is an approximate rendition of the Manneken Pis, a famous Brussels bronze statue (and fountain). Maybe this little guy turns around to squirt the windshield when you press the washer button…
Unfortunately, I have not been successful in tracking down the kit maker that created this elaborate joke – the “MM” on the grille is bound to be some sort of clue, but my research has not borne any fruit. In any case, even without its hilarious micturating mascot, the car looks intentionally comical. It’s nice to see that, even in retro-mad Japan, some folks still like to take the piss.
Look, I can’t afford a Rolls Royce either and the Manneken Pis makes it classy. 10s across the board!
It’s interesting. This is the third take on attempts to emulate ROLLS-ROYCE. (Not including Lincolns from 77 on) First was the VW Mini Rolls. In 75? 🤔 The Monte Carlo had body lines similar to classic ROLLS-ROYCE Silver Clouds. Believe a custom studio modified the Monte Carlo, adding classic ROLLS-ROYCE front end and other touches, marketing it as CUSTOM CLOUD. Actually nice upgrade of standard Monte Carlo. Apparently ROLLS-ROYCE was NOT amused and as I recall Actually filed suit resulting in end of the CUSTOM CLOUD. Had 77 Monte Carlo and loved the GO For Baroque styling. It 57? Chevrolet had a similar situation with custom crafted El Moracco,a take off of Cadillacs Eldorado. With limited production, both the CUSTOM CLOUD and ELMOROCCO must be extremely rare and extremely expensive.
“Pardon me. Do you have any Grey Poupon?”
“No. I have store brand yellow mustard. Help yourself.”
H B E & N,
I operated a vintage limo service in the Washington DC area, and in addition to several Rolls-Royce & Bentley cars, we had a small fleet of Vanden Plas Princess DM4 limousines. 99.9% of Americans thought the Princess limos were Rolls-Royces, but we didn’t rent them as such [or add Rolls-Royce identification].
To make things even more enjoyable, we had empty plastic containers of French’s Mustard in the rear compartment, and the drivers would often suggest when asked that famous question, the passengers could hold up the French’s Mustard & say something along the lines of “It’s not a Rolls, but we do have some French’s!”
We figured most of the older passengers would not want to reply, and we were very surprised at how many older couples, dressed to the 9’s, would join in on the fun!
I even wrote to French’s Mustard to let them know what we were doing and asked them if they were interested in using our cars in their advertising, but the answer was a polite NO.
Remember the vintage commercial with two ROLLS-ROYCE vehicles passing , stopping , and one person asking, Pardon Me. Do you have any Grey Poupon? Guess French’s was not up to exacting standards of those ROLLS-ROYCE owners! At my stage of life, I consider myself a vintage Rolls Canardly. I roll down one hill and can ardly get up the next! 🚗 . . 😅 . . 🚗 😂. 😎
Funny thing is, Grey Poupon isn’t very expensive…
Yes, I DO have Grey Poupon! I believe we met on another ROLLS-ROYCE post! See my comments below? Grey Poupon minds 😉DO run the same roads. 😎
It’s very cute .
Not sure how long I’d keep it though .
-Nate
It seems that there were a couple of Carol based retro cars, including one by usual suspects Mitsuoka, but this one is the Onix Marfy, which they themselves referred to as a funny cat
The little guy reminds you to never piss into the wind.
About as bad as purely cosmetic racing stripes or Type R logo to indicate your car can go faster. A RR grille on a schizzbox to indicate luxury. Now I think I’ve seen it all.
I was going to say the little guy goes off when the radiator overheats but it’s yellow mustard for the win. Lol! Very clever.
That “rear bumper, steel beam,”thing has got to go…lol Looks so small next to the van; same size as a “Smart4two”?
That threw me for a minute too, as I’m used to seeing makeshift bumpers made of steel or wood beams running around in the salt belt. But it’s actually a parking block bolted to the ground. See it better in the first pic.
This reminds me of the Scion Iq being “remade” into an Aston Martin Cygnet!! 🙂
The proportions of these “mini classics” end up looking more Triumph Mayflower than Rolls although in this case slightly melted Triumph Mayflower since the Carol’s rounded 90s styling loses the razor edge of the Triumph