One of the many fun things about coming to LA for our periodic Autopian Leadership Synods is that I get to wander around Galpin Auto Sports and see what sorts of fun project cars they’re working on. I was in luck this time, as there’s something especially fun being cooked up: they’re putting one of those Liberty Walk Ferrari F40 body kits on a tiny Autozam AZ-1. But there’s something not quite right going on, and let’s see if you can spot what it is.
Are you familiar with the Autozam AZ-1? I suspect most of you are, but if not, it’s worth knowing about, because it’s one of the purest expressions of fun and not taking oneself too seriously, rendered in automotive form. Autozam is a sub-brand of Mazda, and the AZ-1 is essentially a Kei-class supercar.
It meets all the Kei-class restrictions: the tiny exterior dimensions, a 660cc engine making a maximum of 64 hp, that sort of thing. But unlike most Kei cars that have space-maximizing bodies designed for practicality, the Autozam AZ-1 is all about fun. Here, we have a video where I get to drive around an AZ-1:
See what I mean? They’re a great time.
One of the many fun things about an AZ-1 is how all of the body panels are relatively easy to remove; this means that, if, say, a company wanted to make a body kit for the AZ-1 that made it look like a Ferrari F40, one could absolutely do that. And, for reference, this is what a Ferrari F40 looks like:
Now, when you translate the design vocabulary of the Ferrari F40 to the proportions of an Autozam AZ-1, you end up with something that looks a lot like one of those fun Leen Customs pins caricature of the car:
(By the way, you can get exclusive Autopian Leen car-pins when you become a member, just saying.)
Now, like I said, over at GAS they’re putting one of these body kits on an Autozam AZ-1. And, in looking at it carefully, you can see one issue that has to be addressed, one I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen on a car. Let’s see if you can spot it:
Can you tell from that angle? It may be easier to see it from the side:
If you want the reveal, just click that image up there. See what’s happening?
Somehow, this car now has negative ground clearance. As in the body extends lower than the wheels, so were it not resting on those blocks, the body would be in contact with the ground and the wheels would be suspended, like a toddler’s dangling legs on a chair. That makes for a less-than-optimal driving experience.
Here, you can see it more dramatically in a close-up:
One of the technicians at GAS confirmed this wasn’t just a wheel size issue, but that they would need to install some sort of lift kit on the suspension to get this to work. They’re confident they can do it, of course, but it is a sort of hilarious problem to encounter, and not one I think I’ve seen before. I’ve definitely seen lowered cars with ground-scraping body kits, but never ones where the wheels are left essentially dangling.
They’ll get it sorted, and this will be an incredibly absurd and fun little car. Until then, just enjoy the madness of the process.
I’d love to have the Type-C body, except change the engine cooling duct to a NACA duct, add rear wheel skirt and longtail, and remove the spoiler. This thing would make a sick streamliner. Then put a 1.9L TDI engine in it or convert it to an AWD electric. Instant high-performance supercar with triple the fuel efficiency of anything you can buy.
Anyone know how I can sign up with Leens Customs? Tapping ‘Join The Cult’ at the top doesn’t seem to do anything.
The Leen pin contains the answer: The F40 has huge wheels! Get rolling stock with the diameter/width/offset to fill out the oversized arches and you’ll be bang-on for ground clearance.
I’ve never been to Japan, but do we only hear about the weirdest things they do or does the entire place have the ‘weird’ knob turned to 11 all the time?
I have been to Japan. We mostly hear about the weirdest things over here. There are plenty of things that seem weird from a US perspective, but plenty that seem normal, as well as a lot of things that are obvious improvements.
I have to go full hater on this project. Fake supercars suck, and the AZ-1 is such a cool car that doing this to one of them feels like a crime. I got to see one in person at an Autopian meetup, and I was part of a small crowd that walked right by a gorgeous Lamborghini to nerd out on the AZ-1. I meant no disrespect to the person who brought the Lambo and I do appreciate that they braved shitty Michigan roads to get there, but how many chances do you get to see an AZ-1 up close?
I don’t suspect they want to fool anyone with this kit. It’s a caricature, rather than an earnest copy. The proportions are hilarious, and it’s not like they had to chop up a unibody to make it happen.
It looks like a few too many Liberties were taken when translating this design from the OG F40 to the Autozam.
I do think this thing is cool though. In the pre- internet age of the F40, I remember seeing a toddlers ride on version in the Consumers Distributing catalog.
The shape and proportions were pleasing to me, so I tediously drew the image in pixilated form on my family’s Amiga computer.
This kit is like that toddlers car turned into a real car.
Deluxe Paint?
Having driven an AZ-1 and jonesed to have one in my driveway ever since, this strikes me as being like putting a Fiero body on an F40.
To each their own, I guess.
If this kit works for any other purpose than to get the wheels off the ground, what’s missing is the Hayabusa swap.
Everything.
No need to put any kit on such a cool car.
How did a firm like Liberty Walk get that this wrong? Maybe the kit is for substantially upsized wheels?
Edit: from the looks of the kit on their website, it does look like bigger wheels are needed. And maybe trimming of the bottom of the kit.
Are they that big an operation? Is there that much demand for supercar fender flares?
They’re a very big company by Japanese aftermarket standards. They make kits for a ton of stuff.
I feel like a lot of those tuner companies seem huge until one employee steals $50 from the register and the entire operation disappears.
That’s what I suspected as well, kei-sized performance tires are getting harder to come by, and the F40 did have very big rolling stock for the era, so you’d want bigger wheels/tires to match the style, both in diameter and width. Hell, look at how much the current wheels are inset! Covering that gap with just spacers would be downright irresponsible.
That would break with the strong tradition of perfectly-engineered kit cars!
Whatever could you possibly mean? The way Bradley doors never quite close and don’t match the contour of the body is a feature, so that the commoners can see that you have gullwings even when they’re closed!
Yes.
Joking aside, that is a unique problem, for sure. I’ve not spent that much time with ground kits, but enough to know that this is pretty strange.
Looking at finished examples (and the size of the wheel wells), the kit is meant to use much bigger wheels/tires.
That poor Autozam 🙁 What did it do to deserve this?!
It looks like it would make a fun bumper car at an indoor race track.
I’m also looking at the scooped-out vents or ducts or whatever those are on the hood, which don’t seem to exist on the actual F40. Why would you do that–make the design even busier when it’s already kinda small to carry all of the F40 details?
It’s a copy of their F40 kit, which added a clamshell with those vents. https://image-cdn.hypb.st/https%3A%2F%2Fhypebeast.com%2Fimage%2F2023%2F01%2Fliberty-walk-ferrari-f40-widebody-kit-release-info-000.jpg?w=960&cbr=1&q=90&fit=max
The obvious solution would be to install an adjustable air suspension which allows the wheels to be raised right off the ground, making it the most effective parking brake in history.
Also makes it super easy to roll back the odometer on your fake Ferrari when you borrowed it from your dad and drove around all day without telling him instead of being in school.
Remember Micro Machines? Here is one writ large.
It’s the jumbo shrimp of cars.