A Pagani in the Pagoda? Japanese Tuner Shows Toyota MR2 That Channels Italian Exoticar


TOKYO — Each year, visitors to the Tokyo Auto Gallery face some of the most bizarre wheels in Japan.

This tuning show has previously showcased a 6-wheeled Nissan microcar and Subaru minibus dressed up to look like a 1960s Volkswagen van, among other eccentrics. This year, a small-scale tuner called Rabbit Corporation introduced its Toyota MR2 rebody, which looks remarkably like the Pagani Zonda Italian exoticar.

Tokyo-based Rabbit has been known until now for its Porsche models, but a photo of the Pagani Zonda inspired the firm to turn a Toyota MR2 roadster into a look-alike. Body panels of the MR2 are easy to detach. So it took just a couple weeks to finish the body conversion, which was christened the PZR for Pagani Zonda Rabbit.

No one would mistake the Rabbit version for the original, either engine-wise or aesthetically, but enough people may be intrigued by it to enable production of a limited series. More details are available at the Rabbit Web site.