This Mustang-Bodied Mazda Miata Is A Whole Heap Of Questions

This bizarre creation is based on a 1997 Miata, but wears a body built to mimic a 1965 Ford Mustang… and we really don’t know why

Matt Kimberley

30 Jan 2018

This Mustang-Bodied Mazda Miata Is A Whole Heap Of Questions

You’ve heard of Mazda Miatas getting all sorts of engine transplants, including Mustang V8s. We wholeheartedly approve, if only for giggles. This Miata/Mustang hybrid is something totally different.

The innards and greasy bits of a 1997 Miata have been clothed in a replica Ford Mustang body, built to scale over the Miata’s wheelbase. It looks mostly like a small-scale classic Mustang… but it drives and sounds like a tiny four-cylinder Japanese sports car from the 1990s. The questions are tumbling out of our minds so fast they’re getting jammed in our frontal lobes.

Why would you do this this way? Why not swap a V8 in as well? How long did it take? Who actually built the shell? Why wouldn’t you swap the wheels to Mustang items? Could you, perhaps, have considered a better use for your money? Why do we quite like it? Should we seek medical attention? Will my church cast me out as demon spawn if I buy it?

In fairness, this build’s small scale means that, if you liked, you really could put a bigger engine in it and enjoy some three-quarter-scale ‘Murican fun, as has been pointed out on the Reddit thread dedicated to this… thing, dubbed the M1stang.

The sub-95,000-mile Miata chassis is more or less unmolested and seems in decent condition throughout, including underneath. The original Mazda soft-top is a giveaway and isn’t in the best shape after being repeatedly folded without unzipping the plastic window first.

The listing has bunches and bunches of pictures to scroll through. It has the 1.8-litre engine, which was good for about 130bhp when new. It has air-conditioning, and, err, windscreen wipers, plus the original cassette deck.

For sale through JK’s Galleria of Vintage, in north east Ohio, the price is $9800. We’re not sure how this works in the US, but the advert indicates that a sales tax could be added. That could be a generic disclaimer with no relevance here, or this Mustang-bodied Miata could get even more expensive.

What say you, CTzens? Would you buy it and love it, or would you kill it with fire?

Source: Autotrader via Reddit

Comments

Fyi, in the US, sales tax varies by state, so it is often applied on top of the list price, so if sales tax is 6% on a $10000 vehicle, you would actually pay $10600.

Or you could just not pay sales tax in some places cough Montana cough

Mustang fanboi, but wants to ls swap a miata

Tokyo drift did it better

I’d buy this to be a daily driver car.

A bodyswap… It will probably open a entire void of swap conbination and i frankly think that it is not for the best. Eh, at least it’s not a badly made supercar wanabe welded onto a MR2.