Posted on 01/14/2021 1:43:13 PM PST by nickcarraway
Six years after it left production, the Orochi is starting to make an unexpected comeback.
The phrase "everyone's a critic " has never been more apt than in the year 2021. It's as if society roll plays every single day as Danny DeVito in the episode of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia where he wears a ridiculous turtle-neck and wig and pretends to be a preposterously snobbish art critic.
The Mistuoka Orochi is a car that's been absolutely beaten to a bloody pulp in forums and message boards across the internet and even on this very website. Some call it ugly, others call for them all to be crushed. That said, six years after it left production, the Orochi is starting to make an unexpected comeback. Could it be a new post-ironic generation gassing it up as the go-to car for the proud weirdo? Or maybe something more complicated than that? Either way, the fact this car is still talked about today means it at least made an impact, as polarizing as it was.
Mitsuoka is one of those Japanese brands that never bothered trying to sell cars overseas. That said, they never intended to. Mitsuoka makes cars for people with unconventional tastes in style, for the person who says "no" emphatically when given status quo choices from other sports car makers. This philosophy is the genesis of the Orochi, and there's a lot more to that story to boot.
It's not uncommon to take an existing sports car, give it a fresh change of clothes and slap a different badge on the front grille. Thankfully, the Orochi is derived from one of the all-time Japanese sports car greats. The Orochi, which is named for a mythical Japanese dragon. debuted as a concept at the 2001 Tokyo Motor Show with the same internals as the iconic Honda NSX. The response wasn't as ghastly as other "ugly" cars like the Pontiac Aztek, but to say it was polarizing was an understatement for the record books.
Interestingly, thoughts on the Orochi were largely divided down national lines. Japanese journalists applauded the car's bold and unorthodox styling. Conversely, western magazines like Jalopnik lauded the Orochi as "The Worlds Ugliest Car". Of course, that decision is always in the eyes of the beholder. And we think Jeremy Clarkson's quote sighting an old European artist Francis Bacon in his Alfa 8C review on Top Gear is fitting here. " There is no beauty that hath not some strangeness in its proportions." Bacon didn't know it, but centuries ago, he came up with the perfect metaphor to describe this quirky Japanese sports car.
It’s like something out of a bad manga.
Ping.
You think you hate it now, wait until you drive it.
Get rid of the split paint job and that obnoxious smiley grille, and I’d say it has some nice italianesque sports car curves
“Super Hero Drift X”
Coming soon to a magazine stand near you.
I think it’s pretty cool!
Front end looks like a modern Mercedes that was in an accident.
Here he comes, here comes Speed Racer, he’s a demon on wheels ...
The paintjob does it no favors
Not worth even a look it it’s not electric.
Paint it one color and git rid of the advertisement, and do something with those wheels and it would be a good lookimg car.
Sort of like my last date. A little cosmetic work and she’d be okay.
And that butt ugly paint job ain’t helpin’.
If it’s based on the original NSX, it’s probably pretty good to drive. But I still wouldn’t want to be seen in one.
What is a magazine stand?
Are the stands compatible with a Glock?
What is a magazine stand?
Are the stands compatible with a Glock?
Interesting. The side profile does look similar to that of a 458 Italia...
Proofreading is a lost art on the interwebs.
I couldn’t have an electric car- there aren’t any places other than my house where I could plug it in.
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