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.
Maybe if you squint really hard and have poor eyesight! The 458 is beautiful, while this thing is a complete monstrosity.
DUH!! I love sarcasm!!! My daughter wants a shirt that reads “Sarcasm is another talented service I provide”. She’s only 11 and gets a lot of that part of her personality from me :0)
Looks like a cicada.
“Two-face” as a car.
The front end reminds me of an old Studebaker. Many people didn’t like them at first either.
I was thinking more of a metallic dark green, like a beetle’s shell. ( https://www.sunsigns.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/beetle.jpg) Or some variation of a deep dark browner even purple metallic
There is an all white one at the article and it looks worse. They need to fix the front end. Probably more than just the grill.
Customers originally didn’t like the sport nose and high wing on the Dodge Super Bee / Plymouth Superbird, so much so that dealerships were forced to order the stock grilles. A few years later many drivers rued the decision because they missed out on what became an icon.
Remove the stupid paint job and it looks pretty good.
Bahh would rather have a new truck. But would still keep my old truck. lol
I think it is a great looking car. Ditch the paint job and wheels.
Two words.
Fag Wagon.
Doors are a real turn-off (they way they open)
I spoke with an engineer at GM over how that came to be so ugly.
It was warring sides of ownership between team ownership of space versus team ownership of systems.
Yeah, looks like the tip of a tongue being stuck out at you from that smiley grille!
Not a bad looking car; terrible paint job...
I don’t care for the paint scheme, but that thing is sweeeeet!
A GM engineer I knew drove one to church just after they came out. He thought it was sooooo cool. He did NOT like my doubtful look as a response. My very first thought was “Man, that’s butt ugly.”
Soccer moms liked them.
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