Turning Japanese

It may look like it’s been lifted off the streets of Tokyo, but James Kelly’s cool custom Mini began life as a humble Mini City E and was transformed in a Dublin garage.

- Jeff Ruggles 

Many of your average car buffs just won’t get the idea of a Japanese-style Mini. You’ve got Japanese car culture, with its drifting, unfeasibly huge power outputs and outrageous styling, and the humble Mini – traditional, utilitarian and unmistakably British. To the initiated, the two cultures are Tokyo Drift versus Country file; as much of a clash as putting HKS and Blitz stickers down the side of your front-wheel-drive five-door Ford Focus and pretending it’s a 500bhp RX-7...

With Minis, however, it’s different. The Japanese Mini scene is where these two worlds collide, for no other overseas nation can match its affection for Issigonis’ masterpiece. And what’s more, our Far Eastern counterparts have their own unique take on how a Mini should look, which amazes and inspires in equal measure. The Mini you see here is a prime example, but you won’t find it pounding the streets of Tokyo, or even the UK. This Japanese-styled British icon was created in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, but with a pair of show plates on, it has everybody fooled...

Despite the incredible popularity of Japanese Minis on forums and various social media sites, it’s a style that’s still largely unexplored in the UK. Various folk have cherry picked one or two bits and there’s a steady flow of JDM (Japanese domestic market) cars re-entering the UK, but this car has to be the most convincing Japanese-style Mini we’ve seen outside of its domestic habitat.