VILLAGE OF THE DAMO

What do you get when you cross an R5 Turbo with a Suzuki Jimny? This is the company that decided to find out

- TOM FORD

Stopped at the traffic lights somewhere near downtown Machida in Tokyo prefecture, there’s a pause for consideration. There’s really no getting away from it: from a dynamic point of view, the Suzuki Jimny is... rubbish. The steering has a yawning dead spot from centre to about a quarter turn, presumably to prevent people hoofing them into a corner and immediately flipping onto the roof, the ride is choppy, the ‘handling’ mildly alarming and the brakes mediocre. It probably doesn’t help that this is a four-speed auto taped to the back of a 658cc three-pot petrol, and the beam axles have the ride comfort and spinal sympathy of a paving slab. And I love it. I really, genuinely love it. Which makes zero sense, until you see the outside.

This Jimny is not special because of how it drives, but because of how it looks. It’s been modified by Japanese company Damd Inc, and it’s a kind of chunky homage to the original Renault 5, as bizarre as that sounds.

There’s the flat front and slightly right-handed trapezoidal headlamps, the grille, the bumper – soft-focus cues that stretch all the way back to when the 5 was launched back in 1972. Then there are the arches and graphics that sort of resemble 1985’s GT Turbo – although you have to get close to see the ‘non’ above the big ‘TURBO’ lettering – and the motorsport wheels. It’s blatantly obvious what this is, and also what it isn’t. A beautiful, weird, original remix.