When you add a new car to your collection, if you’re anything like Tom from Tom’s Turbo Garage, you probably take a deep dive into the history and lore of your new purchase. The video below is exactly that, a collection of Autozam AZ-1 stories to help people understand the climate in which this car was built, and its significance to enthusiasts. Why would anyone expend the time, money, and effort it takes to import one of these tiny turbo machines to the United States of Grande? Maybe you’ll find some answers here.
The Mazda and Suzuki joint venture Autozam created some of the coolest Kei-style cars, including the gullwing-equipped AZ-1 shown here. It’s got a tiny 1.3-liter turbocharged engine cribbed from the Suzuki Cultus (Swift), and crazy bodywork that looks a bit like a Ferrari F40 that was cartoon-smushed down to one quarter scale. It’s reasonably quick, cool to look at, and small enough to fit in your walk-in closet. I guess the real question is, why wouldn’t you want one?
Well, it does have some downsides. The biggest one being that you can’t return an offered fist bump! What’s the point in living if you can’t fist bump a bro every now and then? When Tom was presented with an offered knuckle tap from a car appreciating stranger, he couldn’t get the tiny mail-slot window down to accept the five-digit salutation. Instead of staying in the awkward situation longer than necessary, he just drove away. Check out the video to see his dramatic reenactment of the encounter. It’s great.