- 70
- The Tri-State Area
Daihatsu X-021 Concept 1991
Oh, what could have been...
If you had to describe Daihatsu's output in the 1980s-1990s (and probably still today), it'd be "smaller". The brand, and probably quite deliberately under parent company Toyota in order to avoid conflict and competition, made stuff that others did but... smaller.
Back on the 1991 show circuit, it was presenting things like the Hijet (a minivan/commercial van/pickup, but smaller), Rugger (a body-on-frame 4x4, but smaller), and Mira Milano (uhhh... the Popemobile but smaller?), but the one thing nobody was really expecting was the X-021 Concept: a Mazda MX-5, but... smaller.
Originally unveiled at the 1991 IAA show in Frankfurt, the Daihatsu X-021 Concept was a radical departure from Daihatsu's regular offerings while at the same time being entire in keeping with the "but smaller" idea.
Building off the back of Mazda's successful MX-5 reviving the classic small open two-seater market, Daihatsu created this little gem with the engineering help of Dome and design expertise of IAD. The same IAD which built the concepts for the Mazda MX-5.
While the production open-top cars either side of the X-021 Concept - the Leeza Spider and Copen - were front-wheel drive, the X-021 sat on a dedicated front-engine, rear-wheel drive platform: an aluminium spaceframe, upon which the composite bodywork was hung. As you might expect, this resulted in a pretty lightweight machine, usually quoted at about 700kg.
While occupying roughly the same footprint as the MX-5 - 15mm narrower and with a 15mm shorter wheelbase - the X-021 was considerably shorter at just 3585mm, or around 14 inches less nose to tail.
Power came from was supplied by a naturally aspirated 1.6-litre, 16v straight four - probably a variant of the Daihatsu HD engine - which at 140hp exceeded anything the MX-5 could offer for at least another three years. That also meant pretty much 200hp/ton, compared to about 120hp/ton for the established Mazda. And this wasn't on-paper: it was running and fully functional too.
Daihatsu presented the X-021 at the subsequent Tokyo Motor Show, with the original blueish concept joined by a naked chassis showing off the structure and Dome-developed suspension. That second car was then bodied, with a natty yellow finish and even a hardtop, and presented at Geneva in 1992.
This car was made available to journalists, who flew over to Daihatsu's Shiga proving grounds, near Kyoto, to drive the thing, mostly coming away with the opinions you'd expect: great to drive, a little tight in the cabin.
And then it just... vanished. Daihatsu stopped talking about it entirely, and what had been a very promising prospect in the revitalised sports car space disappeared without a trace.
Perhaps Toyota was concerned that this would leech sales from the new second-generation MR2 by offering something both more conventional - mid-engined was still a tricky sell, and suffered a poor reputation in inclement weather - but also smaller like the original rather than the much bigger new car.
What definitely happened was the Japanese economy crashed when the asset price bubble burst, which made the idea of an aluminium space-frame two-seat sports car from a tiny brand like Daihatsu a little more challenging; after all, nobody had ever discussed the on-the-road price of the thing.
The fate of the two prototypes is unknown, but hopefully Daihatsu has kept at least one of them for its heritage museum - and for PD to scan!
