The most complete story behind the groundbreaking old school sportscar that never got its chance.
Tuning cars and selling them as a recognized automaker was no longer enough.
It was early 1991 and the dream of Tomita and Kaira was always the same: building their own car from scratch. The ideal sports car, simple, extremely light, affordable but with intense driving feeling.
They discussed the project at a board meeting, where they were ironically called “grandfathers” for being close to 50 years old.
Being both of them half-a-century-aged gentlemen, they named their fulfilled dream with the abbreviation "ZZ", transcription of double "Jii", which in Japanese translates indeed to "grandfather".
The car that Tomita and Kaira have in mind is a sixties-fashioned racing "barchetta", inspired by the cars with which, as a young, Yoshikazu used to run back and forth the National Route 1 at high speeds, and to the formulas that Kikuo had raced and designed; by the Lotus Seven for the aluminium tub monocoque, by the Porsche 356 for its short overhangs, by the Porsche 904 GTS for the mechanical layout (approx., due to the boxer engine) and driving experience, by the Alpine A108 for the headlights, by the Porsche 912 for choosing a smaller engine, less powerful but also less heavier, which made the car handle more friendly.
The simplicity of the car was a determining factor even in the design process: the car was conceived by placing parts picked from their shelves on the floor, like the engine, the transmission, the wheels, the seats, as they wanted to use as much existing parts as possible to keep costs down.
On a brief interview on the old Top Gear in 1996, Kaira stated:
"Japanese sportscars are okay, but they have too much technology and lack character.
I wanted to build a simple and exciting sportscar, like from the old days. I want to sell hundreds of them.
If I won't, I'll lose all confidence in Japanese taste. I mean, what must I do to please Japanese customers?"
By 1992 a test mule was ready and the setup and chassis development with Dunlop tires began, with Keiji Nakajima and Kikuo Kaira himself behind the wheel (you can see Kikuo in the picture). The test bed was so light that after some laps the tires weren’t even worn at all, opposing to what the Dunlop staff expected.
In 1993 a research and development center was opened in Kameoka, near Kyoto. The design was entrusted to the team of vice-president Kaira, and after months of testing, with the support of various drivers, the "ideal sportscar" was revealed on July 24th 1995 at the Prince Hotel in Tokyo, on live TV, in front of 150 people including 10 foreign magazines and the president of Nissan America Takashi Ishihara to attend the event.
After a month, Tomita closed the orders with 430 deposits received.
On June 3, 1996, Tomita Auto UK Ltd. was born, in the Ironside way industrial complex in Hingham, Norfolk: it was a branch of Tomita Auto Co. Ltd. (the corporate company) conceived to manufacture the ideal sports car in the time window of three years at the rate of 12 cars a month.
The new manufacturing plant was based in the previous TOM'S GB workshop, the second warehouse on the left when entering the estate containing units 10 to 13.
In fact, work on the ZZ in Hingham already began by 1994, soon after TOM'S started moving their premises in the spring of that year.
The president and managing director of the company was nothing less than the former F1 and prototypes driver Hiroshi Fushida, also president of TOM’S GB and already living in Norwich, a legend in Japan still today.
He himself, having lived in Kyoto, knew about the ZZ project since the beginning. He knew Tomita since 1972, when Tomita Auto had just been created. On the other hand, Fushida worked with Kaira in the Esso Racing Team competing in the small displacement formulas (Formula Libre 500, Formula Junior 1300, Formula Junior 2000, and so on).
[TOM’S GB was the english subsidiary of TOM’S established in order to provide engines for TOM’S Euro F3s and to build the Taka-Q group C Toyotas: the company was later bought by Audi in 1998 and turned into Racing Technology Norfolk, which manufactured and campaigned the Bentley Speed 8, with Fushida as operations director.]
In July, instead, the Dream Factory becomes a company: the manufacturing of the car is no longer headed by Tomita Auto Co., but by Tomita Yume Kōjō Ltd., which handles importation, registration and sale in the Japanese market.
Why building in the UK a car to be sold only in Japan?
In addition to practical matters, that is to take advantage of the facilitations on crash tests for small makers, England was the home of small production racing and sportscars, so it would have been easier and less expensive to find a factory and trained workers there instead of in Japan. In fact, most of the workers at Tomita Auto UK were former Lotus mechanics.
During 1993, the design of the car was carried over together with Mooncraft designer, Takuya Yura, who managed the clay modeling of the scale body and therefore the realization of the styling. The design proposed by Yura was so awesome that Tomita fell in love with it, the kind of love that a person can feel for their pet.
The fiberglass bodywork boasts unique shapes, starting from the waistline, but tidy in the rear; the very short overhangs, with a round front end and uncovered circular headlights, by half recessed in the bonnet and for the other half in relief as for the Alpine A110 from which inspiration was drawn, and a cut-off tail that faces upwards.
The body was manufactured in Kent and painted at Tomita Auto UK.
The removable roof has a double bulge, a Zagato's sign; visually it is a slender extension of the windshield that reclines gently on the roll-hoop in steel tubes. It has the peculiarity of being removable to be stored above the hood, in a way that reminds the rear of the classic Porsche 718.
Strangely, the peculiar doors of the ZZ were not actually intended to be in the initial concept to avoid the cost of more hinges, and were added later, but without an external handle, since locks were not to be featured. Also for this reason, fixed windows were not supplied even with the purchase of the 500,000 yen hardtop, since the internal handle had to be reachable without getting locked out.
The small roof can be fixed to the engine cover with four bolts, one on each of its four angle, purposely designed to leave the panel floating and to draw some air into the hood vents.
A detail featured in the concept, but probably discarded in production, was a rubber profile to be applied on the edge of the wheel, to avoid damaging the wheel against the sidewalks… It was even patented...
... As evidence of how the car was designed to be used in any context, albeit without even windows (the hardtop was an option weighing about twenty kilos), rewarding any inconvenience with pure and distilled driving pleasure.
The hardtop featured an acrylic rear window and polypropylene side windows, which could be opened with a zip along their perimeter.
The internal door handle, instead, was set in a mold slot, under the door. Indeed, the handle was the slot itself, through which one can act directly on the lever that disengages the door latch.
Also note how, as "this car has no glovebox" (quote), the only usable space for storing personal effects is obtained into the frame sill, within easy reach by hand, and by raindrops, too.
The chassis was built by the same Arch Motor of Huntingdon that supplied the frames to the Lotus Type 7 and 23 and that produced parts for Lolas, GT40s and other sport prototypes. It was a tub of welded square-section aluminum extrusions supplied by Aalco, to which two steel subframes were bolted: one to support the front suspensions and the front shell, one supporting the engine, the rear suspensions and the rear shell. More precisely, each triangle of the front suspension had a link connected directly to the chassis, as on racecars.
The bodywork was manufactued by Rawlson, a racecar builder founded by Mike Rawlings (who suggested them to Tomita) and at that time led by Barry Sheppard.
Other bits of the chassis were manufactured at Tomita Auto UK, or imported from Japan, while the taillights were made by a british company, the rollcage was built by Safety Devices, the modified Momo 320mm steering wheel by BG Racing.
The lack of any comfort and refinement (exposed gearshift linkage and pedals, bare aluminum floor...) helped to keep the weight of the car 50kg lower than the Lotus, at 670kg.
The brakes were made of four AP Racing discs (ventilated in front only), with optional Brembo two-piston calipers at the front.
The shocks were Bilstein and harder springs of 4 and 6 kg/mm respectively at the front and at the rear could have been be installed.
As every kitcar, many parts were sourced from other mass produced cars:
the mirrors, including the centre one, and the headlight housings, were borrowed from the NA Mazda Miata (same 180 mm headlamp size), although the original equipment lamps were supplied by Cibie;
the front indicators from the AA Autozam Mazda Carol;
the wiper and the steering rack from the Honda Beat;
the clutch cable from Subarus;
and many powertrain-related parts from Nissans, other than the engine and gearbox themselves.
The most bizarre borrowing involves also the Vemac RD sportscars and the Nissan R390 GT1, which in fact both share with the ZZ the Fiat Coupé-sourced asymmetrical taillights, which were swapped for RHD markets.
The far side indicator with the reverse lamp is used in the TK, the Vemac and, only in one of the road-cars, the R390 GT1. The Nissan racecars and the other road-car sport the near side indicator, which contains the foglight.
If this was not enough, there’s not a weak Rover K series to power the rear wheels with 205mm tread, but what would be legit to call a Nissan SR20DS, taken in block together with the Nissan Primera HP10 transmission, shipped "naked" from Nissan Japan to Norwich.
If you wonder where is the "E" that usually stands in the engine code, you'll be surprised to know that it has been "swept away" by two motorcycle carburetors, Keihin FCR 45, capable of feeding the engine up to 180PS @6900RPM and 192Nm @ 4900RPM in the base trim, or 195 @ 7300RPM and 196Nm @ 6400RPM in the hottest version (ZZ-S).
Thanks to the ZZ's lightness and despite the engine being carburetted, fuel consumption averages 10km/l and tops at 12 with careful driving.
As for other Tommy Kairas, various stages and options for the engine and chassis were available in the price list. The Stage 1 for 600 JPY included: polished valve seats, balanced shaft, increased lift cams, new timing pulleys, new head gasket and a general intake setting. Stage 2 for 1,060 JPY added to Stage 1: SR16VE pistons, reinforced connecting rods, new valve springs, NGK spark plugs, bronze valve guides, balanced pistons, polished head. Stage 3, using special pistons with CR of 12: 1, carried the displacement to 2 liters and 2, while Stage 4 provided for an electronic injection head with a tuned ECU, operating on timing advance and injection.
To improve responsiveness, a lightened flywheel (from 8.7kg to half of that) and a shortened final drive were available.
The fuel was stored in a 45L tank placed right behind the passenger’s seat, so that it wouldn’t take up space for the driver in an already tiny car.
