part 7 | The Phantom Sportscar
- Luca Sciarrillo
- Dec 6, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: May 30, 2024
The most complete story behind the groundbreaking old school sportscar that never got its chance.
Tomita then returns to devote himself to tuning and, on May 1 2002, coinciding with the anniversary of the foundation of Tomita Auto Inc, he establishes Tomita Dream Sales Inc, with headquarters in Kyoto a few miles away from the Dream Factory, to manage the sales of tuned cars independently.
Unfortunately, the debts concerning the plant were too high, so in June 2002 the production of the ZZ was eventually ended, after only 220 units produced, 206 registered as Tommy Kairas, one crash tested, and 12 Garaiyas, out of 430 units initially planned. The factory was entirely divested to Breckland Technology, which was already building the Garaiyas for Autobacs. Easton and Rawlings were joined by Oliver Winterbottom (famous Lotus designer who had worked with Rawlings at TVR twenty years earlier) in 2001 and by Paul Mickleburgh in 2002.
Mickleburgh wanted to sell the car in the US, so he set up on June 7th 2002 the Leading Edge Sports Car Company (LESCC), located in Tasburgh, with an aeronautical-inspired logo to witness the quality of the driving experience. The new company developed a reviewed version of the ZZ: the Leading Edge RT, perfected through the modification of the fuel tank (now levelled behind both seats), the redesign of rear suspensions to help reducing oversteer, the switch to 235mm rear tires, and the adoption of crumple zones in the subframes. It was planned in two versions, 160, with Mikuni carburetors, and 240HP, the latter with EFI and SR20VE head. In 2004, the brakes were upgraded to Wilwood 4pot calipers, while an hardtop and a two-profile wing were added as options. Aesthetic changes were made with smaller separate TVR-style headlights and 17” Lotus-ish alloy wheels.
All the modifications lead the car to a dry weight slightly over 720kg.
The behaviour of the car was still precise in cornering, but prone to understeer when at the limit of grip, which was already high before said modifications
In 2004 the 240RT was planned to receive the 1.8 turbocharged engine from the Seat Ibiza Cupra, tuned to 265BHP, but there is not further proof of that being happened.
The car was listed at around 30 thousand pounds and produced in very few units, probably less than 5: the demonstrative ones were a red LHD 190RT (went in the USA), a blue RHD, a yellow RHD 240RT later updated into Motorsport trim (British GT version, probably with BTCC cams and around 250PS) and a dark blue 240RT. The car was promoted between 2002 and 2003 to some shows (NEC Birmingham, Goodwood FOS), to some trackdays or in magazine collective tests (EVO; Autocar) through English club circuits (Ethel, Anglesey, Castle Combe, Donington ...). After a relaunch in 2005 with the updated dark blue 240RT (of which there is only one photo since the website was left abandoned since 2004), in 2006 the Leading Edge ceases to exist, after which the projects are sold again but without any follow-up.
The toolings, the moulds and the 240RT demo car were bought by Pakistani collector Abdul Wahid at a liquidation closure auction in 2006. The RT was featured in a video about his collection in December 2020, where it was shown in the final specification of 2005, with dark blue paint, reworked front clam and NACA ducts on the rear fenders, but in poor conditions with missing parts and bodywork damage.
Interestingly, the moulds used by Breckland for the modified bodywork parts were just update versions of the original Tomita Auto UK moulds, which means that the moulds with the original body design of the ZZ do no exist anymore.
Meanwhile, around 2010, a ZZ with an electric motor was already being tested, based on the demonstration run car that was used to show potential customers the capabilities of the car. Matsumoto installed an electric engine and batteries and removed the gearbox.
On December 2nd 2010, the ZZ-EV was announced, with a 300hp, 400Nm electric engine, limited to 150kph, with a range of 100km (deliberately low to keep the battery light, but still expandable) and weighing 780kg, developed by a company within the engineering department of the University of Kyoto, the Green Lord Motor, in which Yoshikazu Tomita appeared as an advisor, managed and carried on also by former employees of the Dream Factory / Dream Sales.
The car was presented in 2016 with the Tommykaira brand, taken over for the occasion after it was lent to Rowen around 2009 and was abandoned it in 2014.
The Tommykaira ZZ GLM is the first car in the world to feature a frameless stressed-member windshield by Teijin, and one of the first sports cars to feature a full driving assist system (designed by Kyocera).
The ZZ-EV was styled by Design Apple, too, based on drawings made for the ZZ EVO, but without the fixed roof.
Racing ZZs and derivatives.
The first car, the demo car and test mule ZZ, has a front radiator and was used to take customers on track for some laps with professional drivers at the wheel.
The second car, a ZZ’A, was probably used for the same purpose.
The third car is Jack Towler’s ZZ. It was bought in england and raced in the Roadsport division of 750 Motorclub (750MC) Racing series back in 2003-2004.
The fourth car is an extreme race version of a N/A ZZ. It was probably bought for 17000 pounds at LSCC, as an original bright yellow ZZ was for sale there in 2004. It features a chassis-mounted wing, front splitter and canards, pressure outlets, dynamic airbox, race adjustable AVO coilovers with spherical mounts, race Willwood brakes, straight cut 6-speed manual gearbox sourced out from a BTCC Primera, engine rebuilt to BTCC specs with billet crankshaft, electronic injection, ITBs and race ECU to more than 270PS. It was built by John Timewell to compete against Jack Towler’s ZZ
The fifth car is the Leading Edge 240RT Motorsport, probably developed after Timewell’s ZZ.
The sixth car is a gold Garaiya prepared by SuperAutobacs Toda in 2003 to contest time attacks at Tsukuba. It also features an SR20DET with 430PS moving 1020kg. It was shown at the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show.
The seventh car is the Fuel Bank EVO’s ASL Garaiya, built by the shop at SuperAutobacs Omiya Bypass around 2007 upon the S.A. Toda’s car. The drawing shows its similarities, despite the car wearing the first iteration of its red livery. It was shown at the 2008 Tokyo Motor Show and it probably underwent further modifications than just its styling.
The eigth car is an extensively modified ZZ with an SR20DET swap producing 380BHP. The car was sold in 2013 by Run & Bell, in Hiroshima.
