Mitsuoka's Newest Roadster Squeezes a C1 Corvette Into Miata Proportions

Mitsuoka, the small Japanese automaker known for reshaping ordinary coupes into tributes to classic shapes, has released the LA1, a roadster built on Mazda MX-5 Miata underpinnings and bodied to echo the C1-generation Corvette. The Miata's compact footprint gives the car scaled-down, almost toy-like proportions next to the American original it nods to. It is not Mitsuoka's first such project — the automaker has made a habit of turning Japanese coupes into rolling homages, and the LA1 is its latest.

With reporting from Car and Driver.