The Lancia Delta Integrale and Renault 5 are two iconic retro rally cars. But what do they have in common besides their boxy shape? Body kits from Japanese tuner DAMD which turn the humble Suzuki Jimny into these decade-old racers.
I’ve been a fan of DAMD’s work for a decade, ever since they turned the old Toyota GT86 into a wannabe Aston Martin. They have been messing around with the Suzuki Jimny for many years, releasing something new every year since 2019. There’s a kit called the Dronco, which creates a tiny Bronco, a baby G-Wagon copy, and the Little D, which is a very badly named replica of the classic Land Rover Defender.
They’ve run out of iconic 4×4 SUVs so they’ve had to resort to lateral thinking and Damd came across the Lancia Delta Integrate. That last word in the Italian name means this is a 4×4 car with a rally pedigree.
It’s impossible to hate these cars even though they are copycats. The Renault 5 copy is called Little 5 and it has “Not Turbo” plastered on the side in retro font. That’s because the Jimny is one of the few cars you can buy nowadays that doesn’t come with a fancy engine. The Japanese version is in the kei car segment and gets a 648cc 3-cylinder making just 63 horsepower. International models get a 1.5-liter with 101 hp. And yes, some US dealers have listed Jimnies for sale lately.
The other kit is called “Little ฮ”, drawing inspiration from Delta Integrale, the same car owned by the former Top Gear Stig. It’s bright red while the Renault copy is blue, but if you look past these differences, the two kits are largely the same, which is genius.
DAMD partnered with Italian wheel manufacturer Oz Racing for these white 80s rally wheels. The two kits come with the same new fenders which are flared out and have the same bumpers, even though the Little 5 has black plastic (unpainted). Even the roof wing is the same and looks to be adjustable.
The one major difference is the grille piece, which integrates four round headlights for the fake Lancia and two square lights for the fake Renault. It reminds me of the Hella conversion for the E30 3 Series with the square lights. It’s very 80s.
I honestly love the creativity and excellent fabrication that accompanies these DAMD builds. So I became curious about the price. Unfortunately, this won’t be available until after the 2024 Tokyo Auto Salon. But a complete Little G or Little G starts from 340,000 yen or about $2,350. That doesn’t include painting, and I believe they do a complete interior makeover on top. The Little 5 and Little ฮ are thus going to be less than $3,000 on top of the base Jimny you’re starting with./g
