When they were cheap and plentiful, the early generations of the Mazda Miata were often converted into other cars. Some of these body kits are world-famous like the Pit Crew, but every now and then, we find something that’s never been in the spotlight, like the Esqueleto Japan nose swap, applied here to a 1999 example of the MX-5.
It’s recently been said (by Car Throttle) that the Miata is “a bit of a joke car” and you can’t do serious modifications without it looking goofy. I totally disagree with this, because I’ve never seen a custom Miata I didn’t love. However, there’s nothing serious about this front end, so it should please everybody.
Now, Esqueleto Japan is still alive and well. They make spoilers for the modern ND Miata and recently targeted two of those tiny kei sports cars from Japan, the Honda S660 and Daihatsu Copen. However, the nose kit for early Miata isn’t available, and it must have been really… interesting for @normalguymx5 to find what he needed.
His car started life as the 1999 Miata. That’s an NB generation with about 140 horsepower stock, so not exactly valuable or a world-renowned sports car. However, with the custom front end, it now resembles something truly expensive and retro.
Many Miata kits deliberately copied other vehicles, and that’s true with this model to a degree. One of the cars Esqueleto built back in the day was blue with white stripes and obviously looked like a Shelby Daytona. The other was red and resembled Ferraris from the early 1960s, like a 250 GT or GTO. All these are super-expensive cars, so you’d understand why they’d be plagiarized.
The NB Miata’s whole front end has been changed. It’s got new fenders that have an obvious lip, followed by a longer bumper with that Ferrari-like grille opening at the bottom. The headlights are streamlined with the flow of the bodywork, and Esqueleto thankfully provides matching the matching Lexan covers. It’s obvious that the hood has also been changed to accommodate those tall humps in the wheel arches.
There are other mods that are more specific to this particular build. The owner opted for Zoom Engineering taillights, which are quite common on Miatas, as we as a metal interior with retro knobs and dials.
Thanks for the article. I love it.
It’s my first project car and I really like how it came out. I really appreciate the kind words from you review.