Ah, Pininfarina, the Italian coachbuilder and designer associated with so many great cars… Ferraris aplenty, including the 250 GT Lusso, 288 GTO, F40, F12, P4/5, various lovely Peugeot coupes, the Maserati GranTurismo, Mitsubishi’s Colt CZC, the iconic Alfa Duetto…
Whoa, wait up now, what was that next to last one again? Yes, the Mitsubishi Colt CZC was a joint development between Mitsubishi and Pininfarina. The Italian outfit’s then head of design Ken Okuyama had played a part in quite a few classics including Porsche’s 996 911 and Ferrari's Enzo, which believe it or not is now 22 years old.
Coming back to Shed reality, the Colt Coupe Cabriolet was revealed at the Geneva show of 2005 as a snazzy concept intended to remind us once more of the unforgettable Colt 600 Convertible that we all remembered so clearly from the Tokyo show of 1962. Not for the first time though, something got lost in translation between concept and production. In this case the something was the need to design a retractable hardtop that would both look good and, well, work, this minor detail not having been incorporated into the show concept.
Mitsubishi did succeed in making the roof work but you’ll have your own view on how well they did with the looking good part. It’s a distant memory for Shed, but for him the back view of the CZC with those eyebrowish roll-hoop wotsits reminds him of a smaller version of Mrs Shed being taken by surprise from the rear. Mitsubishi reckoned it didn’t need real rollover hoops because the A-pillars and doors were strong enough to protect you in a spill.
Anyway, with the roof done a production line was set up at Mitsubishi’s plant in Holland to stamp out the bodyshells. These were then sent to Turin for Pininfarina to do the final buildup. We don’t know where Pininfarina got the CZC’s exterior plastics from, but we do know that the colour of the orange cars’ plastics in particular didn’t degrade at quite the same speed as the painted metal panels. Our 79,000-mile example is actually pretty good for that. Some of the orange ones we’ve seen look like an explosion in a Tropicana factory.
Inside, you were faced with the kind of plastics more normally used to create toys for Christmas crackers. For some reason nobody in Mitsubishi HQ pointed out to the designer that you didn’t actually need two air vents on either side of the dash, one to service your face and another one to clear the side window, because swivelling vents had been around for donkeys’ years by then. Maybe it was a cost-saving thing.
Talking of which, our shed is not the turbocharged 1.5 CZT which with 147hp and 155lb ft scorched its way through the 0-60 in 8.1 seconds en route to a possibly slightly scary top speed of 126mph. Instead our one has the 107hp and 107lb ft for a gentle 10.2sec 0-60 time and a far less frightening top whack of 114mph. Sensible performance for sensible people.
By way of compensation for the lack of go, our Shed is the CZC3, the most luxurious of the non-turbo CZCs with full moo seating (the CZT only had partial). And what moo it is. Well, the colour of it anyway. Put Donald Trump in this car and you’d have a job finding him again. Realistically, though, you would struggle to bargepole that much pancaked flesh into a CZC because, although it was billed as a four-seater, at least two of the creatures you were hoping to seat would have to be animals, and small ones at that, like shrews or possibly gerbils.
You can imagine the aghast reaction from Mum and the two little ‘uns back in the day when Dad tried to put a positive spin on the CZC he’d just been given by a cruel fleet manager. Nor would they have been impressed by the sub-Ka-sized boot space of 190 litres when the roof was folded away, a process that was supposed to take 20 seconds and which was initiated (Shed thinks) by the rear window switches.
The handling was actually not bad as long as you kept the roof in place. Unfortunately you were then stuck with the ugliness. It was quite cute with the lid down. The gearshift was slick and the structural build quality that was favourably commented on back in the mid-2000s seems to have passed the test of time on this 2009 example. A clean MOT pass has just been secured, and although you can’t view any pre-2021 documentation online because the car was living in Northern Ireland at the time, there’s nothing in the certificates or the condition that you can see to give any cause for concern.
Hopefully you’ll have realised by now that we’re having a bit of fun this week. The price for this one is £1,600, which is higher than some and lower than others. Running costs should be low because very little goes wrong with them – although the usual roof caveats apply – and insurance is cheap. If you do buy it, make sure there are no ex-Presidents inside before you hand over the dosh.
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