QOTD: What's Your All-star Marque Mash-up?
On Friday, Matt Posky brought us the news that Mazda and Toyota are shacking up, striking a deal to construct a joint-venture manufacturing facility plus a sharing of EV tech. Mazda’s no stranger to cooperating with other car companies, from churning out sister vehicles to Ford in the 90s and lending the MX-5 platform to Fiat just last year.
These partnerships make sense, given the scale and complexity of auto manufacturing. Tossing aside geography, finance, and politics for a moment, let us ask you this: what two companies would you like to see collaborate with the goal of making something truly fantastic?
The partnership of Toyota and BMW to build a two-door, rear-drive sports car has been in the works since the Dawn of Time. With the Z4 being unceremoniously dumped in 2016 and Toyota looking for a worthy Supra successor, the car – should it ever come to fruition, maybe we’ll see something at the LA show this sall – will plug a couple of coupe-shaped holes in each manufacturer’s lineup. More high-powered rear-drive coupes in showrooms is never a bad thing.
I think it’d be stupendous if Nissan got together with VW, specifically Bugatti, to develop the next GT-R. The current 565 hp Godzilla is a giant-slayer, keeping up with supercars costing twice as much. Imagine combining the team who insists on handcrafting their 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 in a hermetically-sealed room with the boffins that lashed four turbochargers to a W16 engine. It’ll never happen, but it boggles the mind what could result.
Never mind impracticalities – what collaboration would rank high on your list? Don’t limit your imagination to current marques either; feel free to imagine collaborations of past nameplates, too. A Pontiac Silverado, complete with twin-kidney grilles and lower bodyside cladding, perhaps? Whoa. Hang on. I’m having trouble shifting that image…
[Image: lisafx/ Bigstock]
Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
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Not really a manufacturer but man I'd really love to do a Factory Five Type 65 build with FRPP's new 5.2 liter CPC V8. It puts out a nice 580 horsepower at the crank with the CJ intake. Swap that for a IR intake from Borla and either go speed density or build a Lexan air box around the individual runners allowing the engine to draw from a single mass air meter will still exposing all those sweet throttle blades in action. Factory Five also has a bunch of aero bits that make the coupe even sexier.
Subaru buying Saab and marketing it as a premium brand. After all they already built the 9-2X. A 9-3 with a boxer turbo and AWD would have been neat.