how many editions of the 3.5/3.75 have Recaro Seats ?
Limited Recaro edition, Jota cars, erm… I think that might be it in the UK.
There were originally supposed to be 20 mk3.75 JOTA’s but since they only ever sold 2, the remaining 18 cars were made into “Recaro Editions”. There are 600 mk4’s with Recaros, you can still get one if you’re quick. (The seats are completely different to the JOTA/Recaro Edition though) (All UK cars)
Jesus I never knew they only managed to get 2 out of the door!
Sold? yes, but that doesn’t include the 2 pre-production prototypes that were used for the reviews and publicity photo’s. That makes 4 “out the door”, however I’ve heard from other sources that it is normal for pre-production cars to be dismantled/destroyed rather than sell on to the public. (anyone know why?)
As I understand it from a friend who worked at another manufacturer there are,not surprisingly, a lot of costs which are set against a prototype or similar so the cost or value of that car is very high. If the manufacturer sold the car at the price it would be competitive against a normal version of the car it would show a massive loss for the company and could be seen as the company trying to avoid taxes by in the inland revenue so the vehicles are destroyed so as not to create that liability.
I know I am digging up a post from 2 months ago…
But having seen Flak_Monkey’s signature about the Jota again I decided to have a nose about the three cars known about that Jota had
VN60LHC - the orange one that was displayed prior to the full kits confirmation - still alive, not taxed or tested though since 2015…
VN62YWB - the white one - is taxed and tested until 2017…
VN62YWC - the grey one - just recently out of tax, but has an MOT.
Clearly these cars were never crushed (possibly because it never got type approval and the changes were only with Mazda’s blessing). In many cases the type approval process sends them to the crusher anyway (will always remember seeing the photos of the Alfa 4C prototypes online waiting to be scrapped).
Flak Monkey - surely these are a pain to insure because they are simply modified production cars? or do insurers have an allocation for the Jota?
They were modified production cars, the approval was about Mazda warranty not as far as I know about type approval, so there is no requirement to scrap.