The Mitsuoka Rock Star is a Corvette-inspired MX-5

Have you heard of Mitsuoka? If not, you’ve almost certainly seen one of its cars, likely the Orochi or the Silvia-based Le-Seyde.

Neither are cars we think we’d like to own, though the Le-Seyde is at least built on a Nissan S Chassis.

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But now Mitsuoka has piqued our interest with the Mitsuoka Rock Star, an MX-5-based, C2 Corvette-inspired roadster.

The Rock Star is a special model which the oddball brand says is to celebrate its 50th anniversary. To that end, Mitsuoka is only building 50 of them.

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A promotional video features on the Mitsuoka Japanese website, though it doesn’t reveal much – or make much sense.

Also, it seems like it’s got enough flashing to cause a seizure. Really, that’s a warning.

The Rock Star doesn’t stray too far from Mitsuoka’s tradition of making new cars look old and odd, though this seems less divisive than what’s been done in the past, even if the inspiration from Chevrolet is almost too close.

It also doesn’t stray far from what an MX-5 is. Inside it looks almost the same, plus power remains almost the same – 97kW and 152Nm from the 1.5-litre inline four.

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The pricing is where things get tricky. The ‘base’ model Rock Star S costs 4,688,200 yen, or a directly-converted $58,950. Jump to the top-spec automatic car, and it’s a $65,165 (5,183,600 yen) ask. Even with Australia’s sometimes higher car prices, an MX-5 GT with 1.5-litre and auto ‘box costs $41,661.

Then again, an MX-5 doesn’t look like a Corvette.