Garage Italian Customs is known for building some outlandish cars, they were the force behind the Star Wars themed Fiat 500e that we shared last year and many other extreme custom builds. Their latest project car, the new Mazda MX-5, is a theme car as well, but a little different. According to the official release this car was inspired by the cult classic film 'Endless Summer.' But for me I am just not seeing it.
How they interpreted Endless Summer to mean full Canadian Tuxedo interior, is a bit lost on me, and it seems to clash with the clean modern lines of the new MX-5. But one thing is certain it is built to an incredible standard.
They go on in the official release to talk about "the art of Takumi" and lots of inspirational sounding verbiage, but looking at all that denim just made me think of the old Levi's edition Gremlin. It's like that old picture of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears, sure they look good, just not in that much denim.
Moving on to the exterior things get a whole lot better, the paint and bodywork are stunning, and the colors meant to invoke the sunset, also happen to look like Gulf Racing colors, and you can never go wrong with Gulf Racing livery. The most impressive part is that the car is painted, not wrapped, the gradient fade between colors was done by hand to create a seamless transition from blue to orange.
Check out the official release below for more detail and let me know if you like the denim or not.
Official Release: MX-5 LEVANTO: Mazda AND Garage Italia Customs bring the beach to Milan
Milan, June 23, 2016. Mazda has chosen Garage Italian Customs, to create a "single piece" of its MX5 fourth generation iconic spider .
Not a casual encounter this one between the Japanese company and the creative hub of Lapo Elkann: Mazda infact is the Japanese company that more than others has adopted the Japanese tradition for fine craftsmanship and the cult of the craftsmanship (the 'art of Takumi) brought to its maximum level.
Natural complement of Takumi could only be evidently the "Maestros" of Garage Italian Customs, specialists with unique skills and absolute exceptionality in customization of products already representing already the excellence in standard products realization.
The creative idea of this spectacular interpretation of the MX-5 comes from the creativity of Lapo Elkann and from the movie The "Endless Summer", the legendary 1966 Bruce Brown film considered a masterpiece of documentary film on the Surf.
The plot of the film tells the story of two American boys who embark on a trip between New Zealand, Australia, Africa and Tahiti and literally chasing the summer - which thus becomes endless - traveling around the globe, always searching for the perfect wave, introducing in each visited country the Surf as a real sport.
The title carries on a very nice concept and absolutely in line with those that are the values of Mazda MX5 and in particular: the taste of freedom, the pleasure of contact with nature and an irrepressible "desire for an endless summer".
And just as the two Brown movie’s protagonists are always in pursuit of the perfect wave, so the MX-5 owners chase instead the "perfect path".
The model realized is called MX-5 Levanto: the name is that of small country, called the pearl of the Ligurian coast, which is considered -- for the unique characteristics of the seabed of its crystal clear sea -- the Italian surfing birthplace.
The livery of the roadster has been created by developing the concept of 'endless summer” and revisited finding inspiration in Levanto, crossing the legendary aesthetic of the Californian beach boy with the sophisticated elegance typical of the Italian Riviera.
The body incorporates the colors of the long summer sunsets (an endless sunset!). With a bright orange tone that fades in indigo height of the waistline. The special coating has been produced with skilled craftsmanship by Garage Italia Customs able artisans that, carefully measuring out the amount of splash from the paint gun, managed to get a perfect fusion, without any kind of separation between the two colors, which fade into each other naturally. The interior holds the chromatic duality of the exterior with a full dashboard trim, door panels and in Japanese denim upholstery, combined with Alcantara nautical blue for the seats (a material that you can safely bathe, therefore perfectly in line with the concept of car) with orange contrast stitching: so young and practical as they are elegant and absolutely new materials in the Automotive field.
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