Speed Racer Mach Five

by Michael Satterfield

The Mach Five is the car driven by Speed Racer, Go Mifune, in the anime series of the same name (known as "Mach Go! Go! Go!" in Japan). The car was designed, built, and created by Pops Racer, Speed Racer's father. The car had all kinds of cool special tricks that Speed Racer uses throughout the series.

In the original 1967 series, the Mach Five is a white racing car with an "M" (for Mifune) written on its hood  "Mifune." The name, Mach Five, is a pun in two languages: the word for "five" in Japanese is "go". However, the "go" used for the car's name is a suffix attached to the names of ships, etc. Thus, the car is known in the Japanese version as simply the "Mach".

This replica a professional one-off build completed by New York Coach was Custom-built to replicate the computer-generated imagery car from the Speed Racer movie released in 2008 and was built for promotional use where it was displayed as part of the Barris Hollywood Star Car Collection on the East Coast. Sadly it doesn't have auto jacks, buzz saws, frogger mode, or a homing robot, like the car in the manga series, but it would still be pretty cool to run around town in.

The car is based on a  1977 Corvette chassis with a 350 CI V-8 engine and manual transmission, meaning it should be pretty easy to keep running from any GM parts supplier. The car is being offered at Mecum's Harrisburg Auction this coming August.

See more pictures and info HERE.