Recently, we’ve discovered just how fascinating and strange Japan’s kei car market is. They’ve invented everything from little vans to tiny pickups and even sportscars. However, we never knew they made Ferraris.
Today, we discovered a kei car impersonator of the Ferrari F40, one of the most iconic supercars from the past. It’s called the Yamaha Ami, and it’s obviously a kei car since the brochure say it’s got a 660 cc engine.
Ami appears to come in two power flavors either a 12-valve DOHC version of the engine with 55 horsepower at 7,500 rpm or a less gutsy version with only 42 hp from a 6-valve SOHC engine. This would indicate it’s got a three-cylinder engine, which is placed in the front and delivers its power to 11-inch wheels at the front, unlike the actual Ferrari F40, which as you know is mid-engined and rear-wheel drive.
Ami sounds like a very girly name for a car, but the designers took it quite seriously, and gave it a sporty two-seater layout and a big wing. It comes in red or black with white wheels and the smallest quad exhausts we’ve ever seen this side of a toy (check the magazine scan to see it!).
The car is reportedly based on the Daihatsu Opti, with a body made from plastic and a body strengthened by a roll cage.
Ami appears to come in two power flavors either a 12-valve DOHC version of the engine with 55 horsepower at 7,500 rpm or a less gutsy version with only 42 hp from a 6-valve SOHC engine. This would indicate it’s got a three-cylinder engine, which is placed in the front and delivers its power to 11-inch wheels at the front, unlike the actual Ferrari F40, which as you know is mid-engined and rear-wheel drive.
Ami sounds like a very girly name for a car, but the designers took it quite seriously, and gave it a sporty two-seater layout and a big wing. It comes in red or black with white wheels and the smallest quad exhausts we’ve ever seen this side of a toy (check the magazine scan to see it!).
The car is reportedly based on the Daihatsu Opti, with a body made from plastic and a body strengthened by a roll cage.