Hurtan Grand Albaycin Is How a Mazda MX-5 RF Would Have Looked in the 60s

Two seats, rear-wheel drive, a stick shift, and an easy-to-use drop-top were the only things that mattered for a lightweight British or Italian roadster to make it big back in the 1960s.

Those elements are also what made the Mazda MX-5 the most popular open-top car ever since it essentially is a modern iteration of those previously mentioned roadsters.

Hurtan, in case you haven’t heard of them before, are a family-owned Spanish operation that was first established back in 1992. Its sole goal is the ressurection of 1950s and 1960s car design while using modern technology and platforms.

Not all Hurtan cars are to everyone’s taste, but nobody can disagree with the fact that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the small Spanish carmaker needs to be applauded for trying to keep the art of coachbuilding alive.

Despite not engaging in large scale manufacturing, Hurtan takes great pride in its work and even tests pre-production prototypes of its future models like all the big dogs of the industry.

Such a camouflaged model was recently spotted testing on public roads in Spain, and according to our intel, it is going to be a joy to drive because this hodge-podge of retro design and modern mechanics is pretty much a coachbuilt Mazda MX-5 RF in different clothing.

You can spot the remaining bits from the Mazda body around the doors and the side windows, with the rest being made to look like it came straight from the late 50s and early 60s European school of design.

The mix may not look entirely digestible for some, especially when it comes to the bug-eye front end, but the car definitely makes up with the rear, which seems to have been inspired by cars like the Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada or Ferrari’s racing cars of the 1960s.

Underneath all that hand-built body sits the current ND generation of the Mazda MX-5 RF, although we’re not entirely sure if the resulting car will also feature the removable targa top like the donor car.

Much longer and slightly wider than an MX-5, but preserving its wheelbase, the model should remain a joy to drive, so don’t think of it as just a car you rent for people to get married and take photos in.

What we do know for sure is it will be officially unveiled on January 22 and will carry the name of Hurtan Grand Albaycin as the top fo the range model of Hurtan’s lineup of resto-mods.

Powered either by a 1.5-liter four-cylinder with 131 horsepower or a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with 184 horsepower, the Grand Albaycin should have similar performance figures as a standard MX-5 RF.

The extra weight of the custom body parts should be negligible, especially if the retractable hard-top is left out of the mix. Production is set to start immediately after launch, so by summer, you could drive around in one of the funkiest-looking retro cars this side of a Plymouth Prowler.

We don’t have a pricing range yet, but even though we are talking about a boutique carmaker, you shouldn't expect Hurtan to charge millions for its resto-mod creations.

That said, the Grand Albaycin is set to be a limited edition halo model for Hurtan, so it might go for quite a bit more than a standard MX-5 RF, that’s for sure.