Time Traveler – Ken Okuyama 7 (KO7)
Rolex, Breitling, Panerai, IWC and Chopard have all had a go over the years, and very nice most of them have been too. But when Steve McQueen pulled on his Heuer Monaco wristwatch and jumped into a Porsche 917 to make Ac Mans, a union was forged that no marketing department could ever have dreamt of.
That, ol course, was more or less an accident. Almost 40 years later, big name brand tie-ups are done with military precision and usually cost millions.
Even so, every so often something slips under the radar then pops up to surprise us all. lake the cheeky little number you see here, the КО?: never mind a watch inspired by a car or Famous race, this is a car that was inspired by a watch – TAG Heuers Grand Garrera.
Well, kind ol. Dreamt up by former Pininfarina design director Ken Okuyama – the man behind the Ferrari Enzo, Maserari Quattroporte and Maserati Birdcage concept. Among other modern classics – the KO7 is a tiny roadster, and the first fully realised car Okuyama has produced since he left Pininfarina in 2006 to go it alone.
Turns out that Okuyama is setting himself up as a latter-day carrozzeria, with plans to build limited numbers of cars exclusively designed by his team or commissioned by wealthy individuals. Remember, the carrozzeria – design houses — operated as one of the car industry’s most lucrative sidelines back in the Ionics, Fifties and Sixties, and now, with the emergence of a new global super-elite, the concept is making a come-back. Indeed, it was Okuyama who presided over the design of former Top Gear cover star, the 2006 Ferrari P4/5, a one-off created for US entrepreneur James Glickcenhaus.
“Our plan is to come to the Geneva show every year with something different, something we can build about 100 units of,” Okuyama confirms. “It’s about bespoke design. The idea of hand-crafting something truly special is one that’s particularly powerful in the UK, Japan and Italy.”
And Switzerland, presumably. Okuyama says he’d been kicking the idea for a lightweight two-seater roadster around for years, but it was only when he showed his sketches to some contacts in Japan that the TAG Heuer connection was made.
“I’ve always been an avid watch collector,” he says, on the phone from LA, “and a big Steve McQueen fan. I’ve always liked the idea of creating a car whose style and function mimicked the complex movement of a mechanical chronograph. When these friends of mine saw my sketches, they told me to get in touch with Jean-Ghristophe Babin.”
Babin, TAG Heuer’s car-worshipping and Ferrari 456-owning GEO, loved what he saw. He also sensed an opportunity to commemorate one of the company’s earliest patents, when Heuer became the first company to install a chronograph in the dashboard of an engine-powered vehicle’ with the ‘Time of Trip’, way back in 1911.
Which is how the latest Grand Garrera Calibre 36 came to be nestled in the otherwise impressively sparse dash of the KO7. “I like the idea of attaching the watch to the car, then removing it and reattaching it to the driver. It creates a real connection,” says Okuyama.
Modern marketing ’synergies’ aside, the KO7 is every bit as good as you’d expect a shrunken roadster designed by a man with Okuyama’s CV to be. There are nods to the Honda S2000 in there, and even the Fiat X1/9 (“I hadn’t thought of that, but I used to own one of those, and you’re right!” he laughs). But most of all, it channels the spirit of a certain legendary British engineer.
“I’m a Lotus Super Seven freak,” Okuyama confirms, “and I wanted to create something minimal but very strong. Simplicity was a big driving force. That was a philosophy Colin Chapman was committed to, and its something that’s been missing in the car business lately.”
The KO7s chassis is made of extruded aluminium and is similar in concept and execution to the Lotus Elise. Carbon fibre is also used extensively. The doors arc upwards at a 40° angle, and as much of the car as possible has been left unpaintcd to minimise weight. Despite its exotic appearance, Okuyama insists the KO7 is production-ready. “Japan is the toughest market to homologate a car for, but we’ve done it. We can sell the KO7 pretty much everywhere.”
He’s coy about revealing who his big-name engineering partners in the project are, but as Toyota already supplies Lotus with 1.8-litre and 2.0-litre power units, it’s hardly a leap into the unknown to predict something similar here. Power output is apparently 240bhp, and as the KO7 only weighs 750kg, performance should be somewhere between Ariel Atom absurd and Lotus Elise exhilarating. With only 99 slated for production, you’re looking at a genuine collectors item.
Meanwhile, Okuyama has intriguing plans for his business. He already designs spectacles and furniture, and further collaborations with TAG Heuer are already underway. But he’s a car guy at heart and plans to unveil a “super sports car based on a Le Mans chassis” at next years Geneva show. Beyond that, who knows. Watch, er, this space…
Source: TopGear