This is an exceedingly rare 1988 Italdesign Aztec, a real car that was actually produced for customers mostly based in Japan. Though final production numbers aren’t confirmed, it’s safe to say very few were ever made. Although it looks like a show car that was produced in concept form only and never shown again, this wild creation by Italdesign was actually manufactured, with myriad whiz-bang gadgetry and a turbocharged Audi engine somewhere underneath that bodywork. Find it here on eBay with a Buy-It-Now of $390,000.
When I was a young’in, I had all sorts of coffee table books at home that provided rich, colorful displays of exotic and show cars. One book in particular focused on styling firms like Italdesign, Koenigg, Brabus, and others who decided to take the top sports and luxury GT cars of the day and give them wild body kits, wide BBS wheels, Recaro seats, and gullwing doors. At first, I thought there was a Fiero or something else mass-produced hiding under this wild body kit, but no: Italdesign built this as a unique model with plans to originally stuff an Audi V8 inside before production delays forced them to go with 5-cylinder turbocharged powerplant.
And if you’ve ever heard an Audi 5-cylinder turbocharged under full chat, it’s a glorious noise. I can only imagine the reactions from the crowd of driving this car with some level of vigor and having everyone hear you before you pull in – with the exclamation point being the car itself. The 5-cylinder makes a glorious noise and is believed to make around 250 horsepower in turbocharged form; a naturally-aspirated version produced 200. The seller doesn’t tell us much about the mechanical condition or health, just confirming that those horses are routed down to an all-wheel drive system.
Technology was a highlight of the Aztec, with two separate passenger pods and an expectation that driver and passenger would communicate electronically across the divider. Though no details are provided on how to do this, I would be shocked if these features still worked. After all, car phones from the 1990s were all shut down and no longer supported in the not-too-distant path, so it seems unlikely any communications devices still function. Other nifty features of the Aztec include a fire extinguisher, a hydraulic jack, a flashlight and headlights that look like they were lifted straight from a Lotus Capri. A wild creation that rarely comes up for sale, and I’m not sure how you’d put a price on it.
I feel a “Speed Racer meets Total Recall” is the vibe going on here.
So,,,you don’t even sit next to the passenger and communicate via electronics? Welcome to the future, folks,,,,
About 24 too many
That’s one fancy driver’s ed car.
Perfect for a hot date that talks too much.
Buy this for 390K and you’ll be glad your wife is sitting over there.
Never saw one…cool, very interesting. I bet you could garage hack a Fiero into something similar. All you need are a few friends, some tools and a couple kegs of beer!
Reminds me of a comment a real estate agent said after viewing an interesting property
“That’s an unfortunate use of good materials”
Killer car!!! And i think that is a fair deal. Where would this be street legal?
Never thought I would see something with the name Aztec on it that was actually uglier than a Pontiac Aztec … 1 of 25 ? I think they built 25 too many.
Pontiac Aztek looks like a perfectly normal car. What could be uglier than Tesla Cybertruck?
Two Testla Cybertrucks
Now this is something REALLY different. Gotta believe this would be a blast to drive. I’m wondering where the shifter is located! And how you get to the rear wheels! I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the communication system still worked. It wouldn’t be like early car phones. It would be self-contained.
I was just thinking about inline fives this morning, trying to recall who all manufactured one. Audi’s was the first to come to mind, but I know the General made one for the S10/Canyon lines, and I believe Volvo made/makes one also. The “perfect” number of cylinders for a 4-stroke engine, but better than an I6?
We had an inline 5 in our VW Bug Convertible. It was a manual, and a blast to drive. Felt more powerful than it probably was.
Perfect car for back to the future and War of the Rose’s. I would give up a few hours of my time to drive one.
To each their own. I’ve heard of being beat with the ugly stick but this fell out of the tree and hit every branch on the way down.
I’ve seen pix of this before and I seriously love it..and the fact that people make cars like this!! Seriously..this is not some boring looking product that we can’t even tell what make it is.I only have one question..why the hell would you sell this on EBay..doesnt this belong in a high end auction???
Well, if you want something different, here you go. What is with all that stuff on the side of the vehicle?
ItalDesign wasn’t a tuner/bodykit/modder firm like Koenig, Brabus, et al. It was (and still is) the design/engineering consultancy of legendary automotive/industrial designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, which he founded in 1968 after stints at Fiat, Bertone and Ghia.
The Aztec started out as a show-car prototype, part of a trio of similarly-styled concepts along with a closed-coupe variant called the Aspid and, bizarrely, a minivan called the Asgard, all developed and shown in celebration of ItalDesign’s 20th anniversary.
ItalDesign itself didn’t produce the limited run of Aztecs in-house, though they did fully develop the car as a running, driving prototype, as they were wont to do with many of their concepts at the time, to promote the engineering side of their consultancy. Rather, another firm bought the rights to the prototype, seeing some potential to sell them for outrageous money in Japan’s boom economy, and undertook limited production independently.
Also found this archived page with more photos and information about these limited-production Aztecs:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130211202134/http://www.audistory.24max.de/old1/html/ecaztec.htm
Or Perhaps,
The pilot of this craft had the option to use either side, depending on his or her GPS location (Right or Left hand drive Countries)…🛠🤔
Or Perhaps, 🤔
The pilot of this craft had the option to use either cab, depending on his or her GPS location (Right or Left Hand Drive Countries)…In addition, who says conversation is necessary while navigating curvy mountain passages…”Continue to Navigate not Duplicate”
What we have here…is a…failure to communicate.
Looks like everyone gets a steering wheel. This “car makes no sense.
This one wasn’t built for Japan as it is LHD.
this car is so bizarre and unseen that its pictures deserved a 2nd closer look from the big screen of a laptop and not only from small screen of a cell phone !
scrolling down the seller’s ads on ebay, he also has another incredible small production/prototype car for sale, a 1995 De Tomaso Guarà spider barchetta, very limited production sports car, v8 bmw powered.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/276813161749
After looking at that other prototype, the seller definitely has a specific taste in cars.
That engine looks right out of a junk yard!
Really? I don’t see it. It looks like an engine in a 37 year old car.