Welcome to the most anticipated miniature car project nobody knew was coming: the Pocket Bunny R34.
A few months back, Kei Miura wowed us all at Tokyo Auto Salon by creating the most unexpected mini-project out there. Built in collaboration with Hardcore Japan, he took a Suzuki Twin – an unassuming two-door, two-seat kei car from the early 2000s that so many had forgotten – and gave it a new life as the base of the Pocket Bunny R32.
The conversion kit that transforms the rounded, almost bubble-car look of the base car is quite intricate. A small metal subframe attaches to the back of the car as the support for the new rear section, and FRP replaces every single body panel except the doors and the roof. New headlights and taillights pull the whole mini R32 Skyline look together.
We knew a Pocket Bunny R34 was in the works as Miura-san sent me a 3D render of what he was thinking of doing back in January. His idea was to debut the car at the Red Bull Tokyo Drift event as a functional drift machine.
To accomplish this, Miura and his team swapped Suzuki’s original 44hp naturally aspirated K6A engine with a built Nissan SR20 making 400hp. Backing it up is a Nissan 5-speed manual gearbox and an R230 rear end. The result is surely one of the smallest drift cars ever created.
I laid eyes on the completed car at Tokyo Drift’s set-up day, where Miura and his team were shaking down the car with driver Arisa Mizuhara on the indoor track that Red Bull created inside a massive logistics facility.
Sitting next to the Pocket Bunny R32, the R34 version looks like a meaner, more aggressive brother – a life-sized ChoroQ that’s ready to race! With the SR20 longitudinally mounted up front, there’s a large intercooler visible through the bumper that adds even more realism to the conversion. The almost cute Work Meister wheels are a nice touch, as is the huge GT wing at the back, which will need to be toned down for the kit’s production version.
The interior is as bare bones as it gets. Arisa has her bucket seat in there, but there’s no dashboard; the support bar mounts a small tachometer and a makeshift switch panel.
It’s been almost 20 years since I first shot Kei Miura’s 6666 Customs S13 and kanjo EF Civic in Kyoto, and I can’t believe he’s still pumping out unique builds that take the world by storm. He really is a true visionary. With this current craze of miniature cars, we have to wonder what could be next? An R33? R35? Let us know in the comments what you’d like to see!
