In the mid-’90s Suzuki really had fun in mind, with cars like the X-90, second-generation Swift, and Vitara putting smiles on drivers’ faces. All that was missing was a sports car.
In the middle of the 1990s, Suzuki had quite the line-up of fun, innovative, and unusual products.
The Suzuki X-90 could potentially lay claim to being the first coupe-SUV, taking Vitara mechanicals and pairing them with a truncated two-door coupe body with a targa roof up top and a boot, instead of a tailgate out back.
For enthusiasts, the Swift GTI put pint-sized hot-handling within reach of the masses. It may not have set 0–100km/h records, but it created frenzied fans of its own.
Suzuki even had a mid-engined gullwing coupe, and a front-engined rear-drive roadster in the Cara (a version of the Autozam AZ-1) and Cappuccino – though both were designed to fit Japanese kei car restrictions.
Being size- and performance-limited, each offered diminutive proportions and matching scaled-down performance. You might spot them on Aussie roads, but as grey market imports rather than official models.
Oh, and of course, Suzuki also had a motorcycle division, which meant it had the basics of getting big power from miniscule engines sorted, and the company knew that wind in the hair and bugs in the teeth represented fun at its least filtered.
What Suzuki didn’t have, however, was a flagship product with major export potential. That would change by the end of the following decade, with the sensible and staid Kizashi mid-size sedan and an array of more mainstream SUVs, but before sense prevailed, Suzuki had another idea in mind.
At the 1997 Frankfurt motor show, Suzuki whipped the covers off a car that had the potential to shake the Mazda MX-5 into sheepish submission.
The Suzuki C2 sounds like the stuff of dreams: V8, turbo, rear-wheel drive, and tiny kerb weight. A sure-fire success for dedicated enthusiasts everywhere.
While it looks small in images, it’s hard to convey how petite this car actually is, without other cars as a reference point. At just 3650mm nose-to-tail, the C2 was 290mm shorter than the then-new NB-generation MX-5, but a gargantuan 355mm longer than a Cappuccino.
Under the bonnet lived an absolute masterpiece. At 1.6 litres, the C2’s engine was the same capacity as what you might find in a Vitara, but rather than a straight engine swap, Suzuki went back to the drawing board with an all-new engine.
The tiny V8 engine is heart-starting enough on its own, and would have held the title of the world’s smallest mass-produced V8. To give it a helping hand (as if being a V8 wasn’t enough), Suzuki also turbocharged the engine.
The results were impressive for 1997. Rated at 187kW at 7000rpm and 284Nm at 4000rpm, the tiny turbo V8 outgunned a stock MX-5 by 80kW and 119Nm, or to give it a more modern spin, a 1.6-litre three-pot GR Yaris generates 200kW and 370Nm, arriving some 23 years later.
For a local spin, a 5.0-litre V8 Commodore SS looks almost feeble with 179kW, but walks all over the C2 for torque with 400Nm up its sleeve.
Like a love letter to driving fans, the C2 promised it all, almost. From its front engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, to its barely conceivable 848kg kerb weight and resulting 219kW per tonne power-to-weight ratio.
The one holdback stopping universal acclaim may have been the concept’s transmission. Data from the original release is thin on the ground now, but both a six-speed manual and five-speed auto are described. While the former is fine, the latter seems problematic.
Given the compact size and low weight requirements for a car like this, a traditional torque converter auto seems unlikely. With advanced dual-clutch autos still some way off, the best bet for the C2 was an AMT, or automatic single-clutch transmission, almost entirely devoid of enthusiast appeal.
The interior is a masterclass in minimalism, and the fetching navy blue and gunmetal themes tie in surprisingly well with the crisp white exterior. Nautical, without bordering on boat-like.
The exterior is equally as simple, although the addition of bold blue wheel arch extensions looks more like something you’d find on a small SUV rather than a tiny high-powered roadster.
The roof mechanism borrowed inspiration from the smaller Cappuccino, with a folding hard roof able to be deployed as a fully enclosed coupe, a targa top, or folded away as a roadster.
While Suzuki’s little drop-top sports car had all the sure-fire elements to be a runaway success (and it’s hard not to see that tiny V8 becoming the compact engine swap of choice for the tuner community), this was an undeniably complex car.
Although little is known about what prevented the C2 project from moving forward, it’s hard not to imagine Suzuki’s tiny two-door being a much more expensive – and therefore low-volume – proposition than a humble MX-5, which no doubt tempered Suzuki’s enthusiasm somewhat.
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