Unless you’re a hardcore fan of Japanese sports cars or an avid Gran Turismo player, you might not be familiar with the Tommykaira ZZ. Originally launched in 1996, the first-gen model was a tiny roadster with a Nissan-sourced 2.0-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine mounted behind the driver, turning the rear wheels. In essence, it was rather like a Japanese take on the Lotus Elise. A second-generation model, the Tommykaira ZZ-EV, arrived and went on sale in 2014, dropping the combustion engine in favor of a single electric motor.
Now, the Tommykaira ZZ is getting a new lease on life for a different company. Designer Ryuhei Ishimaru came up with the new look as part of a partnership with the firm Number Nine Works to create what they call the Sweep 9. According to the announcement, “For Ishimaru, this project stands as a definitive record of a ten-year journey – a validation of the path he has walked as a designer.”
The Revised Tommykaira ZZ
Number 9 Works Tommykaira ZZNumber 9 Works
Ishimaru’s redesigned Tommykaira ZZ emphasizes the lower body to make the machine appear planted on the road. Overall, the new exterior is 2.36 inches longer than before, but the vehicle weighs only 2,028 pounds.
The styling includes a skinny recessed strip of LED headlights, and the outer corners feature a pair of stacked circular lamps. Rather than a full hood, this EV needs only a fairly small opening front panel. The Sweep 9 has wide, smoothly sculpted rear fenders with inlets in the lower portion. There are no side windows, but a bikini-style roof made of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic fabric covers the occupants, with exposed roll hoops behind each seat.
Number Nine Works didn’t release any photos of the interior, but looking through the windows, it appears to be a spartan place. Each occupant sits in a heavily bolstered seat, and there’s a simple, low-slung dashboard. The second-gen ZZ’s original cockpit was also simple, with just a three-spoke steering wheel and a square digital instrument display.
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The rear-mounted electric motor makes 302 horsepower and 306 pound-feet of torque. It’s enough to propel the car to 62 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds and hit a top speed of 112 mph. The battery capacity is only 18 kilowatt-hours, allowing a range of just 75 miles. The new model also adopts aluminum monoblock six-pot brake calipers, which should be plenty for stopping such a lightweight roadster.
At the moment, the Sweep 9 is a one-off build, but it is fully registered with a license plate for road use in Japan. In this announcement, the company makes no mention of putting the vehicle into wider production.
Understanding Where Tommykaira Fits
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Tommykaira, which originally launched the ZZ, started in 1986 with founders Yoshikazu Tomita and Kikuo Kaira combining their last names for the business moniker. It started modifying Mercedes-Benz vehicles but transitioned to focusing on Japanese models by the late 1980s, including vehicles from Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, and Suzuki.
The ZZ was the company’s effort to create an in-house-built model, and reports put total production at between 200 and 220 examples. The later ZZ-EV was even rarer, with an alleged 99 examples built from 2014 to 2021. There was also a one-off ZZ-II with supercar aesthetics and a Nissan-sourced twin-turbocharged 2.6-liter inline-six.
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CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
Number 9 Works Tommykaira ZZNumber 9 Works
Boutique sports cars are fascinating because of their obscurity. A company works to design and engineer a road-ready machine, only to build a few of them – or just one in this case. Also, aesthetics are subjective, but we find the very 2000s appearance of the original Tommykaira ZZ-EV to be attractive to our nostalgic eyes, as opposed to the more modern look of the Sweep 9.
Source: Number 9 Works
