To petrolheads Masahiko Kondo is best known as a racing driver and team manager. However, long before his motorsports career he was a teen heartthrob with his debut single Sneaker Blues shooting to number one in 1980 when Matchy, as he was nicknamed, was only 17 years old. It was inevitable that a company would scoop him up as a spokesperson, and Nissan did just that when they launched the March hatchback in 1982. Now over four decades later, despite having raced Skyline GT-Rs, Porsches, and Dodge Vipers at Le Mans, Kondo has decided to buy a 56-horsepower first-gen March and restore it.
Though fairly basic in appearance, the K10 March was actually penned by legendary designer Giorgetto Giugiaro. It boasted a spacious cabin for its compact size, with excellent visibility and nimble handling. Its claim to fame was its incredible fuel economy, about 49 mpg, thanks to a drag coefficient of 0.39 and weight saving measures like a hollow crankshaft and aluminum block, both very rare for a economy car at the time.
March sales surprised everyone, including Nissan, which projected 10,000 units per month. It blew past that number in the first 10 days of release. Typical compacts were on a strict four-year generational cycle, but the March proved so popular that Nissan kept it around for 10 years. During that time, it introduced several limited editions and the Super Turbo hot hatch, which combined a turbocharger and supercharger to make 109 horses.
Though connections at Nissan Kondo was able to indulge in his love for cars. He campaigned a K10 March in the Fuji Freshman Race in 1984, and due to his celebrity status over 35,000 fans, an unusually high number, came to watch. He was also introduced to Nissan works driver Kazuyoshi Hoshino, who became his mentor.
Kondo climbed the racing ranks in F3 and JGTC. Nissan even built a Group 5 March for him to the delight of many fans. The K10 March became known as the Matchy March and the commercial’s tagline, “Super Idol”, was a play on Kondo’s status as an idol, a Japanese term for hugely popular celebrities.
In 1994 he got a seat in the ADA Engineering Porsche 962C at Le Mans, though the privately entered car didn’t classify (complete enough laps to rank). Kondo returned the following year with NISMO backing, driving the R33 GT-R LM. Along with Hideo Fukuyama and Shunji Kasuya, the team placed 10th overall and 5th in the GT1 class. Kondo would return to Le Mans five more times, with 8th overall in a Panoz LMP Roadster as his best finish.
In 1998 Kondo gave up his career in entertainment to focus on racing full time. He established Kondo Racing with Nissan backing to help nurture young drivers and create a JGTC team campaigning a GT500 Skyline GT-R. In 2003 Kondo retired from driving to focus on managing the team and slowly returned to singing and acting. Kondo racing is still active today racing and developing talent with Nissan Technical College, giving students a chance to intern on an actual SuperGT race team.
Now students will get a chance to restore Matchy’s March, a 1984 model. In a Best Car exclusive, an editor got to test drive the car and watch as students from Nissan’s Tochigi campus began work on the car. Cosmetically it’s mint, but the suspension needs a refresh, and they’ve already found a donor car with a manual transmission to replace the Kondo’s 3-speed automatic.
In an interview with Kondo last November at a SuperGT race, Kondo said that when he announced he had bought a new car, everyone thought it was something amazing. Turns out it was a 40-year-old hatchback. But we don’t blame Kondo at all. After all, it’s the car that put him on the path to a lifetime of doing things with cars most enthusiasts can only dream of, and you never forget your first love.
The video in question at the bottom is from Best Car, Not Best Motoring.
Corrected, thanks!
The March, non-Asian markets name [Nissan] Micra, was not only designed by [Giorgetto] Giugiaro – the documents / blueprints for its development were later passed to Naganori Ito since the K10’s design was also similar to Giugiaro’s other designs like Uno (Fiat) and Excel / Pony (Hyundai) especially Ford Festiva aka Kia Pride and Mazda 121 (despite not being a Giugiaro work of art) – but also (while both Micras / Marches until K13 were reputed for affordability, reliability and vice versa especially in Europe when the K11 was manufactured in Great Britain / UK) the K10 Micra / March in particular was not even seen as a big hit (hence not a market-focused car) in Canada when it (M / M) was sold by Nissan’s Canadian division until 1991 – replaced by a Mexican-made (but a little European-influenced) Nissan Sentra Classic (B12) – until the Micra namplate returned to the Great White North in 2015 and then it (Micra) was discontinued again in 2019 in favor of the Versa there. (Mainly because Canadians are also not in the mood for hatches as their American neighbors are, and also, the K10 March / Micra was also sold elsewhere in the world but never gained any success, compared to other cars similar in size to the M / M of Nissan such as Fiat’s Uno in South America, former Yugoslavia and Morocco, Renault R5 / 5 later Clio / Lutecia, Peugeot’s 205 and among others.)
The K10’s succeeding K11 model was also sold with a Peugeot-developed TUD(5) diesel engine (as [Nissan] Micra 1.5 D) but that was exclusive to the European market however, and likewise, it even foreshadowed Renault’s acquisition of Nissan in 1999 (at the same time the K11 was still in production) especially when both PSA (now Stellantis) and Renault had their autos fitted with the same powertrains – which are were also co-developed by the two Gallic carmakers – and the K11 for 2003 (until 2010) was replaced by the K12 (not educational term) Micra / March which is was derived from R5 later Clutecia (Clio + Lutecia due to the former being used by Honda’s Japanese dealership network) bones as a result.
For Masahiro Kondo, just as with fellow compatriot Keiichi Tsuchiya, I even think that it would have been a fun (but good) idea / thing for one Japanese car nut (especially when they’re also legends / veterans) to ditch their own country’s cars and carmakers in favor of campaigning for Europe’s Stellantis (successor to PSA Peugeot Citroen and Fiat SpA later Fiat Chrysler) and Renault Group (aka Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance) and the two non-Teuton European car companies’ vehicles not just like how current Toyota WRC driver Takamoto Katsuta did in his early career periods with him driving a Ford Fiesta (as Ford no longer exist in Japan while Stellantis still does business there but only in modest levels) but also its because we may realize that Tsuchiya (aka Drift King) previously drove a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N as given historical issues between Japan and its neighbors that still exists today, both Stellantis and Renault have models that captures the same slot as the Micra and siblings Juke and Note (like Peugeot’s 208 and 2008, Jeep’s Renegade and PSA-based Avenger, Citroen’s C3, its Aircross sibling and C4, Fiat’s 600 and Grande Panda and even Renault’s Clio / Lutecia and Captur) since half of Japan’s racing / motorsports legends (apart from Kondo and Tsuchiya) even operates driving and racing schools within (but only in) Japanese territory.
Plus since this article mentions Super GT formerly JGTC (All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship), then as given that the motorsports’ series is little heard outside Japan as well, and since majority of GT500 is represented much by the so-called big three of Japan’s automotive industry (Toyota, Honda and Nissan) therefore as GT300 even accepts non-Japanese (especially European despite the addition of German) carmakers in that classification, the idea of hosting / adding autos from Stellantis in Super GT’s GT300 category (apart from Ferrari which is also owned by Agnelli’s Exor) like Peugeot’s 408 coupe-crossover may not just take years to happen, but also to ensure its (former PSA / FCA) Super GT entry would mean that the 408 in GT300 may be shoehorned (fitted) well with Honda’s powertrains especially thanks to the 408’s exterior design. (A Ford GT that previously competed in GT300 was powered by a 3.5 liter V8 engine reengineered by Honda from Cosworth’s parts bin, but also, since Renault and Stellantis’s predecessors were known for unreliability means that powering the latter’s cars with Honda powertrains and have each of them race in former JGTC like 408 would have been fantastic.)
And in other words, Gran Turismo 7’s recent update have added newer cars and a 2021 model Honda CR-V was one of them, as with the Peugeot 205 and 308 (GTi) models were already added prior to that for ex. then it would have been great (and game-changing) for GT series’ developer Polyphony Digital (PD) to add other vehicles from Renault Group (except Nissan / Datsun and Mitsubishi), Stellantis and as well as the former Saab marque… (In addition, Nissan had recently confirmed how its already normal for the Micra’s manufacturer to keep itself feeling downhill especially in the wake of Trump’s tarrifs following his White House return and among others…)
Love this story of Kondo’s “return to his roots”. I can relate to this. First Z car in 1978, “last” of the first batch in 1985 then 28 years later, the 16th (or so) through the 24th after “family raising duties.” The age old adage of “you can’t go back” refuted. Still having fun with my Datsun roadster, spec’d to same as my first race car.