With the impending Honda-Nissan merger, the big question is what kind of cars will the joined companies build? If an example from the Tokyo Auto Salon is any indication, we are all for it. At first glance it might not be clear what this fenderless creation is, but the Twin Dragon is powered by two engines, a Nissan SR20 and a Honda K20A, making a combined 1,050 horsepower.
The Twin Dragon is the creation of a shop called Circuit & Dreams CLR based in Tochigi Prefecture. The butterfly doors give away the base car underneath, a Toyota Sera. Other than its distinctive glass bubble canopy, there is little to suggest that a Sera lies underneath.
But rather than use any of Toyota’s well-known fours, the CLR opted for a two rival engines that will soon be under the same corporate roof, each nestled in a tube frame. Up front is a transverse Nissan SR20VET from a first-gen Nissan XTrail up front, making 550 turbocharged horses. The rear wheels are powered a transverse Honda K20A from the second-gen Integra (RSX) Type R, generating 500 horsepower.
Each engine has its own cooling system, as well as its own Honda 6-speed transmission. However, both engines are controlled by a single accelerator pedal and, shockingly, a single clutch pedal. The system is old school mechanical, with no electronics to modulate different engine speeds.
The owner described the Sera in a Best Car interview as “primitive” and “very heavy” and admitted that “it is a car full of dreams and romance”. For now the owners are enjoying drifting it around closed circuits. One day, they hope to obtain street legal registration for it, but the ultimate dream is to take it up Pikes Peak.
It’s likely not very usable, but the Sera is the type of crazy build that the Tokyo Auto Salon conjures up. Circuit & Dreams CLR is a rural small shop, the kind all the mechanics are gearheads and who you just know go drifting in nearby mountains at night. Hopefully the real Honda-Nissan merger will produce something as passionate as the Twin Dragon.
Images: CLR
That is an amazingly weird and cool build, probably in order to save a Sera shell that had was rotting, so why not keep the cool looking bits and fab everything else?
The “it is a car full and romance” made me have a double-take so I went to read the article, and the translation must have been corrected since it now reads “is a car full of dreams and romance”. It makes more sense but it loses the engrish vibe.
This car is made of “why not?” and I love it! I hope they eventually put a whole body on it!
No error in the translation, just an error in my editing. Corrected.
Monster! My non-JNC car puts down ~445 wheel in a moderately heavy coupe and admittedly, it has scared me more than a couple of times. Not sure I could handle this thing but it’d be fun trying! Dayam!
Reality check time.
Saying this thing is a harbinger of what is coming from the Honda/Nissan merger is ridiculous.
Not saying it isn’t a fun build, but come on. All we are going to get out of the merger is a fleet of utterly boring hybrid or full electric transport pods that will be about as much fun as a tooth ache.
Fyi this is the same shop that built the quad-turbo S14 Silvia a few years ago