When the Scramble first began to concept displays a few years back, gaming cars dotted around what is now the Golden Ticket space opposite Historit. A car that could have slotted perfectly alongside the Mazda Demio, Subaru Impreza, Ford Mondeo Supertourer will be perhaps the most surprising addition to the hatchback display at October’s sold-out event.
It will take up very little space but will leave a lasting impression. Because it’s not often you come across a Daihatsu Cuore Avanzato TR-XX R4, a cult star of Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec.
After all, fewer than 100 came to the UK around the turn of the millennium and, almost a quarter of a century on, as few as two may still remain.
Each had a buzzy, turbocharged twin-cam 660cc four-cylinder and the R4 added permanent four-wheel drive and a limited-slip differential. You’d need to wind it up to 7500rpm to get all 64bhp out of it but the single-make rally championship must have been a riot. Around 20 of the allocation of 100 for the UK market started the series, whether any came out unscathed is unclear. The Cuore Avanzato TR-XX R4 set for the Scramble, meanwhile, is the former press car.
The model is frankly barmy, completely at odds with the manufacturer’s usual fodder of affordable kei-based city cars and the Copen, its kei-based sports car. That pill-shaped curio can’t hold a candle to the Cuore.
Daihatsu hasn’t been available in Europe for more than a decade, disappearing in 2013 with barely a ripple, yet it may well provide the Scramble with its most unlikely of star cars.
The hatch will be celebrated at the Scramble on Sunday 6 October with the central display by Building 123.