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Gym Rat: Miata Kit Turns Weakling Into Sand-Kicking Aston Martin

Inside Line

(Photo courtesy of Custom Automotive Restyling.com)
Does this look like James Bond's Aston Martin Vanquish to you? It's a labor of love for an Australian Aston fan, who built it off a Mazda Miata.

BRISBANE, Australia — Rebodying Mazda Miatas is already a thriving business in Japan and now an Australian has come up with a radical package that turns the two-seater into something resembling an Aston Martin Vanquish.

Fitness instructor Michael Lebedev, 32, said it was a life-changing moment when he saw the Aston Martin Vanquish in the James Bond film Die Another Day. He used the Vanquish as inspiration for a Mazda Miata-based creation, which claimed the Dare to Be Different trophy at a local tuning show.

Lebedev has set up a company called Custom Automotive Restyling to sell his Mazda-based creation. The car is called the AMX07; the MX stands for MX-5 Miata, and the 07 is both a James Bond and an Aston reference. Body panels are made from fiberglass, and the headlamps were lifted from Smart. The company is selling the restyling kit for A$7,500 (about U.S. $5,650) without a donor car.

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