hirocimacruiser post:

The CARA-R is a car that MAD HOUSE, who you know, is the Tsukuba Circuit. This is a racing machine developed with the primary goal of breaking 1 minute 2 seconds in the time of TC2000.

The W-wishbone legs of the A-arm are mounted on the pipe frame, the engine is placed vertically to center the center of gravity, and the total weight is kept under 600kg.
The person who set up such a grand project was Mr. Sugiyama of Madhouse, the mysterious father of Gotemba. “When the AZ-1, which marked a top speed of 237.71km/h, was completed, we already had a concept for this car. I felt the limits of the normal leg, and that's why I wanted to make a specification that I was satisfied with. is the reason why I made this car. It's a straight trigger, but even so, the contents of this car are amazing.
The chassis retains the normal monocoque only in the center, with pipe frames in the front and rear, and W wishbone suspension. And to keep the center of gravity low and increase cornering limits, we opted for pull rods rather than push rods.
At first glance, it looks like a character car, but the body parts are all original made using FRP.
The production cost alone makes it possible to buy a GT-R easily, so it is a special machine that transcends the ultimate K-car, no, the K-car, that has stepped into the realm of the gods.
—-Partial excerpt from K-car special vol.51 p10-11

The car still equipped with F6A, the lap time of Tsukuba Circuit 2000 is less than 1 minute 2 seconds. How unreasonable or amazing is this? I think that those who have run TC2000 will understand it well.
For that reason, we quickly realized that we could not reach the goal with engine tune alone, and reviewed the total package considering the target time. In other words, the weight of the body has been reduced, the tread has been widened, and the front-rear weight distribution has been optimized. For that reason, I think that the CARA-R, which was made as a pure racing car with a pipe frame on the front and back of the body, is the ultimate racing AZ-1/CARA.
In terms of Ferrari, I feel that it is similar to the F40, which has a wide tread by vertically mounting the 308/328 with a horizontal engine.
Needless to say, the powerful wide body of this racing CARA is the "inevitable" result of the W-wishbone and wide tread to improve cornering performance, and the radiator brought to the rear for cooling.
"Because it is necessary as a function" it became this wide body. Yes, it's too nice to be numb!
MAD HOUSE gave a go sign to Nantes for the commercialization of this CARA-R wide body kit.
That's it! No, of course I thought the CARA-R was amazing, but when I saw this ad, I was surprised! eh? (laughs) As expected of pg6s rider MAD HOUSE, the scale is different! This advertisement was on CRUX's page of K-Spe in the next issue of the CARA-R article mentioned above. Photo from k-car special vol.52 p149

Since it was intended for public road driving as a certified vehicle, the suspension is normal without touching the undercarriage like CARA-R. For this reason, it is described as "a replica of CARA-R".
The planned price is 1.5 million yen for a limited number of 10 units.
Considering Saburo and RS660, I think it's not a bad price (personal impression)
Of course, you can also undertake engine tuning, so it seems that you can finish it as a whole.
Whether or not it was actually sold is unknown, but the fact that ``I might have been able to get it if I called at this time'' is still listed on the first page of the history of AZ-1/CARA. I think it should be done.
Although it is called CARA-R, it actually uses the monocoque of the accident car AZ-1.
At that time, T-HOUSE had released a wide body vehicle called AZ-R, so it was called CARA-R instead of AZ-1R.

This car, which was created by combining pipe frames on the front and back of the center monocoque frame, has the engine mounted vertically! The slit for heat dissipation in the engine room is cool! This slit and coupe form rear gate were previously sold by Madhouse. But it's so wide! ! No headlights, only auxiliary lamps, just like a racing car. This bonnet and bumper (of course, normal size) were also sold by Madhouse before! However, what is really amazing is that there was an advertisement on K-Spe at the time that if you bring your vehicle in, they will build this car for you. Many of Madhouse's aero parts were cool, but it's a shame that they're out of print .

Jamie Peterson:

The first one was the "Madhouse AZ-1", which stuck to the kei limits - no widebody, 660cc. That's the one that set the 237.71km/h top speed in 1996. Before they set that record though, they realised the narrow track was pretty limiting on circuits, so they started the Cara R project (the first photos are from September 1995).

Ironically, the Cara R isn't based on a Cara, but a crashed AZ-1. They cut off the front and back to leave the central monocoque, then made tubular front and rear with double wishbones. The engine is still an F6A, but it's mounted longitudinally, and bored out to 720cc. They managed to package it without changing the wheelbase.

I assumed - and I know I'm not alone - that they were the same car, just developed further. But it seems the old car was kept as well, and when they remodelled the front of the Cara R some time between 1995 and 1999 into what it is now, it seems they also made similar styling changes to its little kei sister. It was Mad Usagi's ("Mad Rabbit") own personal car - I guess he kept it to be a road legal version of the race car.

In 2019, the little road legal car was spotted by Chibimal SV in a pretty decrepit state, with moss growing on it. The last photos I can find for the cars in running state are 2014 for the road legal "Madhouse AZ-1", and 2013 for the Cara R. Mad Usagi would be pretty old now, so that might be why they're no longer being driven.