Topic: SOLVED: Djetset #412 - 1983 Mazda 323 Coupe/ Ford P-229 proposal by Patrick le Quement

[Djetset]

Hmmm, very interesting     The car base is Japanese, but didn't have this down as a Ford at all!  Rather, I had it as a Mazda 323 Coupe proposal (pre-Mazda MX-3 coupe) although of course the 323 was used as a base for many Asian-market Ford-badged cars (Laser, etc.).

The car was noted as a Mazda 323 Coupe in the Swiss Automobile Revue in 1986, plus is captioned as such in the new French book about the design career of Patrick Le Quement, so you get a point for correctly identifying him as the stylist anyway.

As Le Quement worked directly for Ford of Europe, and indirectly for Mazda, I am happy to concede that this car may have been a Ford and a Mazda, so your point is safe.  I don't have a copy of the new Le Quement book as yet, but if you get chance to look at one, this car is pictured and mentioned half-way through.

If anyone has any more information to add about this as either a Ford or Mazda, it will be interesting to see it.  Thanks.  

[Allemano]

Thanks Djetset! It might be well a Mazda development, but my source reports nothing about it.
Probably, as it was given to the Lucerne Museum by Ford they ignored the Mazda back-office connection and so it didn't appear like that in the period sources back then.

[75america]

If anyone has any more information to add about this as either a Ford or Mazda, it will be interesting to see it.

In the Car Men series #6 from Automobilia about Patrick le Quément, a rear shot of the car is present, and the Ford badge as well as the P-229 designation are present on the trunk lid.

Photo caption: 1984.  Production model spun off from the design study shown on the page opposite [a very similar car is shown but with red RS rims, other rear lights, other bumpers, a RS instead of P-229 designation is present on the trunklid,...] .  The project would not move beyond the prototype stage.

No other information about this car is present in the book.

[Djetset]

Thanks for the extra information 75America.

[Otto Puzzell]

Some additional views (albeit with different rims, but I think it's the same car)

[Allemano]

Thank you!