The 1965 Mako Shark II concept car previewed the styling direction of the C3 Corvette, albeit with greater exaggeration. Today's '71 Coupe is claimed to be a MACO - whatever that is — but will its price take too big a bite out of its buyer's wallet?

While the styling of the Mako II roughly paralleled that the ensuing '68 ‘Vette, other approximations frequently miss the mark. Take Taco Bell for instance, their food - while damn tasty and an excellent diuretic - only bares a passing resemblance to real Mexican food.

And if that puts you in the mood for a trip to get some real Mexican food, you might want to take a real Mexican car, such as yesterday's imported and currently living la vida loca in the U.S.. A narrow 53% of you gave it the Nice Price nod, so I hope you're hungry.

This year, Volkswagen released a new New Beetle, and over the decades they built like a gazillion…

I once ate at a friend's restaurant where the table ordered a bottle of Chianti which the server seemed incapable of pronouncing correctly. She kept referring to it as Chi -anti like you would say Chia-pet, causing us to eventually order a Merlot. I bring this up in as a likely corollary to the seller of today's referring to it repeatedly as a MACO.

Also, .

You say Maco, I say Mako, let's call the whole Vette off. Off that is as in there's something different about your car, Mrs. Gump. Starting on the outside, this C3 has an exaggerated drop to its pointy nose and fender lines that most closely resemble the cheekbones of comic book Batman's nemesis, the Joker. Side pipes may threaten ankles upon exit, and out back the roofline's flying buttresses have flown the coupe in favor of a louvered fastback. Oh, and the whole thing is painted to give Prince a cargasm even despite his proclivity for Corvettes both diminutive and dog peen hued.

Once you get inside you'll find more velour than a ‘70s porn set and a stick shift actuated via a chrome piston shift knob. There's a lot more WTF? going on in there, but much of it cannot be sufficiently described with mere words.

That Piston shifter is claimed to be attached to a 5-speed out of a Mazda spider which I assume to mean an MX-5 Miata. An odd choice no mistaking, but at least it's not an automatic. The engine is a 350 topped by a Rochester 4BBL, and farting through a set of headers to the aforementioned side exhausts. The real Mako II sported a 427 and while the seller says this car's rebuilt SBC was overbored, there's no way it bored into big block territory. He also claims that aside from the heater core, it is tight and leak-free. Sure, the core is not part of the engine, but then this ad is full of incongruities so it's best to let that one slide.

Other issues are the Mazda box jumping out of fourth and a lack of any sort of odometer making mileage tallying something you'd have to do using Google maps and a good memory.

So far - aside from the title of this post - I have resisted bring up the fact that this ‘Vette looks like a giant Hot Wheels car, which alone warrants its purchase. Thing of it is, you could probably find a suitable doppelganger for this car blister-packed at your local Toys Fart Us, for around five bucks. This one, albeit drivable and more of a grownup plaything, requires $16,000 to go in your toybox garage. What do you think, is that a hot deal for these Hot Wheels? Or, is this a Vette you wouldn't buy on a bet?

You decide!

or go if the ad disappears.

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