Rare Rides: The Innotech Mysterro - a Mid-engine Czech Corvette?
In what’s bound to be one of the most obscure editions of Rare Rides yet, today’s ride is very limited-production in nature. So limited, in fact, that only one was produced. And it’s so limited in its exposure that the Internet can’t seem to decide the year it was actually built.
It’s hard to know where to start with this thing.
The story seems to begin back in the early 1990s; sources can agree on that much. They also agree the car was designed and built in the Czech Republic by a man named Vaclav Kral.
Kral was interested in car design from a young age, creating serious designs beginning around the age of 18. He went to work for Skoda as a young adult, then produced illustrations for Czech car magazines. Throughout his career he would continue designing cars, as well as dune buggies. A big break came for him after the fall of Czech communism: He went to work for Tatra and designed the MTX V8. Somewhere along this period in time is when the Mysterro came to life.
The vague time reference above is because the production date of the Mysterro is unclear. While the present listing indicates a model year of 1993, other information online says it’s 2000, and still other sources list 1995. What is clear is that this roadster is mid-engined and powered by a Corvette 5.7-liter V8.
The tubular space frame is unique to the Mysterro. No word on the construction of the shapely exterior body panels, but a good guess here is probably fiberglass. Corvette parts (aside from the engine) abound: suspension, brakes, and steering all from the Gold Bow Tie. The listing indicates 300 horsepower, which would lend credibility to an earlier 1990s production date and engine — the C5 Corvette’s 5.7 made 345 horsepower. The transmission is listed as a bespoke five-speed manual, but that seems a bit suspect for such a parts bin job.
What’s certainly bespoke looking is the interior — a mix of Momo, Recaro, and bubblegum pink leather. Two passengers face a carbon fiber dash, and there are covered luggage compartments right next to the engine for any non-melty items which may need storage.
Sources indicate a run of 25 vehicles was planned, yet only one was made. Eventually, its designer moved on to other things. Mr. Kral finished up his life concerned about the environmental impact of the very automobiles he spent most of his career creating. Between the late ’90s and the 2000s, he turned his attention to solar power technology, and started teaching at a university in Prague. He passed away in 2005 at the age of 69.
The Mystero is a bit of an enigma, but more pictures can be found at various sources online, including some which indicate this car used to have hidden headlamps. The seller has suggested a “realistic” offer somewhere around $291,000 USD.
Last I heard, most Innotech employees work at Intertrode now.
[Images: seller]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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I know Denny Mrkvica, the principal of Innotech. They are still around and do various automotive related things. The last big project was the Innotech Aspiron. My company, Carma Cars, designed the chassis and suspension,for the Aspiron. An interesting note on the Mysterro - the buck (or plug) for pulling molds, was made of solid wood! The design was envisioned by Denny and the styling penned by someone who worked on the Tatra supercar (don't know if it ever made the prototype stage).
But did Mr. Kral remember to put the cover sheet on his TPS reports?!