To drive a concept car is something else altogether, especially if it's a possible precursor of something genuinely tempting. And that's what evo has just been doing in Miami Beach, Florida, as Chrysler set its most recent concepts free on the street - and the beach. It was the first time they had been driven in public, and what the public thought as they saw the cars, dusty and real-world-looking, in a real-time streetscape would prove a useful research tool.

Ocean Drive, Miami Beach. It's early evening, the sun is calming down and the palm leaves waft in the breeze. Our let's-get-noticed convoy is having the desired effect as beautiful, possibly surgically-enhanced people point and stare. And the one they're finding the most unexpected, on account of its small size and minimalist mien, is a rorty-sounding two-seater coupe finished in bright metallic Orange Slice. Meet the Dodge Razor.

Later, I'm sitting outside a seafood restaurant on Ocean Drive, across the table from the Razor's designer, and the convoy passes again. The designer leaps up, runs to the road and takes pictures with her pocket camera. 'I'll send them to my parents in Japan,' she says, thrilled at the Razor's reception.

Akino Tsuchiya (who thinks she may be the world's only female Japanese car exterior designer) wanted to create a car with the spirit of a late-'50s Ferrari GT, something to evoke the feel and movement of the cars she's seen on Mille Miglia racing footage. It's not meant to be a replica, she says, but it must have the spirit. Certainly it's a car entirely free of flab and superfluity; its overhangs are tiny, there's neither bootlid nor spare wheel, air-con and power steering are absent and the buyer would have to source their own stereo.

All this means that the Razor is designed to be very affordable. Chrysler estimates a US sticker price of $14,500, which would translate to about the same number of pounds if the Razor a) makes production and b) comes to the UK. For that you would get a 2.4-litre, 250bhp, turbocharged and intercooled TT-eater with rear-wheel drive and a six-speed 'box (from Chrysler partner Mercedes-Benz). Suspension is struts at the front, a multi-link system borrowed from the imminent Chrysler Crossfire at the back.

Tsuchiya says she knew nothing of the Detroit-designed Crossfire when shaping the Razor at Chrysler's Pacifica studio in Carlsbad, California, so any similarity in the tail shape is a coincidence. People point to Audi TT and Porsche Boxster influences, but she says not. Or even an early Corvette, I suggest. 'Yes, I've heard that, too.' Whatever, it's a crisp, bold shape, definable in 'just a few lines', with a fierce front and near-vertical windscreen pillars. 'Originally it was going to be even lower, with the A-pillars angled back,' says Tsuchiya, 'but it was too impractical.'

Other niceties are the unusual wing-top lights (especially the tail-lights), the four rectangular exhausts stacked in vertical pairs and the door mirrors formed from extruded aluminium tube. These three features were refined by Kevin Verduyn after Tsuchiya transferred out of the Pacifica studio - similarly the interior was conceived by Chris Schuttera and finished by John Sodano.

The interior is quite Elise-like, thanks to similar use of tough aluminium extrusions, and there's no leathergrain in sight. 'Our target market appreciates a certain honesty,' says Schuttera, 'so there's no plastic animal grain here.' The seats are covered in wetsuit neoprene-cell fabric, the facia features a single main dial that's a concentric speedo and central tacho with a magnifying lens, and behind the show car's seats is a pair of Razor brand scooters.

So, does it work? The four exhausts and a simple cone air filter ensure sporty sounds, and there's torque enough to fling the Razor to 60mph in an estimated six seconds. You sit low, the orange windscreen frame defining the view along the bonnet, and all the right feelings are filtering through. Right down to the smell: it's like something from the Goodwood Revival meeting.

But there's plenty of development work to do yet, as spare-time Porsche 911 racer Schuttera well knows. Right now, the steering is too slow-witted, the brakes have a long travel and no bite, and the rear damping is way too soft. But these can all be fixed for production. All that's needed now is the opportunity.