Much like Guns N’ Roses “Chinese Democracy”, it seems that this post has been a long time coming. It’s magnified by the fact that there was so much new information leading up to the Frankfurt Auto Show that it made it difficult to concentrate. Now that that is over, back to business and one of the last main stops on the best sports cars around the world tour in Japan. While there are still a few countries we have not covered, we can all agree that Japan is the last main contributor to the world of top sports cars that remains.
As the title states, the Japanese sports car is a combination of technology and practicality. I know from experience, being that my personal ride is a ‘91 3000GT VR4. While it is not a sports car in the truest sense, it shares a lot of the common attributes of Japanese sports cars. First off, for an 18yr old car it still has technology that is up to modern standards in its AWD and all-wheel steering system. In addition, it was one of the first cars to have dual mode suspension settings, an active aero-dynamic function that can control the height of the rear spoiler and clearance of the front fascia and it even has an active exhaust with TOUR/SPORT mode to boot. All that goes without saying that it has a nice 300hp bi-turbo V6 under the hood that can easily be modified to over 400hp with just a few “bolt-on’s”.
This of course leads to the rest of the Japanese sports car market and what I grew up with in the 90’s with the Supra vs. RX7 vs. 300ZX vs. 3000 GT vs. NSX wars. In addition, the little brothers of the Celica, MX6, 240SX, Eclipse/Laser/Talon(part of the DSM collaboration between Chrysler and Mitsubishi)and Integra/Civic SI were no pushovers either. All of these cars shared the technology meets practicality philosophy which is seen more today in the offerings of the Lancer EVO and WRX, compact sedans who earned fame on the World Rally Circuit providing us in the US a taste of these track tuned versions of these econo-boxes. Most of all, we can’t forget the standard by which all Japanese sports cars are measured- The R34 Nissan Skyline:
(Image courtesy of Tennen-Gas from wikimedia)
As the looks are rather pedestrian, the performance and technology behind the 3.0L twin-turbo I6 engine and advanced AWD system are legendary especially in tuner circles where triple-digit hp and sub 8-second 1/4 mile times are not uncommon. Thanks to Nissan answering our prayers too, the Skyline has come stateside in the form of the Nissan GTR which made its US debut in 2008.
If drop-dead good looks are your thing, then, as is best sports cars blog tradition, looking back we bring you Toyota’s 2000GT, a car whose looks envoke a feeling of XK-E meets 250 GTO:
(Image courtesy of Mytho88 from wikimedia)
Another sports car revolution in Japan came with the German invented Wankel rotary engine making its way into production via Mazda, beginning with the RX series of which the RX3 was one of my dad’s first cars. Last, but not least was the rebirth of a company and the sports car itself in one of the world’s best selling cars, the MX-5 Miata:
Yes we could go on and on, but that’s what future articles are for, as there is too much to talk about and not enough space, verdict is that some of the best sports cars in the world do come from Japan!
