![]() We’ve already featured the NSX-R, now meet the regular NSX – also very worthy of a place here. The AE86 was a successful rally car and brilliant fun on the road. It was powered by the same 125hp 1.6-litre twin-overhead-cam engine found in the original MR2, and it could complete the 0-62mph sprint in 8.3 seconds, and hit a top speed of 122mph. The Corolla GT – factory codename AE86 – arrived in 1983, and was Toyota’s rear-wheel-drive answer to the front-driven hot hatches of the day. Nissan’s engineers cited the Porsche 959 as the benchmark, so it’s hardly surprising that it could outmanoeuvre just about any car in the world. It didn’t so much upset the establishment, as send its rivals scurrying back to the drawing board. Make no mistake, when the Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 arrived in 1989, it was the most advanced road car you could buy. Sold domestically as the Cosmo Sport, or the 110S overseas, this was the world’s first volume production rotary-engined sports car. Unveiled at the 1963 Tokyo Motor Show, before being formally announced a year later, the Cosmo featured futuristic styling, a name inspired by space travel and a 982cc twin-rotor engine. In fact, you could bring one over in your hand luggage. Although never officially sold in the UK, it’s not hard to source a Japanese import. ![]() Much like the Suzuki Cappuccino, the Beat paid homage to the likes of the MG Midget and Austin-Healey ‘Frogeye’ Sprite, and offered mid-engine and rear-wheel drive fun in a tiny package. Styled by Pininfarina, the Honda Beat was built to comply with Japanese kei car regulations. The outrageous flagship GT-R Nismo is the equal of anything from Stuttgart or Maranello. Yet it’s also appealingly old-school, requiring focus from the driver and dedication to the cause. ![]() It’s a sports car for the digital generation, powered by a 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged engine developing 570hp and 470lb ft of torque. That’s assuming you have the £86,095 required to purchase a Nissan GT-R. The vast majority of cars in this gallery are icons from yesteryear, but here’s one you can buy new today. It was built to mess with the sports car establishment and it went on to outsell all European rivals in the USA. For the money, the 240Z is an almost brilliant car.’ This quote from Car and Driver in 1970 tells you all you need to know about the 240Z. ‘The difference between the Datsun 240Z and your everyday three-and-a-half thousand dollar sports car is that about twice as much thinking went into the Datsun. In the Toyota 2000GT, Japan had built a sports car for the wealthy and the glamorous, but in the 240Z, Datsun delivered something a little more blue collar. Powered by a 4.8-litre naturally-aspirated V10 engine, the LFA can hit 200mph, and just 200 were built. “If someone were to offer me the choice of any car that had ever been made, ever, I would like a dark blue Lexus LFA,” said Jeremy Clarkson. The Lexus LFA was a long time coming: development work started in 2000, with the final production version not appearing until October 2009. Just 4,392 were produced before the AZ-1 fell victim to the Japanese recession. Weighing just 720kg, the AZ-1 could hit a top speed of 87mph. Power was sourced from a Suzuki 657cc turbocharged engine producing 63hp at 6,500rpm. Sold by Mazda under its Autozam brand, the AZ-1 was built by Suzuki and featured a pair of gullwing doors. If the Toyota 2000GT is the prettiest sports car to emerge from Japan, the Autozam AZ-1 is arguably the cutest. By the time the last car rolled out of the factory in 1970, the 2000GT had set numerous speed records, appeared in a Bond movie and put Japan firmly on the world sports car map. Launched in 1967, the 2000GT was powered by a 2.0-litre six-cylinder engine developing 150hp, enough to hit a top speed of 136mph. Whisper it, but we reckon the Toyota 2000GT is prettier than the Jag. It has been labelled the ‘Japanese E-Type’, but this is unfair. Don’t forget the blueprinted, naturally aspirated 3.0-litre V6 engine and manual gearbox either. The NSX-R weighs around 120kg less than the standard car, with carbon-kevlar seats, Enkei forged wheels and virtually no soundproofing. ![]() That sounds steep for a 26-year-old Honda, until you realise that only 483 were made – all for the Japanese market. This stunning example of the first Type R was recently sold by Collecting Cars for £160,000. You’ll note we have excluded hot hatches – that’s a whole different argument – and, for the most part, have limited ourselves to one example of every make and model. It includes the fast and the furious, but also the affordable and unusual. Which Japanese sports cars would you have in your lottery-win garage? Honda NSX or Nissan Skyline GT-R? Mazda RX-7 or Toyota Supra? Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution or Subaru Impreza WRX? We argued about this for hours before boiling it down to the following list.
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