A long drawn out history of some important Japanese classic cars

So as a part of my father's challenge in creating articles for the Auto section of the Gleaner, here is the first attempt [a topic he forced me to write on] expect more soon [hopefully at a faster rate than this long assed one]

There has been a long debate whether anything from the Japanese car industry can be considered a classic. This has been received with mostly negative comments as the Japanese are fairly new to making cars and have been primarily focused on building economy cars especially within their own market. The few performance cars that do exist however have beenWhile these facts have made it difficult to identify a Japanese classic, the fact is that they do exist. What I plan to do in this article is to highlight a select few Japanese cars that could be considered classic at present as well as those that may be collectible in the future with a heavy emphasis being placed on vehicles already present in Jamaica

Nissan

The Z series

Nissan formed the Z series as the Japanese answer to Europe's best sports cars at the time especially those coming from Porsche and BMW. The first model, the 240Z, was favored for its styling, affordability, handling and reliability. The 260Z and 280Z built on the 240Z's already good role with bigger engines. Its popularity amongst the international crowd helped to build the image of the Datsun brand. The Z31 chassis 300ZX replaced the S30 chassis Z's and brought turbocharging into the Japanese sports car era with its race car derived V6. Just like the Z's before it entered sports car racing and had its success but the newer model was focused on being more luxurious, so a bit of its handling was sacrificed for more luxury options. The Z32 300ZX was even more luxurious than its previous incarnation which led it to win many awards for its styling and performance. So admired is its design that Lamborghini decided to use 300ZX headlights in it's redesign of the Diablo. Today the Z series is continued by the 350Z and 370Z which goes back to the 240Z style of being performance oriented. It can be easily claimed that the 240Z up to the Z31 300ZX are classics while the newer Z32 300ZX up to the 370Z are classics in the making.

The GTR series

Designed to be more upscale than the Z series, the first GTR badges appeared on racing homologations of the Nissan Skyline sports car. In 1989, Nissan brought back the GTR badge on to the Skyline range with 4WD and turbocharging giving it an advantage over European sports cars at the time. Despite being limited to the mandatory 276hp for Japanese engines at the time, Nissan built an engine capable of handling twice as much horsepower with little modifications (in fact most GTRs left the factory with more horsepower than advertised.) This left the GTR as the king amongst the growing tuner craze. Despite its potential for tuning, in stock trim it is a very potent car besting models from Porsche and Ferrari in head to head race battles as well as being crowned as the King of the Nurburgring (a very long and difficult German track whose times have become a measuring stick to determine the all around performance of a car. Today, while few stock GTRs exist, they are highly coveted and can be considered future classics while the first generation 70's models are even more coveted and placed as instant classics. In 2007, Nissan split the Skyline and the GTR badge making them separate models, the present day iteration continues to shame Porsche and Ferrari in all aspects.

Honda NSX

Highly regarded as Japan's first supercar, this Ferrari competitor was designed from the ground up to be the best all around supercar available. Although Honda had the experience of building strong and reliable cars, they had to hire Ayrton Senna (three time F1 champion and driver for the McLaren-Honda team) to help with the sports aspect of it. The end result gave the NSX highly positive reviews for its all around performance despite its supercar styling and fairly modest 276hp V6. A lot of this was attributed to its all aluminium chassis (the first for any car) which made it lightweight but still strong. Through its 15 year life, it received only minor updates while it's competition gained larger engines and became more advanced. Plans to replace the NSX have been on and off with a lot of pressure coming from a push to build greener automobiles. As a result, despite being fairly new, the NSX can easily be interpreted as a modern day classic.

Toyota AE86 Corolla

The AE86 became famous for being the last rear wheel drive Corolla and ultimately the best. Unlike previous Corolla's the AE86 featured independent rear suspension and a limited slip differential to improve handling and a twin camshaft 16 valve 4 cylinder to increase power. While its straight line performance is mediocre, its handling had created a cult following as it became one of the few affordable rear wheel drive cars. It being featured in the Japanese series Intial D as well as being a favorite car for Keiichi Tsuchiya (Japan's most popular racing driver) has elevated it to collector car status. Because of Tsuchiya's and Intial D's background, the AE86 became the "official" car for drifting. The AE86 is to drifting as what Ferrari is to F1. Lightly modified models have become the most collectable with models going for as high as $1 million on today's Jamaican market.

Toyota MR2

What started out as a failed Lotus project was taken up by Toyota and finished to become the MR-2. Based on the principles of producing a lightweight sport car that returned good fuel economy and was reliable enough to drive daily, the MR2 went straight for the Miata but used a mid mounted engine to help aid in handling. The mid mounted and it's low price made it popular among enthusiasts as it was significantly cheaper than any other mid engined car available at the time. Each incarnation of the MR2 targeted a different audience with the first and second generations being light weight and nimble, the second generation was a lot more race oriented with its turbocharged option. With production ending, the MR2 has become a collectable piece of Japanese sports car history.

Mazda RX series

After it's first Rotary car, the Cosmo, Mazda quickly went on to create a series of cars to further develop the compact and potent engine. Thus the Rotary Experiment series was born. The RX2 was nothing more than an engine option for Mazda's midsize car while the RX3 was a sportier version of the RX-2 that went racing. The RX-4 became a luxurious rotary engined model and the Cosmo continued under the RX-5 name, by this time even pick up trucks featured rotary engines. This mass spread of the rotary engine calmed down after the fuel crisis nearly killed sales altogether forcing Mazda to focus primarily on the RX-7, the sportier replacement to the RX-3. The RX7 became a spring board for Mazda's sports car racing success until most racing series banned rotary engines all together. Even on the road the mix up of light weight and high output engine has but the RX7 at the top of the Japanese sports car race for a long time. Today, the RX-8, a more usable sports car than the RX-7, continues on in using the RX principles to create a unique sports car.

Mazda Miata

With the unfortunate death of the British sports car industry, a huge gap was left in the sports car market that needed to be filled. Mazda used basic British sports car styling and principles to create a small lightweight and nimble sports car to be used on the track. The simplicity and nimbleness of the Miata has made it the best selling convertible sports car ever. It is also one of the most popular track day cars ever elevating it to cult like status especially amongst amateur American racers. The Miata is still built today under the MX-5 name and even with numerous safety requirements pushing up the weight, Mazda has still managed to making the Miata one of the lowest weighed car today.

[yes i know certain cars missin so don't loud me up]