During the 70s and 80s, Japan was known for churning out humdrum models for the masses. This Japanese car shootout features the cars that transformed Japan’s motoring history into one of performance.
There are few collective cars that can cause quite the stir this lot caused when travelling together for our Japanese car shootout in Wales. It’s very rare to see any of these cars on the road in isolation, let alone travelling as a foursome to the Black Mountain Pass in Wales.
They are of course the Mitsubishi Evo Tommi Makinen Edition, Nissan Skyline GT-R R34, Mazda RX-7 FD3S Bathurst Type R and Honda NSX NA2. Each of these cars represented the pinnacle in its respective manufacture’s engineering, putting performance and technology at the heart of its model. They were all cars that upset the applecart when they arrived; the Evo showed what a road-going rally car special could really do, the Skyline brought in cutting-edge technology for upmost traction, as well as a heart that was reliable with even triple the power output from factory, the RX-7 was a car that used strange engine technology in the form of the Wankel engine to extract peak performance but with low capacity and weight for dynamics and the NSX was a car that took the fight to Ferrari and arguably won, becoming the everyday supercar that manufacturers strive for even today.
Each one of them is special in their own way, but we wanted to find out which is most special and whether these cars hold up today. With prices for all of them sky-rocketing in recent years, particularly the Skyline and the NSX which hover around the £60,000 and £100,000 mark respectively, do they justify their price tags and claim classic status? Time to put that dream Japanese car shootout into reality…
