18 Best Japanese Sports Cars Ever Made

there are two sides out there when it comes to sports cars you've got your American muscle car people and you have the import car people it's an ongoing rivalry on which one is better but no matter what side you're on there's no denying that the import side has a lot to offer now check out these 18 best Japanese sports cars ever made Honda s2000 the interesting thing about Honda is that the company started building rear-wheel drive convertibles one of these was the 1963 Honda s 500 two-door roadster so it made sense when Honda designed and built the s2000 to celebrate the company's 50th anniversary and what a cool car it is the s2000 is named after its engine displacement of 2.0 leaders and carried on the tradition of the previous s model roadsters it featured a front mid-engine rear-wheel drive layout with the engine put out at a respectable 237 to 247 horsepower at a blistering 9,000 rpm without a turbo in fact the s2000 engine achieved what Honda claimed as being the highest normally aspirated production automobile engine in the world the interior of this car was definitely sporty with leather racing bucket seats leather wrapped steering wheel and the driving fun was amplified by the 6-speed manual transmission the only bad thing about this car is that Honda stopped producing it in 2009 the average use price is around 15,000 dollars which is a steal for such a fantastic car Toyota 2000gt famous for its starring role alongside Sean Connery in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice the Toyota 2000gt arrived on the world stage in the same year and instantly made a statement that Toyota was serious about challenging the best sports cars Europe had to offer Toyota collaborated with Yamaha to do whatever necessary to not only produce the 2000 GT but make it one of the or perhaps even the greatest car in the world it's plain to see that the GT was designed with the driver at heart with its perfectly formed cabin its driver-focused design and a 150 horsepower 2 liter inline 6-cylinder would propel the GT to 140 miles per hour for a car of that time it was what many called world-class performance in fact it set three World Records and 13 international records the 2000 GT enjoyed many racing successes and most notably the 1967 Fuji 24-hour race Honda CRX there are many supposed definitions for the acronym CRX but the most widely accepted is Civic Renaissance X the car was produced from 1983 to 1991 and was marketed as an economy sport cam back or hatchback car that had room for two small passengers in the back it was a sporty little car with a 1.5 litre 130 horsepower engine the CRX was popular for its performance its good handling and it had good fuel economy the original 1.3 liter engine got 52 miles per gallon on the highway and in 1984 it was reported to achieve over 70 miles per gallon however the tiny car had almost no protection in the event of a crash or side impact and the car was discontinued in 1991 Nissan Skyline GTR when it comes to high performance the Skyline GTR is a car that has the credentials to back it up it is the world's fastest accelerating production four seater and the fastest 4c production car around the Nurburgring racetrack in Germany production of this car began in 1969 and ended in 2002 and it has quite a history with the r34 skyline being one of the most famous the Skyline GTR was never manufactured outside of Japan and the sole export markets were Hong Kong Australia and New Zealand the car was nicknamed Godzilla and surely it was because of its awesome performance at the time and you could get a two point six liter or 2.8 liter twin-turbo inline 6-cylinder engine that produced 276 horsepower Honda Civic Si not only is the Civic Si among the best performance values you could find Car and Driver named it one of the 10 best cars you could buy the SI enthralls enthusiasts with its ethereal chassis manual only transmission and 205 horsepower turbo four-cylinder its acceleration isn't as Spell as its ride and handling but the bang for your buck is nearly unbeatable the car is light enough that you'll rarely want more power and the cook can sprint from 0 to 60 in 6.3 seconds the interior of the SI is relatively spacious and comfortable and it's a car that you can drive like a little Terror when you want or simply go on a nice relaxing cruise Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution the Evo as its affectionately known is another sports sedan that has had 10 versions to date with all using a 2-liter turbocharged inline four-cylinder engines and all-wheel drive system making them an awesome rally car candidate this is the car that has had its horsepower controlled by a limiter just so it could be imported to the United States in fact the agreement was to advertise no more than 280 horsepower of course it was easy to untap the cars true potential with a slew of available aftermarket parts despite this each subsequent evolution version has unofficially evolved above the advertised power figures with the Japanese spec evolution 9 reaching an alleged output of 317 horsepower and in the UK there was a 440 horsepower version available the tenth and final generation of the Lancer Evolution called the evil eggs was launched in Japan in 2007 and overseas markets in 2008 where it was produced for almost ten years before being retired in 2016 Subaru Impreza WRX STI the Subaru Impreza WRX STI or Subaru Technica International is a high-performance stripped down all-wheel drive vehicle customized from the base Impreza production sports compact vehicle between 1992 and 2001 there have been six generations of the STI and it's a familiar and rapid road rocket with standard all-wheel drive a six-speed manual transmission and a 310 horsepower turbocharged flat-four engine the highs of the car are its race styling the all-wheel drive grip and its rally car demeanor the WRX STI is turbocharged to point five liter flat four is eager to rev and pumps out a characteristic flat for burble from the cars quad exhaust pipes however it's the same old engine from previous models and it's probably time for an upgrade Nissan GTR the GTR is the flagship of Nissan performance that replaced the Skyline GTR and each one of the engines in the car is hand-built by race engineers like the previous cars the latest GTR r35 can accelerate from zero to 60 in just 2.0 seconds which places it alongside the hyper cars McLaren p1 and Ferrari laferrari the Nismo Edition GTR has an astounding 592 brake horsepower and 481 foot-pounds of torque at 6,800 rpm oh and some owners even say the car is better in the snow with its all-wheel-drive system than an SUV what's fun is that this car is now being hailed as Nissan's new Godzilla and for a good reason Acura NSX the original NSX which was phased out of production in 2005 provided easy day-to-day drivability - the eco friendliness it had exotic looks otherworldly performance a compliant ride and comfortable space for two adults and a reasonable amount of cargo the NSX became the world's first mass-produced car to feature an all aluminum body it was powered by an all aluminum 3.0 liter v6 engine which featured Honda's VTEC system and a five-speed manual transmission or the ëthe Matic which was a 4-speed automatic transmission which could be shifted manually using a fingertip shift lever on the steering column the new NSX is a hybrid sports car powered by 3.5 liter twin-turbo v6 engine and three electric motors and is still the same daily driver supercar that has close to 600 horsepower toyota mr2 the mr2 in the name meant that the tiny car is a mid-engine rear-wheel drive two-seater and it was one of the smallest cars around at the time it ran for three generations with the first one being introduced in 1984 there were three engine choices for the sporty little car a 1.5 liter a 1.6 liter and even a supercharged 1.6 liter primary features were its 2000 350 pound body strong handling and the lightly powered small displacement engine Toyota enlisted the help of Lotus engineer roger becker to design the suspension and handling the main engine was a 1.6 liter inline four-cylinder and dual overhead cams with four valves per cylinder the car put out 128 horsepower and the supercharged version produced 145 horsepower it was by no means a really fast car but it was very fun to drive lexus LFA this two-seat sports car was manufactured by the luxury car driver of Toyota and was only produced for two short years with only 500 cars ever made it's definitely a beautiful car that had a 4.0 liter v10 engine that cranked out 552 horsepower at 8700 rpm the car was designed to showcase the performance capabilities of Toyota Motor Corporation and it's Lexus mark but you couldn't buy one of these cars as buyers were selectively chosen by Lexus and the cost of the car was $375,000 depending on options and customization this is one car that everyone wishes they still made Toyota 86 Subaru BRZ Scion fr-s here's some interesting trivia for you the Toyota 86 the Subaru BRZ and the Scion fr-s are all essentially the same cars the FRS was just rebadged as a Toyota 86 due to Toyota axing the Scion division both the Toyota 86 and BRZ offer the same act engine a 2.0 liter four-cylinder that makes around 200 horsepower and 150 foot-pounds of torque in both cars a six-speed manual transmission is standard while a six-speed automatic is optional both cars are jointly developed by Toyota and Subaru and they are both really great looking cars these are cars that literally screen performance and with some aftermarket accessories you could make it really come to life Nissan 300zx z32 Nissan 300zx is an awesome car but if you like the car and wanted something more than the 1989 2000 z32 was for you also the Nissan Fairlady Z it was a new design with a wider body rounder profile and fewer hard edges these changes made it more aerodynamic it came with the same 3.0 liter v6 engine that had dual overhead cams utilizing variable valve timing and was rated at 222 horsepower and about 200 foot-pounds of torque and that was naturally aspirated the Z 32 could come with an optional garrett twin turbocharged version that had dual intercoolers and produced 300 horsepower and 283 foot-pounds of torque at 3600 RPM that's a lot of horsepower in a car that had a kerb weight of 3000 186 pounds it was only produced between 1989 to 2000 with a total of 160 4170 cars the commemorative edition for their final 300 units shipped to America included decals and certificates of authenticity if you were lucky enough to get your hands on one of these cars we'd like to hear about it Mazda rx-7 FD out of all the rx-7 s the last generation was the most coveted which was introduced in 1991 and is better known by the code FD you might be familiar with the car from the movie The Fast and the Furious where Dominic Toretto drove a read 1993 Mazda rx-7 FD in the race with Brian O'Conner power came from a twin-turbocharged twin-rotor Wankel powertrain with just 1.3 liters displacement but what was the most surprising thing is that the little rotary engine pushed out 237 horsepower at 6,500 RPM plenty enough for a car that way just two thousand eight hundred eighty eight pounds add some custom aftermarket parts like cold air intake and decent exhaust along with a bottle of nitrous and you have yourself a real street monster mitsubishi eclipse second generation many of you might know about the performance of the Mitsubishi Eclipse the second generation of this car was designed to appeal to a broader market and there was even a convertible called Eclipse Spyder you could get two versions the GS and the GS t the GS was powered by a 2.4 liter inline four-cylinder engine that was naturally aspirated and put out 141 horsepower but the GS t had a turbocharged 2.0 liter engine that had an output of 210 horsepower which when paired with all-wheel drive would catch a lot of people off-guard at the light Toyota Supra 880 another incredible Japanese car the Supra is well known and its capabilities are incredible when you know how to properly add performance parts and do a little engine tweaking with the possibility of getting 1,000 brake horsepower if you spend enough time and money on it the fourth generation Toyota Supra 880 was Toyota's move into the big leagues for the maker the car came from the factory with a 326 horsepower twin-turbo inline six-cylinder engine the turbocharged variant could achieve 0 to 60 miles per hour in as low as 4.6 seconds and a quarter-mile times in 3.1 seconds at 109 miles per hour the turbo version was tested to reach over 177 miles per hour but was restricted to 112 miles per hour in Japan and 155 miles per hour everywhere else Mitsubishi FTO the FTO was made from 1994 to 2000 and it was named after its 1970s predecessor the gallant FTO which saw production stopped in 1975 it was a front-mounted front-wheel drive sports coupe that came with either a 1.8 liter inline-4 or a 2.0 liter v6 engine it also came with either a manual transmission or a semi-automatic gearbox called in vex - the cool thing is that the FTL was a very light car weighing only 2,500 pounds and the v6 MIVEC engine produced almost 170 horsepower in 2000 side-impact safety standards were revised in Japan and with that the dwindling sales meant the car was no longer worth making Datsun sports Fairlady the Datsun sports or the Datsun Fairlady as it was called in Japanese and Australian markets was a series of two-seat roadsters that were produced by Nissan in the 1960s it was designed to compete with the European mg triumph Thea and Alfa Romero's sports cars the lineage of this famous sports car began in 1959 with the S 211 model and had continued through 1970 with the SP 211 and SR 311 lines for performance the S 211 had a straight four-cylinder engine that produced just 36 horsepower for the time and how big the car was it wasn't bad considering that the body of the car was made of fiberglass only 20 of these cars were ever built making it the rarest of all Datsun models by comparison the S 311 which was produced from 1965 to 1970 had a 1.6 liter engine that produced 95 horsepower marketed as the Fairlady 1600 or the Datsun sports 1600 it was introduced to many export markets including North America these cars are rare and can fetch top dollar in car collector markets we hope you enjoyed the video let us know which one of these is your favorite in the comments and if you liked the video make sure to click subscribe and turn on notifications so you'll be the first to know when a new video comes out thanks for watching and we'll see you next time

Channel: Interesting Facts

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Keywords: 18 Best Japanese Sports Cars Ever Made, japanese cars, car, cars, japan cars, japan, japanese, sport car, sports cars, japanese sports cars, racing cars, racing, interesting facts, interesting, facts, top 10, top 5, best, list, mitsubishi lancer, mitsubishi, lancer evolution, lancer evolution 9, subaru, subaru wrx, nissan gtr, nissan, nissan skyline, honda civic, acura nsx, jdm cars, jdm, honda s2000, toyota

Id: AwIYNXEHkTk

Length: 17min 37sec (1057 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 22 2019