Greatest Sports Car Ever Made By Japan

[fpv_gtho]

well probably the biggest styling change the car's had was the replacement of the pop-up headlights with fixed units, and surprisingly it does alot for the cars image, to me at least it does

[Nildo]

Yeah, the new headlights are an improvement. Just so's you know, the NSX uses aluminium, and was one of the earlier adopters to use this to lower weight. When the NSX was built a lot of it's parts were very high tech and expensive, but I really think it should be somewhat cheaper to construct these days.

Still, a great car and I will always be grateful for what Honda did do. !980's Ferraris were pretty crap in terms of build and reliability, and Hondas car really spurred them on into making their much more reliable and more competitive cars in the 90's up until now.

[fpv_gtho]

well for a company like ferrari, its pretty hard to get them to realise faults in their cars, kinda like telling BMW the X5's got crap quality, they think cause they're german theyve got the worlds best build quality or something, thats just how it seems to me. do you think the NSX was a big enough influence for Ferrari to see a market for something like the 355? i havent really seen any "small" ferrari's before the 360 and 355.....

[Guibo]

The NSX went a long way in spurring Ferrari to improve its build process. Quality control was sorely lacking in the Ferraris of that time, and the 360 and 550/575M's are now reportedly much better and user friendly. Ferrari even saw some value in the NSX's aluminum body construction, and chose to employ it for the 360 (although Audi, in collaboration with ALCOA, which also supplies the body panels and extrusions for the Modena, had an alloy unit body frame project since the mid to late '80s).

As good as the NSX is, though, I'll go with the 240Z. It offered near Euro levels of performance, incredible durability and reliability, and great styling, all for a very reasonable price. Japanese cars at the time were mostly written off as unsporty trinkets, and I think the 240Z really put Datsun (and Japanese cars) on the map.

[skyline_22]

i think the skyline R34 is the best japanese car

[KnifeEdge_2K1]

i think the skyline R34 is the best japanese car

OMFG the thread is liek 11 months old

[gtrjazz]

R32 Gtr

[chano880]

i think that the best japonese cars are supra ( ´98),skyline (r 34) and the mistubishi GTO ( or 3000 VR-4)

[Falcon500]

Skyline fanboys....Is their anything worse...also despite the fact we have a dead thread on our hands the skyline isnt a sports car is it?

[deffenbaugh03]

Skyline fanboys....Is their anything worse...also despite the fact we have a dead thread on our hands the skyline isnt a sports car is it?

Why wouldn't it be? I always thought it was. In think the TK ZZ II is the coolest car to come out of Japan. I also really like the Altezza/IS300

[Falcon500]

well considerng it was a 2+2 and more of a GT rather then a sports car.....

[Matra et Alpine]

Well the 240Z triple carb still is my preferred mount but that's coz of my early rallying.

My bias to twisties and handling will show again. Mazda MX-5 and the Honda S2000. Great cars with VERY precise positioning and gentle transition to drift at the limit. So no nasties in their handling!! Guy in the club has a turbo'd MX-5 and I have to say it can also chase with the fastest and it hasn't adversely affected the handling.

The MX-5 has held up well over the years. Mates g/f is racing in Formala Woman in the UK next season and as soon as the weather warms upa wee bit we're going to be doing track time with here to prepare her. So I'll be having to learn all about setup of the MX-5 to help her Anyone out their competing in an MX-5 ? Hopeflly get a few laps in in testing and setup http://www.formulawoman.com/championship/

[fpv_gtho]

Would that be the Japanese made MX-5 SE? Or something done aftermarket

[Falcon500]

Well here in aus we had tickford tweak a bunch of mx-5s....and yes they where turboed went like a dog shot in the arse....appretnly mazdas caught on but with less power (121 kw compared to our 150 kw version....)

[Matra et Alpine]

Would that be the Japanese made MX-5 SE? Or something done aftermarket

He did it aftermarket, but all the bits were from Japanese tuners - he's a 'bit' of a ricer but it's go the performance so we don't mention it