As much as I love the JDM culture, Here’s Why I think the Japanese Car Industry is Doing it all Wrong

I loathe the eighties right up to the noughties of the Japanese car market. It’s full of interesting cars, fast cars as well. Due to the gentlemen’s agreement, whatever cars they build, were all limited to 276hp. And as a result, to make these fast and keep up with cars made in the rest of the world, they have to excel in every other aspects, i.e. suspension tuning, chassis, materials even. So what you end up with, is some amazing cars.

Easily one of the best JDM cars ever made, easily.

The NSX-R springs to mind, 276hp made from a 3.2L V6 VTEC engine, carbon fibre everywhere, chassis fine tuned by Ayrton Senna, and what you end up with, is absolute magnificence.

The NSX-R springs to mind, 276hp made from a 3.2L V6 VTEC engine, carbon fibre everywhere, chassis fine tuned by Ayrton Senna, and what you end up with, is absolute magnificence. What journalists and racing drivers say at that time, is a car that chooses it’s drivers, rather than the other way around. The engagement that the NSX-R gives you is unreal, you sit right in the car, not on top of it, and the manual gearbox inspires total confidence every time you press the clutch and change a cog. Journalists might be wrong but data won’t be wrong. Despite a horsepower handicap, the NSX-R has been driven round the Nurburgring by Motoharu Kurosawa, in a time of 7:56.73, which has beaten, deep breathe, the BMW M2, Chevrolet Corvette C6 Z51, Dodge Viper SRT-10, Porsche 996 Carrera S, Aston Martin DBS, the list goes on, and on, and on. This just proves how well the car is designed, despite the base car was actually designed in the 90s, the car still stood up to its competition for ages after the car was discontinued.

I’ll start now by saying that these are all just my own opinions and if you’ve got yours as well, please politely say it in the comments but do not try and start a war down there, because that’s frankly uncouth.

But what baffles me is that, the Japanese knows how to build good cars, not only the Honda NSX-R, the R34 GT-R, Lancer Evolutions, Impreza WRX STIs, RX-7s, the lot. Yet what they are building now, is completely opposite of what car guys like us want. I’ll start now by saying that these are all just my own opinions and if you’ve got yours as well, please politely say it in the comments but do not try and start a war down there, because that’s frankly uncouth.

Mitsubishi: I don’t care how you name your SUVs, just not Evos and Eclipses

Don't you think it's stupid?

Mitsubishi have to realise that, these names do carry a history heritage.

Mitsubishi have to realise that, these names do carry a history heritage. Nissan Z cars are still called Z cars for a reason, they don’t just randomly name a minivan a Z car would they. Z cars need to be fast, rear-wheel-drive, fun to drive, front-engined, and has a manual gearbox. Nomenclatures do mean a lot to us, you know, not only car guys, people in general as well. If you were to name a car, you have to realise what the name means to people, a Golf for example, you would know it’s a hatchback, you would know it’s practical, you would know it’s funky yet it’s endlessly reliable.

That leads to what I am saying here. Mitsubishi. What the hell are you doing here? You don’t just randomly name some SUVs off the street an Eclipse, or a Evo. It just feels wrong. If it’s a Eclipse, you’d expect it would be a coupe, four-wheel-drive, extremely advanced; if it’s a Evo, you’d expect it to be four-wheel-drive super saloon, with some form of rally heritage. I don’t care how you name your next SUVs, just not Eclipse, nor Evo. It’s just wrong.

Honda: The NSX is alright, 5 years ago

Which would you choose?

The NSX-R is an amazing car. I would want one in my life, except it’s horrifically rare and exceptionally expensive. Well you got to dream right.

The problem is with the new NSX, not the old one. If it came out 10 years ago, 5 years ago, I wouldn’t blame them, that was revolutionary. In 2017? Nah. Yes I give you that, the hybrid system is just advanced, to the point where it was too advanced, needlessly complicated. If you pit one of them against a Nissan GT-R, or a McLaren 570S, or a Audi R8 V10, I’m sorry it’s just not as fast as you’d like it. The only possible reason that I could think of, is that they are planning a faster, more hardcore NSX-R, because you know what, the current NSX just doesn’t excite me the same way the old one does. It’s not as involving, nor as exciting, nor as pretty, funnily enough. Honda has come a long way though, I do give you that.

(In the video below, you’ll see in a recent DVD shot by Hot Version, Keiichi Tsuchiya. the drift King himself, can’t tame the NSX, that’s how awkward the thing drives.

Subaru: Pulling the plug on the Impreza WRX STI in the UK? Why? And the BRZ STI? Where is it?

Thank you Subaru for all your crappy ideas. Not as bad as Mitsubishi’s though, that’s for sure.

The other day I was browsing through the Editor’s Picks section of CarThrottle, as you do, I found out that the Impreza WRX STI has been discontinued in the UK. Why?

The WRX STI is one of the rare unicorns of the car community. No car guys can ignore the incoming distinctive boxer motor sound, it just sound burbly, grunty, and the turbo wissles are intoxicatingly cool. The combination of a full-time AWD, a boxer 4-cylinder turbo engine, a manual gearbox, and a big wing, is something that nobody is doing right now. That is why it’s so well-loved by we car guys.

Yet what the Subaru UK did, was completely stop selling them in the UK. I’m not calling the WRX STIs a popular car, because you have many other choices, Golf R springs to mind, A45 AMG, RS3s, yet there is something special about the WRX. It’s very old-school and we would want it ourselves. Yet the poor people in the UK can’t. Shame.

And the elephant in the room, where is the BRZ STI? Subaru, you are not going to make any money from making cool looking concept cars in motor shows, you need to make them into reality. The BRZ STI concept has been revealed, and I’m sure every single person here loves it, the wide bodykit, the big wing, 450hp turbo 4-cylinder-engine, it’s just mad and we all love it. This needs to be reality, it needs to be happening ASAP and it will sell like hot cakes. Thank you Subaru for all your crappy ideas. Not as bad as Mitsubishi’s though, that’s for sure.

Nissan: You need to hurry up your designers, Nissan.

You know what, I think I found out what's different. Oh nevermind.

However, that is the problem, it’s in 2007. Nowadays the car still looks exactly the same.

I remember when I first clapped eyes on the R35 GT-R back in 2007, it was very cool, it was silver with silver wheels, the interior is literally like a Play Station 3, which is a good thing, the car resembles the classic Skyline GT-Rs, the iconic quad circular tailights. I mean it is the business.

However, that is the problem, it’s in 2007. Nowadays the car still looks exactly the same. Yes it’s had multiple facelifts, it’s gone faster year by year, but it’s still fundamentally the same car. The car has been modded in all sorts of ways in the aftermarket sector of the car community, track car, show car, drift cars even. It’s time for an all-new chassis, and an all-new car. It’s just taken far too long.

It’s not the GT-R that’s taken too long too, the Z cars as well, it’s long overdue for a new car. The 370Z was released in 2009, and it still looks EXACTLY the same, it’s still the exact same car that they were selling 8 years ago. The infotainment system is just way outdated, the car needs to be refreshed, ASAP. So please do hurry your designers, they are all on holidays I suppose so forget what I’ve said.

Mazda: Keep your head down, you are on the right way. Just hurry up, we can’t wait.

Gorgeous right?

it’s got a rotary, which when it revs up to however high the RPM limit is, billions of bees would come out of the tailpipes.

The RX-7, is, without a doubt, one of the most unique cars ever to be produced. It’s not a car that has a conventional piston engine, it’s got a rotary, which when it revs up to however high the RPM limit is, billions of bees would come out of the tailpipes. The amazing balance, the awesome driver involvement, and the unique drive train, makes us all want to buy the Rotary greatness.

Mazda has confirmed that they are currently working on a new, more reliable, more fuel-efficient Rotary. But please, Mazda, make it faster, it needs to be in dealerships ASAP. We need it. Put your hammer down Mazda, we know you are the good kid, just work hard alright.

Toyota: The new Supra? Meh…

It's a Supra...?

This is the business. It just is.

Frankly, if I were to tell Toyota what they need to put right, is to build another engine as capable as the 2JZ.

To be brutally honest, I have never been a massive fan of the mk4 Supra, I’ve always thought that the car was famous because of the movie franchise Fast and Furious, and because of the engine. I do freely admit that the engine itself is an engineering magnificent, you would often see the 2JZ engines going for 1000 bhps without much hassle, yet the Supra itself is just an FR Gran Tourer, yet there are much more cars for the money, and I wouldn’t want something that fat for a Gran Tourer, I’d pick a RX7, anytime, anywhere.

Yet the car community for some reasons, loathe this car, they think that the GT-R and the Supra should be rivals, which they are not and I’ll thoroughly explain why this is the case in a later blog if you guys so wish. But the Supra is simply not my cup of tea.

The supposedly coming mk5 Supra, looks weird. It just is. It doesn’t look like a legendary GT car, at all, more like somebody had stuck a pig’s nose on a round car, it’s that awkward.

I’d even argue that the new LC500 from Lexus is more like a Supra frankly, it’s a GT car, it puts out huge amount of torque, note it’s torque not horsepower, which is what you want in a GT car, it looks striking enough for me to want to buy it, and it comes in all sorts of different colours. And yes nobody is going to compare that to a GT-R because people have finally realised that these two are very different animals.

Frankly, if I were to tell Toyota what they need to put right, is to build another engine as capable as the 2JZ. I am fully aware that a new one of those is not going to happen anytime soon, with eco-friendly regulations here and there, but at least give the car community something new, something fresh. I am honestly sick of hearing somebody 2J swapping any cars, because somebody would’ve done that 10 years ago. I want an engine that is as capable as the 2J, as reliable as the 2J, yet even more powerful than the 2J. Toyota is one of the biggest car companies on the planet, and I’m sure their engineers would be best pleased to have worked on such an iconic engine. So Toyota, please, just let them go for it, and allow them to build, what is, the ultimate 2J replacement.

This afterall, is the Japanese. What the Japanese is good at, is bringing stuff back to life, quickly as well. I would sincerely hope that they would realise what they have done wrong, and fix themselves, because we car guys, would absolutely love the idea of the heyday of the Japanese car markets coming back, and coming back strong. Let’s just wish them all the best shall we?