In the 1990s, Japanese sports cars experienced a golden age, to the point that they were capable of putting the Ferrari supercars of the time to shame.
25 years ago, the terror of Ferrari and Porsche was not the McLaren or the Mercedes-AMG... Back then, many of the most desirable sports cars on the planet had Japanese passports and sported Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Toyota badges.
In the early 1990s, Japanese brands began to carve out a niche for themselves in the European market with attractive, technologically advanced vehicles that also offered above-average reliability. In a very short time, they put on sale in the Old Continent their best sports cars that, at that time, offered a performance similar (and sometimes superior) to that of the untouchable Porsche and Ferrari.
In fact, legend has it that Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Ferrari's president at the time, defined the 348, manufactured between 1989 and 1994, as "a shitty car" when compared to its eastern competitors. At that time, they incorporated technologies that the Italian brand's models could only dream of, such as four-wheel steering, active aerodynamic elements, rotary engines, adaptive suspensions... and they also had a much lower price.
Credits:
Mitusbishi 3000GT - Number 27 - Supercars of Mike
Nissan 300ZX - TheStraightPipes
Mazda RX-7 - seoul tuner - THE-LOWDOWN.com
Toyota Supra - A Toda Velocidad
Honda NSX - KYAN MEDIA - A Toda Velocidad