among other things, Bill Clinton, the young Internet, certain memorable

sitcoms and an eclectic music scene.

But for countless auto enthusiasts, the 1990s bring back memories of

another sort the golden age of Japanese sports cars, the Toyota Supra,

Acura NSX, Mazda RX-7, Nissan 300ZX, Mitsubishi 3000GT, Mazda Miata

and others were all high performance and in some cases relatively low cost

vehicles. That inspired a generation of racers and tuners and made their

way into massive film and video game franchises.

Now, in 2020, trucks and SUVs all but rule America.

But Japanese automakers are not giving up on these small, agile sports

cars. Some have been there all along and others are making a comeback.

But why do this now when some automakers are determining that cars are less

profitable and tougher to sell?

Are the new Japanese sports cars living up to the legacies of the old?

And will they stick around?

When Japanese automakers first began importing vehicles into the U.S.

in the 1950s, the cars they sold were mostly conservative and affordable.

There were even a few stumbling blocks for these importers, including a

skeptical American public and a lack of knowledge about the American

market. But over time, they improved.

In 1973, Toyota set up a design studio in the U.S.

to help executives in Japan understand a market so different from their

own. Japanese companies also made major innovations in manufacturing that

yielded low production costs and strong, consistent product quality.

They focused especially on reliability and earned a reputation for making

cars that were far more dependable than those made in Europe and the U.S.

But they weren't content with this reputation.

Honda, Nissan, Mazda and Toyota also became forces in racing throughout

the 20th century in the hope of proving to the world that Japanese

engineers could also hold their own on the track.

And that's one of the things that we've learned just got the research

recently, is that consumers associate Toyota with QDR quality, durability

and reliability. Toyota became the first Japanese automaker to win the GTO

class in the International Motorsport Association GT series in 1987.

Actor Paul Newman raced Datsun's and Nissan's in the 1970s and 1980s,

winning several races during that time, including two SCCA won

championships in 1985 and 1986.

The second of the two was Nissan's fiftieth national championship.

The Mazda RX-7 won several IMSA races in the 1980s, winning over 100 races

by 1990 and becoming at that point the most successful car in IMSA

history. Japanese automakers were already trying to lure American

performance enthusiasts at least as early as the late 1960s.

And early example that garnered a lot of attention in America was the

Datsun 240Z.

The 240Z was the car that got Americans thinking, well, wait a minute,

maybe Japanese cars are not just about inexpensive economy cars that I

commute to work. And that 240z popularity convinced Japanese makers that

performance cars were worth the effort in the U.S.

At first, these efforts were incremental.

Some of the names that became iconic began as variants of other cars.

For example, the Toyota Supra began as a variant of the Toyota Celica.

I love the idea that the Evo still looks like a Lancer or I love the idea

that the WRX still looks like a Subaru Impreza.

Like that's cool. And Americans thought that was cool, too.

And so they kind of took their formula and said, well, we can do it a

different way. The vehicles were also different from American sports cars,

which tended to be larger and stocked with eight cylinder engines.

Japanese sports cars were compact light and had smaller engines, often

using turbocharging to ramp up horsepower.

They took advantage of technological developments such as electronic

engine controls. The Mitsubishi 3000, for example, had a very

sophisticated all wheel drive system for its time.

They were also cars that took risks and did things differently from each

other and from other competitors.

Mazda, in addition to the Miata, they had the RX-7.

It was powered by a local rotary engine, which was unique in the industry.

Nobody else but Mazda was building Wankel by that time.

You know, there were some German vehicles in the 1960s that had wankel's,

but nobody else is doing it at that point.

Mitsubishi went for all in on technology to try and use technology to make

the cars fast as it possibly could be.

Toyota with the MR-2, they decided to make a lightweight mid-engine sports

car. You know, again, something quite different from what its competitors

were doing. So there were different approaches.

You know, it wasn't all variations on the same formula.

And while they were not exactly cheap, some of them could be had for less

money than cars with European pedigrees.

Notable cars from the era included the Mazda RX-7, the Toyota Supra, the

Mitsubishi 3000, especially the V.R.

for version and the Nissan 300ZX.

On the less expensive end, there were cars like the Subaru WRX and Mazda

Miata. Honda even tried its hand at making a supercar, which in the U.S.

was called the Acura NSX.

It started at just above $60,000 in 1991, equivalent to about $150,000 in

2021 terms. Despite some criticisms, the ambitious vehicle impressed the

auto world and was significantly less expensive than many high end exotics

from European makers.

What made these cars different is that it was really the first time that

you see a lot of really high performance bordering on high end Japanese

cars, because typically those cars had been about efficient performance or

about economy cars.

It was really a time when Japanese manufacturers had kind of come into

their own and American buyers realized those cars offer a lot of bang for

the buck. But over time, many of these cars and others like them

disappeared from product lineups in the U.S.

or became overshadowed by other concerns.

By the time it was discontinued in North America in 1998 and in Japan in

2002, the Toyota Supra had become something of a Hollywood star, thanks in

part to the 2001 film The Fast and the Furious, where the car was driven

by the late actor Paul Walker.

The NSX ran from 1990 until his discontinuation in 2005.

The Mitsubishi 3000 was discontinued in the U.S.

at the end of 1999, and the Honda 2000 was axed in 2009.

A few things happened.

First, many carmakers began focusing more on sport utility vehicles and as

time went on, competition among different makers for better and better

cars raised sticker prices.

By the '93,'94 time frame, as those prices kept creeping up, the sale

started tapering off.

Finally, these cars were never meant to be massive sellers.

More expensive vehicles like the NSX were aimed at attracting a small

number of buyers in any given year.

A few cars held on, though.

The Nissan Z line left the U.S.

in 1997, but it returned in 2002 when the 350Z was introduced.

The Mazda Miata has been continuously available in the U.S.

Subaru also kept the tracks and are staterooms on its Impreza sedan.

The wagon versions were discontinued in the U.S.

But look at some of the examples of the companies that stuck by what they

do. This is who we are.

We're going to keep doing it.

And now they're reaping the rewards.

Apart from those that never left or left b riefly, a few made bold returns

to the market. The Acura NSX was brought back in 2016.

The new NSX bears some impressive technical innovations, including three

electric motors, two on the front wheels that can help steer and brake,

and a third that acts like an electric turbocharger.

In this case, we wanted to explore and experiment with things that could

enhance that driving experience by taking advantage of three electric

motors that work not only to help you accelerate, it has drive by wire

braking and the front motors are independent.

And so they can like when you row on a boat, they can be like oars and

support your steering and put either left or right.

The shape of the car is also designed to maximize cooling.

And Honda was especially concerned with maximizing visibility out the

windshield, developing new technology to meet safety regulations while

still giving the driver a wide view of the road.

On the lower end of the price range, Acura's parent

Honda has also kept in production some sportier versions of its mainstream

passenger cars, such as the Honda Civic Type R, which has been in

production since the late 1990s.

Toyota is another automaker making a big bet on sportiness.

CEO Akio Toyoda, who took the helm in 2009, famously ordered the company

to stop making boring cars.

That has meant a new commitment to high performance and provocative

design. Everything that comes through Toyota Gazoo Racing gets Akio seal

of approval meaning he's driven it, he's pushed the vehicle to its

absolute limits and he's kind of certified it.

I think it's kind of rare in the automotive industry to have an executive

or the president of a company take that type of pride of ownership and

responsibility for the products that he brings to market.

Perhaps the biggest news in recent years has been the comeback of the

Supra, which Toyota himself was involved in heavily test driving the

vehicle at the famous track in Nürburgring Germany.

Supra is a halo car and it is not meant to sell in high volumes.

Somewhat controversial is the fact that the car is built in partnership

with BMW and has a lot of BMW parts in it, including a BMW engine.

Despite rankling some diehards who might have preferred an all Toyota

product, auto analysts think partnerships like this may be the best shot

automakers have at building these lower volume, but attention grabbing

cars going forward. And Supra is attracting new attention to Toyota.

The folks that are coming in from Supra are a lot of them are coming out of

the near luxury coupe and prestige luxury cruise line up to trading in

other brands like Corvettes and Porsche.

Toyota has a sub-brand dedicated to high performance called Gazoo Racing.

The Gazoo racing name has been around globally since 2007, but is being

introduced to the U.S.

with the Supra. The Supra will fall under the Gazoo Racing sub-brand.

The Supra is joined by a recent refresh of the Nissan Z., which received a

great deal of coverage in the automotive press.

This is a positive sign for Nissan, which in 2020 was struggling

financially and dealing with fallout from the arrest and subsequent escape

of former chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn.

These vehicles have generated a lot of excitement.

If there is one gripe among some auto enthusiasts, however, it is that

there seems to be less of the experimentation and risk taking than there

was 30 or 40 years ago.

Maybe as they start to transition to electric or make doing hybrids in

these vehicles, we might see, you know, some more interest creeping up for

some of these new vehicles if they do something truly different.

Our Japanese automakers making a good choice by staying committed to sports

cars. The strategy has a few things in its favor.

First, there is big business in nostalgia.

Hollywood film remakes and reboots, retro fashions and music and brand

name revivals seem to be popping up everywhere.

In an era of electric cars, autonomous vehicles and all sorts of futurism,

companies are betting that at least some buyers want a chance to own a car

they once loved or never had the chance to buy.

American carmakers are bringing back old names like Bronco, Blazer and

Gladiator. It's becoming a time when people who would have remembered

Japanese performance cars but couldn't afford them are now coming into

their own. So say younger Gen Xers and maybe even millennials that have

fond memories of some of these odd cars from the 90s.

There is a way to do this right of course, by ensuring the resurrected

product honors its namesake.

If that goes wrong, it can tarnish a legacy in some circumstances.

You've seen that the only thing nostalgic about a car or a truck or an SUV

is that they brought back the name.

And it's really nostalgic in name only.

And I don't think people like that.

I think that it feels like to the average consumer, well, you're just

doing this so that all of us who are of certain age will go by it because

we remember them as opposed to something like the Nissan Z or the Ford

Mustang. Secondly, emphasizing sportiness and high performance gives

Japanese automakers the opportunity to carve out unique niches in a very

competitive marketplace.

Japanese cars used to stand out for their dependability, but other car

companies have caught up.

And while dependability counts in a company's favor, it might not be the

strongest way to lure buyers, especially those at the profitable higher

end of the market. I think what's happening now is a lot of Japanese

automakers are really coming into their own and saying, hey, let's be