What the Hell Happened to the Great Japanese Sports Cars of the 90s?
hey're all gone. Extinct. Even back in the 1990s, MotorWeek sadly predicted what was about to happen: the extinction of the high-performance Japanese sports car.
Specifically, turbo coupes like the legendary Toyota Supra, Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4, Nissan 300ZX, and Mazda RX-7. All are gone today, nothing but a figment of old memories of yesteryear. Ok, yes, there’s the current Nissan 370Z and, well, does the Mazda MX-5 count? Not so much; it’s in its own unique category and the Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ twins aren’t exactly high performance.
Toyota is supposedly cooking up a reborn Supra, but there’ll likely never again be a time when all four of Japan’s main carmakers build serious sports cars at the same time.
