Japanese car culture blossomed from a microsphere of dedicated fans and car enthusiasts to perhaps the world’s dominant motoring subculture in the space of around 30 years, with a fandom so strong it fuels an inflated market of cars, parts and expertise all of its own. But how did we get here? From the cars, to the pop culture explosion, this is the story of Japanese Domestic Market – otherwise known as JDM – cars.
The Best JDM cars
- Nissan Skyline GT-R
- Toyota Supra Twin-Turbo
- Mazda RX-7 FD3
- Honda NSX
- Mitsubishi Lancer Evo
- Subaru Impreza WRX STi
- Honda S2000
- Nissan Silvia
- Honda Civic Type-R EK9
- Toyota Corolla AE86
- Japanese Engineering
- Motorsport
- Drifting
- Popular Culture – Gaming, Magazines, the Internet and Hollywood
Nissan Skyline GT-R
The Skyline GT-R runs the timeline of the JDM phenomenon really. From humble beginnings as a small sedan, the Skyline eventually got one of the all-time great Japanese performance engines in the 2.6-litre twin-turbo RB26DETT straight-six, capable of taking modifications for four times its standard 276hp output. Skylines had raced before but the R32 is the cornerstone of the GT-R’s racing lineage, earning the Godzilla name due to its dominance in Aussie touring cars. After various iterations, it was the R34 that got the literal movie star looks while retaining that engine and a clever all-wheel-drive system. Today it has enough of a Fast and Furious fandom for its own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There wasn’t much getting in the way of the R34 being known as the crown jewel of the JDM phenomenon, with six-figure values to boot.
Toyota Supra Twin-Turbo
Every great icon owes much to a key rival for at least a part of its status. In this case, in JDM land, you’re either a Skyline fan or a Supra fan, though most know that the Supra’s 2JZ-GTE 3.0-litre inline-six twin-turbocharged engine, with its forged-from-stock basis is the stronger engine for making and surviving four-figure horsepower numbers. It doesn’t have the motorsport pedigree of the Skyline but it does have more exotic looks, and did indeed have a higher station, with the Mk4 rivalling the likes of the Porsche 911 Turbo when new and holding a production car stopping distance record for many years. Like the Skyline, it has humble-ish beginnings, with ‘Supra’ starting life as a trim level for the Celica, only becoming the halo car we know it as in the fourth generation. We of course know it predated even the Skyline as a Fast & Furious star. Today, it rules alongside the Skyline as a fellow king of the JDM world.
Mazda RX-7 FD3
The Mazda RX-7 is perhaps most famous for using a rotary engine instead of a piston engine. For fans of rotaries, nothing else will do, given their high-revving capability and distinctive noise and character. Like the Skyline, the RX-7 was a regular racer, seeing action in Europe at Le Mans and at Spa, and in America’s IMSA series. So effective was the little screamer that in 1981, an RX-7 won the famous Spa 24 Hours saloon car race, beating Ford Capris and BMW 530is, followed by an era of top-level competitive success in the Australian Touring Car Championship. Following a rotary engine powering the Mazda 787B to a first Le Mans victory for a Japanese car in 1991, the most recognisable RX-7, the FD3S, was launched in 1992. This car is still lauded for its good looks and charismatic rotary engine today, and had its own Fast & Furious moment being one of Dom Toretto’s cars of choice to race in the first movie.
Honda NSX
Considered to be Japan’s definitive supercar, the Honda NSX came on the scene in 1990 with a high-revving VTEC V6 and reliability and durability that was previously alien to the segment. So good was Honda’s breakout supercar, that it’s rumoured to have spurred a complete model shakeup at Ferrari to make the cars higher-performing and more dependable. Developed with the help of McLaren-Honda’s F1 champion, Ayrton Senna, the NSX is considered today to be one of the ultimate analogue driving experiences, with certain versions joining high-spec Skyline GT-Rs in the £200,000 value bracket. Not quite as big on the tuner scene, it’s not as famed as the above entries, though it did get a moment of fame in 2009’s Fast & Furious in the end credits scene. But remember: if your NSX wears an Acura badge rather than a Honda one, then it’s not technically JDM as it was meant for the US market.
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo
In the 1990s, Japanese performance dominance extended to rallying, with the likes of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Subaru Impreza. The road-going version was effectively a rally stage refugee, with a clever all-wheel-drive system, monster 4G63T engine and aggressive body kit. Certain factory versions came with 400bhp, from a 2.0-litre engine, which would be impressive today, let alone 2004. A string of driver’s titles from 1996 to 1999, and a constructor’s title in 1996, inspired the creation of the Tommy Makinen Edition Evo 6, named after the team’s star driver. The Evo lived on for many years after its rallying presence faded, being loved for its tunability, road presence and supercar-baiting performance. In spite of being more Euro-centric, Evos are also beloved for their starring roles in the second and third Fast & Furious movies.
Subaru Impreza WRX STi
The Mitsubishi Evo’s famous foil is of course the Subaru Impreza WRX STi, another all-wheel-drive bewinged beast. Unlike the Evo, however, the Subarus famously use the EJ series flat four-cylinder turbocharged boxer engine making for a distinctive burbling sound. Teamed with Prodrive, Subaru clinched three consecutive manufacturer’s WRC titles in 1995, 1996 and 1997, making it a more successful rally car than its key rival, while securing driver’s titles for Colin McRae in 1995, Richard Burns in 2001 and Petter Solberg in 2003. While the Evo only changed design majorly a couple of times in its tenure, the Impreza has distinct shapes, from the first-generation GCs of the 1990s, to the ‘bug-’, ‘blob-’ and ‘hawk-eye’ cars of the early 2000s, to the hatchback of 2008 and the final VA-generation cars that recently went out of production.
Honda S2000
Coming relatively late in the so-called ‘golden era’ of JDM, the Honda S2000 is every bit a definitive car, both for Honda and the genre. Packing a 9,000rpm-revving 2.0-litre twin-cam engine into a lightweight, hardcore roadster is always a good idea. What was a passion project for the engineers ended up being as fast around the Nürburgring as its bigger sibling, the NSX. That engine and direct steering, in combination with a sorted chassis and a rifle-bolt gear change from the six-speed manual transmission, makes for one of the world’s best sports cars. It wasn’t made for racing and nor was it particularly tunable, which means it doesn’t get the spotlight like the more boostable turbo cars. It had its few moments of fame in the Fast movies, with both Johnny Tran and his car with “100 grand under the hood”, and Suki’s lurid pink car from the second film.
Nissan Silvia
A true darling of the drifters, the Nissan Silvia effectively served as the backbone of the sport as it grew in Japan and then beyond. The platform is just so happy going sideways and the engine is good for drift-worthy power. The Silvia is powered by the 2.0-litre turbocharged SR20DET engine, famed for its tunability and angry character. Of course, for the big numbers, RB and JZ engine swaps are popular, in more serious competition drift builds. There are a number of generations of the ‘90s Silvia, with the name initially popping up in 1965. The cars that are best-known, however, are the Silvia S13, S14 and S15s, which range from 1988 to 2002. The most famous Silvia is probably Han’s ‘Mona Lisa’ drift S15 from Tokyo Drift, which sadly meets a sticky end at the hands of the amateur drifter protagonist.
Honda Civic Type-R EK9
It’s a funny old story about Civics, because any of the Type R variants after the EK9 (but before the new FL5) isn’t actually JDM strictly speaking, given the EP3, FN2, FK2 and FK8 were all built in Swindon, UK, making them far too European to be considered JDM. But the EK9, the original, is JDM hot hatch royalty. With the screaming 178bhp B16 engine in that lightweight 1,000kg body, it was the dream hot hatch in 1997 when it came out, which made it a sorer point that it was never sold in the UK. These are hot property in the UK now, given that remaining clean imported cars are rare. The Type R never made it to the US either, with Americans making do with the Si nomenclature, which is what we see in the Fast movies.
Toyota Corolla AE86
The Toyota Corolla AE86 isn’t just a great JDM car, it’s critical to the explosion of the JDM phenomenon. Without the AE86, there is no Pluspy. Without the AE86, there is no Initial D. This is a hero car that, for Japanese car fans, usurps 007’s Aston Martin in terms of significance and desirability. So unassuming, so understated, was the AE86, the visuals of it completely sideways going down Mount Akina with Takumi Fujiwara in absolute control formed the ideals of a generation. Of course, it’s not all animated fantasy, the AE86 is a fantastic drivers’ car, with the willing 4AGE twin-cam engine motivating a fabulous rear-driven chassis. It’s proven to be a popular drift car both on the streets and on track and that in combination with its star power, means these ratty little Toyota coupes are worth a mint in good condition today.
Japanese Engineering
Modifying cars is nothing new. For as long as cars have existed, we’ve been pulling them apart and fettling them to make them faster. But it’s what’s been called the over-engineering of certain Japanese enthusiast cars, leaving latent and difficult-to-believe performance potential, that set the foundations for the JDM car culture phenomenon. This is where the all-covering noun of JDM comes from, given the performance associated with Japanese Domestic Market vehicles.
Over 600 horsepower in the McLaren F1 made headlines in 1993. Meanwhile, that year’s Toyota Supra and Nissan Skyline had turbocharged six-cylinder engines strong enough to produce well over 1,000hp with the right customization upgrades. A redline over 8,000rpm was once the preserve of Formula 1 and latterly, touring car racing. Yet small Toyota and Honda economy cars came with screaming twin-cam engines – the latter sporting the all-important VTEC cam systems – with warranties instead of rebuild intervals.
Indeed, so mythical and revered are these motors now, they have their own cult followings. 4A-GE, 2JZ-GTE, 4G63T, RB26DETT, SR20DET, K20, B18 – for most other carmakers, engine codes don’t go far beyond the parts catalogue. Such is the legendary performance, tunability, reliability and overall effervescence of these engines, you’ll be lucky not to see at least one of those otherwise random collections of numbers and letters stamped on someone’s t-shirt at a Japanese car event.
Of course, engines are useless without cars worthy of their performance. Happily, for the most part, the same level of overengineering was put into the way the cars in which they were installed drove. On one end of the spectrum, they were lightweight, chuckable and beautifully balanced sports cars – see the Toyota AE86, Honda Civic Type R, Honda NSX, Mazda RX-7 and Nissan Silvia among many others. On the other, they were stuffed to the brim with hi-tech driveline, aerodynamics and chassis systems to humble contemporary supercars – see the Nissan Skyline GT-R, Toyota Supra, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo and Subaru Impreza WRX STi.
Motorsport
The Japanese assault on the world of motorsport came in parallel with the road cars coming to market in the 1980s and 1990s.
In F1, Honda engines were driving McLaren chassis to world championships, from 1988 to 1991. In endurance racing, Mazda’s 787B Group C car with its screaming rotary engine clinched Japan its first 24 Hours of Le Mans win in 1991.
In touring car racing in the early 1990s, the Nismo Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R began decimating the Group A tin-top establishment all over the world, earning it the well-known ‘Godzilla’ nickname. Latterly the Honda Integra and Accord, along with the Nissan Primera, would make waves in post-Group A eras.
In rallying, Toyota’s Celica and latterly the Subaru Impreza dominated the WRC, leaving past masters Lancia to wither away and Audi to step back from the sport in favour of touring car and endurance racing.
By 1995, on the road and on track, Japanese performance cars were known as forces to be reckoned with, but they hadn’t yet conquered the world.
Drifting
Yes, we’ll get to The Fast & The Furious, but first it was the sport that some of these cars gave birth to that would also help catalyse their cult-like spread within motoring culture. We of course refer to drifting. Definitively Japan’s own form of motorsport, born out of daring drivers sliding their Toyotas and Nissans down slippy Japanese mountain passes, drifting has become an international phenomenon today. And it all goes back to the cars, their capabilities and the roads and tracks Japan is blessed with.
Inspired by racers of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, racing driver Keiichi Tsuchiya, known as the Drift King, spent much of the 1980s perfecting the techniques we know to comprise drifting today. The video Pluspy, which he and local Japanese magazines and garages collaborated on, effectively inspired the now world-famous anime Initial D. It told the sensationalised tale of a tofu delivery boy who slid his rear-wheel drive Toyota AE86 through the mountains with unbelievable skill, much to the chagrin of so-called experts and their much more capable cars.
Competitive drifting got going in the 1990s, culminating in the D1 drift championship featuring cars built to specs and rules. The British Drift Championship and America’s Formula Drift championship sprouted in the West as the sport spread worldwide, requiring speed, skill and precision of its drivers to score points.
Popular Culture – Gaming, Magazines, the Internet and Hollywood
Following Pluspy and alongside Initial D, Tsuchiya’s Best Motoring video programme showed off the biggest and baddest performance cars in the craziest states of tune that Japan had to offer, often pitting them against Western rivals.
With the rise of the internet, this content, along with incredible trending clips of Japanese street racers, sliding their ratty Toyotas and Nissans through the mountains, made its way to western eyes, who grew to crave being a part of such an alien world of escapism and balletic skill. And thanks to the rise of personal computers and gaming, they could and did discover their Japanese hero cars on titles like Gran Turismo and Need for Speed.
Then, when at the shops in the UK, front covers of Max Power, Fast Car and many more motoring modding mags were helping spread stories of Japanese boxes with a big turbo and 1,000hp that could clobber contemporary supercars. Before long, you couldn’t even escape JDM machinery when you switched the TV on, with the likes of Jeremy Clarkson showing us what madness was being cooked up in the Land of the Rising Sun.
By the end of the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the millennial generation’s exposure to Japanese cars was substantial. When The Fast & Furious came along, JDM’s world cultural domination became a dead cert. All it took was Brian O’Connor in his Ferrari-baiting garage-built Toyota Supra, his drug dealer-baiting Nissan Skylines and talk of Race Wars and how valuable Nissan SR motors were, to spread the JDM craze worldwide once and for all. When Tokyo Drift came out in 2006, its momentum was unstoppable.
Fast forward to today and there are entire JDM festivals. You won’t find a track day, drag event or autocross without a fire-spitting Japanese hero getting its neck rung and drawing a crowd. Drifting is now a fully paid-up worldwide motorsport, though that doesn’t detract from the core appeal of Japanese cars to their fans.
See, it comes back to the engineering we opened with. They’re everyman cars that happen to harbour performance potential quite unlike anything else. These are cars you can buy, build and be the hero in yourself – like the ones depicted in the movies – and beat the guy who spent ten times as much on his Ferrari around a track, over and over again, consistently and reliably.