Nissan's GT-R Owes The Mid4 Supercar A Debt Of Gratitude
In the late 1980s, Nissan developed a mid-engine four-wheel-drive supercar with a twin-turbocharged V6, the Mid4. It…
It Was Japan’s Most Daring Car. Then the Economy Imploded
“I was driving it with the windows down,” then-product planner and engineer Bob Hall told me over the phone, “and you’d…
Inside the Most Amazing Japanese Import Car Collection in America
In 1989, an American Honda dealer named Gary Duncan won a trip to Japan and the Tokyo Motor Show. It was there that he…
This Is What It's Like to Drive One of Mitsubishi's Wildest Kei Cars in America
Japanese carmakers never brought their great kei cars of the 1980s to America, and for years we’ve always assumed that…
Here's How The Honda Prelude 4WS's Four-Wheel Steering Worked
The 1980s were the Jurassic Park of Japanese car design. Engineers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could…
The Suzuki Cappuccino Versus the Honda Beat, Compared
Ever since the cars of the Bubble Era aged into legality under America’s draconian 25 Year Import Rule, we have become…
Follow Retro Car Bot, A Bot Of Nothing But Retro Cars
It’s once more time to bless your timeline with a Retro Car Bot, a bot that tweets out retro cars and information about…
I Went Into Mazda’s Secret Basement And Entered Rotary Heaven
Underneath a quiet office building in even-quieter Irvine, California, there rests some of the loudest, strangest, most…
Mazda's All-Conquering 700 HP Four-Rotor Le Mans Engine Has The Coolest Intake Ever
In 1991, little Mazda stood at the top of the world. It won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with its banshee Mazda 787B…
Mazda Was So Small In The 1980s That It Put Off The Miata To Make A Minivan
It’s hard to put the success of the Mazda Miata into perspective, a unbelievably huge hit from a rather small company.…
The Subaru Vivio T-Top Was An Actual Car In Spite Of What You May Think
I can hear you from all the way over here. “That’s not a real car, Raph,” you shout at your computer screen. “You made…
The Subaru Amadeus Was A Flat Six Shooting Brake That Wasn't
The Subaru SVX is one of the looniest cars ever put into production: a flat-six luxury coupe with a fighter jet canopy…
Toyota Put A TV In Your Dash Back In 1985
Today’s carmakers are thrilled with all of the new features they can integrate into their digital dashboards but all I…
Take Me To The Toyota Dimension
Back in the 1980s, Japan’s carmakers were on a tear to make the most advanced, well-engineered mass produced cars the…
Toyota's First Twin Turbo Straight Six Is Stranger Than You'd Think
Toyota called it its “finest engine,” ambitious, technologically advanced and, from a modern perspective, impossibly…
Mazda's Tiny V6 Was Weirdly Overbuilt
When it debuted, Mazda’s K-series engine was the smallest V6 ever put into production. While it was quickly overtaken…
The 1989 Tokyo Motor Show Is Where I Will Go To Find Joy Again
What do we have to look forward to in our far-flung future year of 2018, besides the sweet release of death? Nothing.…
Bask In 28 Minutes Of Gloriously Weird Ads For Japan's '80s And '90s Luxury Sports Cars
In these dark times, I find it is helpful to submerge myself in a bath of liquid car-nostalgia. I forget my pain and my…
The Auto Industry Will Never Be Insane Enough To Make The Mitsubishi Minica Lettuce Again
I’m currently working on a project about the “Bubble Era” of the Japanese auto industry the period from the mid-1980s…