WHY ARE JAPANESE CARS FROM THE 80s SO SPECIAL?
We all know the 1980s and '90s were an especially rad time for cars designed and built in Japan. If you have watched OUR LATEST EPISODE (LINK HERE) you will have seen two of our favourite oddball JDM 80s classics go head-to-head, showing off some very different, cutting-edge engineering of the time, quirky styling, and pure nuggety awesomeness.
Cars from Japan in this era seem to resonate with enthusiasts of a certain age. On top of the City Turbo II and March Superturbo, let's look at some of Japan's greatest hits from the 80s: Mazda MX-5, FC RX7, Nissan GT-R Skyline, Toyota AE86 Sprinter, Mitsubishi Cordia Turbo, Toyota AW11 MR-2, Nissan 300ZX, Toyota Celica GT-Four, Mitsubishi Starion, Toyota X80 sedans, Nissan DR30 Skyline, Toyota Z20 Soarer...
Whether it's the design, performance, technology, or pure rose-tinted nostalgia for what was perceived as a simpler time, there is a widespread, deep-seated love for cars made during the 80s in Japan. But, why? What happened in the 80s to make even ordinary production cars so good, over what they did in the 60s or 70s?
There are several factors to explain it. So, strap in kids, as we go back in time to look at what made 80s Japanese cars so good (bring snacks, it may be a long trip).
There are plenty of environmental factors to point to, like Japan's booming economy of the late 70s allowing huge swathes of funds to flow into car companies to pay for the development of bold new cars. Similarly, Japanese people had more money to buy more expensive cars, and to turn them over.
In much the same vein as the American automaker boom of the 1960s, people enjoyed the freedoms that came with financial independence - especially after meagre, hirstute years following World War II. The rise of the Japanese car industry through the 80s actually mirrors America's booming automotive scene of the 60s.
Japan had been clawing their way back to a position of economic freedom since the 50s, rebuilding their country following the horrors of World War II. Through the 60s and 70s Japan built their reputation at home and abroad with a steadfast dedication to producing great quality goods with advanced engineering and utilising cutting edge technologies, especially to design and construct them.
Even ordinary 80s cars were good to drive because the Japanese were still coming out of a mindset of having to prove their products (no matter what they were) could be the equal or better than European, American, or English brands. This pushed them to design and build quality products, which is how you end up with amazing cars like the ordinary EF Honda Civic having advanced double-wishbone front suspension and independent rear-end, when most hatches used cheaper MacPherson strut front-ends and beam rear axles.
It was dedication to prove themselves over decades that got them to this point.
Despite scepticism about Japanese cars of the 60s and 70s, their intelligent design, solid reliability, clever packaging, and cheap entry prices overtook the powerhouse English and American car industries through the 70s. The world suffered record high petrol prices from oil wars at this time, and diving quality control standards turned consumers away from poorly-built, unreliable cars from the UK and USA.
Japanese car companies were working dilligently to build better cars and as the Japanese economy flourished into the 80s, demand grew from buyers for more exciting machinery. Just as these car companies were hitting their stride for design, technology, and engineering. Competing car brands were suddenly facing The Perfect Storm as the most technically advanced nation was ready to take over the world's car market.
This optimism and success the Japanese car industry was enjoying endowed it with confidence, just as it had the American car industry heading into the 60s. It emboldened them and as the Japanese automakers stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the legacy brands, they began to showcase more individual designs, and more ambitious projects.
Suddenly Japan wasn't copying established designs (hello Toyota 2000GT and RA28 Celica), or using engines under licence (Prince using Mercedes-Benz four- and six-cylinder engines in the 50s). With the same sort of good vibes and excitement which gave the world lurid, tyre-burning muscle cars in the 60s, Japan was about to unleash a radical new wave onto the world.
With Japanese designers flexing their own style new types of cars inspired by neon-coloured nights, angular shapes, and dramatic, bullish optimism hit the market. Eschewing the grandiose excess and bloat of the 70s the 80s felt lean, taught and exciting.
The Japanese engineers even caught prestige European brands napping, with the Japanese packaging advanced suspension and chassis designs into cheaper-class cars while simultaneously focusing on quality construction. Japanese cars rode nicely, handled well, had good brakes, and that was true for the fastest of fast, right down to entry level hatchbacks.
The "sudden" explosion of awesome cars from Japan, from ordinary Corollas to turbo motorsport-dominating brutes, was also helped by good timing with several important technologies we know and love reaching crucial points in their development. Advancements like rapidly maturing turbo technology and improvements in production methods making more efficient engines cheaper to produce, thereby allowing them to be fitted to a wider range of average cars, all helped but there was one true key: EFI.
By the late 70s the Bosch Motronic and Ford EEC-III EFI systems combined fuel-injection with an ignition system, all run by one computer and digital electronics. The difference to old mechanical injection and carburettors was immense, as part-throttle-response, fuel economy, ease of maintenance, cold-start manners, and even hot-start reliability all improved overnight.
Next to a 10-year-old, carburettor-fed, emissions-strangled V8 displacing more than three-times the capacity, a 1.6-litre 4AGE Corolla felt like a rocket. But even the ordinary family cars benefitted, and felt faster, ran cheaper, and were easier to drive than cars that came before them. And, because Japan pursues efficiency in design and production techniques, they were cheaper to make, which meant they were also often cheaper to buy than European, Australian, English or American cars.
As with sporting teams or bands enjoying a streak of success, when teams of designers and engineers hit gold and they're all vibing, the bullish attitudes often lead to more success. The world responded to epic Japanese cars of the 80s by buying them in droves, leading to more awesome cars through the 90s.
