(Looks like a Ferrari copy to me though )

Not sure I trust your eyesight after this post.

Oh, I’d probably go for the Datsun 120Y as well, just because it stands for something, the first proper Jap family car to sell well in Europe. Unassuming with a certain style.

The first Prius will be a classic. A truly original Japanese car.

The first MR2, the first couple of CRXs. The Corolla GT. The mid 80s Celeca. The first MX5. The NSX. Only the CRX and NSX were properly original though, probably. All classics in my opinion.

Surely to be a Japanese classic the car must be instantly recognisable (with all badges off) as Japanese? Too many of those posted here don’t fit into that criteria imo. Skyline, Impreza, Evo, etc – yes. Nissan Z’s, NSX – not so much

Peter, I think we’ve ALL learned something today.
Mainly that you should stick to bikes.

Utter bobbins, lots of Jap classic cars, if you don’t want to be convinced that is fine but stop being daft.

Chill dude.

So by your logic a 6R4, Cossie Escort, Sierra Cossie and any other 4×4 rally cars are all Quattro copies????

Quattro was first, so in a way, yes. They all jumped on the bandwagon, didn’t they? But that Nissan even LOOKS like a quattro! 😉 Did it ever win much? I’m an occasional rally fan but I never knew it existed….
Fast Fords always attract a loyal following though, that’s the way of the world and quite right too. People’s cars again. Attainable. Usable. Handy. Rapid.
6R4? Competion special, innit? Adds desirability instantly for rarity if nothing else. I’ve seen them being used properly, and they are very very impresive indeed. But if I was after a Group B car for my dream garage, there’s really only a choice of 2.
The original : Quattro
The best : Delta Integrale

😀

The first Prius will be a classic. A truly original Japanese car.

yeah, I was waiting for someone to say that. That was one of my thoughts before I posted this thread too.
Not yet though. it needs time to mellow………..

Gotta have the S800 on that list.

Fast Fords always attract a loyal following though, that’s the way of the world and quite right too. People’s cars again. Attainable. Usable. Handy. Rapid.

They attract a large following because they were common as muck in their day. And of course some of those that drove and/or admired them will be loyal to the cars they looked up to. That’s about it really. I have a soft spot for them myself, but they were awful cars.

Similarly in Japan, you had your fast family cars, like the Skyline, Supra, Soarer, etc. Crazy little hot hatches like the Starlet and Sunny. All quicker, more reliable, and more refined than any of the British offerings, by a long way. And proper driver’s cars.

They’re not popular classics over here, because they were never sold over here in any great numbers (some not at all). But they’re certainly classics in Japan, and to the many people across the world that drive and admire them. And there are still thousands of them around today, cherished and loved, unlike all the fast fords which fell to bits years ago 😉

this, not including lionel blair and this

whoops
was a colt sapporo and subaru mv1800 pick up etc etc

Toyota GT86 / Subaru BRZ are potential classics in the making . . . .

Mazda AZ-1?

I’d say that classic car status belongs to much more familiar cars than alot of the examples given here. With European cars you’d apply the ‘classic’ status to cars that we’re common but distinctive and well loved: the Beetle, Mini, or to cars that everyone could recognise: Ferraris, Lamborginis, Rolls Royces – the kind of car you’d have a poster of as kid or were linked to TV characters or personalities.The Saint didn’t drive a 240Y, Purdie didn’t drive a S800

Japanese cars to great extent fell between these – comparatively expensive they weren’t a car that everyone had and although they made some very exciting and potent cars very few were poster-on-the-wall objects of lust either.

I’d say the Jimny should be a classic but isn’t – knocks the Landrover into a cocked hat for heritage, but no one who sees or even owns one knows that

The Subaru pickup is by accident but better known as a toy than as an actual car

The Toyota pickup has become one, but thats mainly Top Gear meme. If you say anythng and it gets repeated on Dave often enough it becomes fact. Toyota tonkas have been around for a long time very few people actually have owned on.

The Prius is very deliberately designed to be iconic: They intended that its should look unlike any other car, even unlike any other toyota, to suggest that a car with with a different technology inside had to be a different shape. It worked for them too – their car is the logo for hybrids. Even though its got a dozen credible competitors the competition’s cars are all just ordinary cars with a badge. Toyota sells more of its hybrid than all its competitors put together. No ones has really noticed anyone else makes them.

I’d say the pony cars : The 120Y, the first Celica etc were the first jap cars that people really noticed, but its so rare you actually see one that people have pretty much forgotten about them. We had a 120Y when I was growing up. Until I saw one this year I probably hadn’t seen one on the road for about 20 years.

So we’ve established that every single Japanese car manufacturer has produced at least one bona fide classic then? Good.

Subaru SVX

In my not quite statistically correct mind it seemed that 90% of vehicles on Kenyan roads were these when I was there. Chop the roof off and you have a great safari vehicle too.

I think they’d view it as a classic.

Have the Japanese ever made a true classic car?

Yes I owned two of them. I took driving lessons and passed my test in a 54plate Mini Cooper. I learnt to drive in a Mazda MX5.

If Toyota got their asses in gear and offered a 120bhp 1.0 3cyl Aygo it’d be biblical. Truly so.

HiLux and Landcruiser.

MX5 mark 1 as looks great (and I’ve got one)I’ve got an auto (don’t laugh) which stops me driving like a knoob.

stops me driving like a knoob.

Is that a cross between a noob and a knob? – I like it.

I think the Datsun 120Y’s are classic

not that this view will be shared by that many . . . .