Japanese

For performance enthusiasts on a budget, the “pocket rocket” – a compact, small-engined runabout tuned to strike a balance between performance and practicality – is manna from motoring heaven. And few nations have made as many of those over the years as Japan. The island nation’s automakers turned Americans on to affordable, quality compacts during the energy crisis of the 1970s, and in the 1980s, started turning us on to affordable, quality compacts that were fun to drive.

But which Japanese pocket rockets had the biggest impact on the enthusiast community? Well, we’ve tried to narrow that list down to the top 10 contenders for the title of best all time, though we’ll stop short of naming a number one, since we’re going to be getting enough flack for leaving so-and-so off the following list. Note, too, that we’ve limited the criteria to fixed-roof cars that have more than two seats and were available new in the U.S.; in other words, no whining about gems like the MR2, Miata, Civic Type R and Pulsar GTi-R not making the cut. Yes, we realize that makes the title more than a little misleading, but making a more accurate one would have made for a long-ass title, wouldn’t it? With that out of the way, here are our picks.

Over the years, the auto industry has more or less agreed upon minimum displacements for engines with a given number of cylinders. Four-bangers seldom go smaller than 1.5L (at least in this market), sixes rarely dip below 3.0L, and these days you hardly ever see a V8 smaller than about 4.5L. Obviously, there are no hard and fast official rules regarding engine size, and there have been some noteworthy powerplants that bucked the trend.

One example that springs right to our mind is a line of peewee V6s made by Mitsubishi from the early-‘90s to the mid-2000s. Codenamed the 6A1 engine family, these overhead cam six-pots ranged in size from 2.5L all the way down to an a-DOR-able 1.6L unit offered in Japanese and Pacific Rim market Mirages and Lancers.  But the middle child of the family – the DOHC version of the 2.0L 6A12 – was found in a snappy compact, front-drive sport coupe called the FTO.

The Nissan GT-R might get a lot of hype, but the fact of the matter is most of it is deserved. Sure, purists balk at the crapton of computing power on board and operating everything from the dual-clutch transmission to the phalanx of electronic safety nets and performance aids, but we say so what? As an ensemble, this rolling supercomputer manages to make the laws of physics its bitches. Not too shabby for a roughly two-ton, four-seat coupe.

That’s not to say, of course, that the GT-R is meeting is capable of meeting its full potential when it rolls out of the factory. It’s heavy, not as stiffly sprung as it could be, and the brakes place roughly equal emphasis on performance and durability. Not exactly the optimum setup for hotlap after hotlap on the track. Luckily for the well-heeled track day junkies of the world, Nissan has devised a group of options collectively called the Track Pack that make Godzilla even more monstrous.