Nissan

With the opening round of the 2012 Formula Drift season just over a fortnight (That’s a fancy way of saying “two weeks”; who says we aren’t an educational website?) away on the streets of Long Beach, California, the excitement in the Sub5Zero editorial bunker is starting to build. Formula Drift’s ninth full season (The sport first arrived stateside as a one-off exhibition at Irwindale Speedway in 2003 followed by the debut Formula Drift event at Road Atlanta the following spring.) promises to be one for the ages, with an eclectic mix of cars, drivers and venues on tap. We’ll analyze the prospects for the 2012 Formula Drift calendar in due course, but first, let’s take a quick look back at 2011.

Just like this year’s, last year’s championship chase opened on the streets of Long Beach. Justin Pawlak came out on top in his Falken Tires Ford Mustang. Daijiro Yoshihara then took top honors at Road Atlanta for the second year in a row in his Falken Tires/Discount Tire Nissan S13. Pawlak was on top of the podium again at the end of round three in Palm Beach, while Hankook Tire Chevrolet Camaro driver Conrad Grunewald outlasted the competition to take top honors at the treacherous Wall Speedway in New Jersey. Yoshihara took his second win of the year at round five in Washington State, while Rhys Millen was victorious at Las Vegas, two years after he failed to qualify in the Red Bull Hyundai Genesis Coupe’s debut.

Not too long ago, I popped Need for Speed: Underground, one of my very first racing games, into my Gamecube just for kicks. Having considered myself to be a car enthusiast for a number of years now, I was curious to see how far the tuning scene had come. I really wish I had some screenshots to show you just how much my own interpretation of “cool” has changed. My entire stable of Underground cars rocked wild metallic paint jobs, tear/stripe vinyls, neon, and planet-sized chrome wheels.

My lasting impression of Hot Import Nights was that the cars that turned up were all somewhat like my virtual Underground garage – most show, little go. I fully expected to see some Lambo doors on cars that weren’t Lamborghini’s and maybe even hear the distinctive plume of nitrous purging. How things have changed. HIN has matured and grown up in time with our scene and even with the closure of Irwindale Speedway, the show had to go on.

I had the pleasure of driving down to Irvine for the Cars and Coffee meet on a warm, sunny Saturday morning 2 weeks ago. If you didn't already know, Cars and Coffee is an informal meet that takes place at Mazda’s HQ parking lot every week, where gearheads from all walks of life come together to have a drink of coffee and enjoy automotive culture. You can find about any type of vehicle in the meet; muscle, Italian, motorcycles, Le Mans racers, imports, and even concept cars! Did I mention it was free?

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.