Underrated: Mazda RX-7 (FD)

It was a golden era of Japanese car creation, the likes of which we’ve not seen since. It began in 1989 with the original Honda NSX and Mazda MX-5, was underlined in the same year by the birth of Lexus and the LS400 and went on to bring us the Nissan Skyline GT-R alongside such forgotten gems as the Subaru SVX (remember that?) and Mitsubishi’s RAC Rally-winning Galant VR4.

On the race track, Nissan blew everyone’s mind and almost its own engine with Mark Blundell’s legendary 1990 pole lap at Le Mans in the R90CK, while the following year Mazda was busy shattering spectators’ eardrums and Jaguar’s heart with outright victory with the shrieking 787B. A year later Toyota produced the even faster but not quite so reliable TS010.

And so far as Japan’s rabid new breed of road cars was concerned, it all seemed to culminate in 1992 or 1993. The Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru Impreza both erupted into existence during this time but there was also a trio of new Porsche wannabes that appeared from the east, each more intriguing than the real thing in many ways. These were, in no particular order, the second-generation (Z32) Nissan 300ZX, the A80 Toyota Supra Turbo and the third-generation Mazda RX-7, known simply by some as the FD.