Will they come back?

Well after a very very long time, its now really heartbreaking that more and more prominent Japanese cars (like EVOs, STIs) are falling from the market.

Today's headlines was another shocker. "FINAL EDITION OF THE WRX STI GOES ON SALE " well although that really shocked all those FF and JDM car fans, later though a moment of sigh, STIs will no longer reach the British shores. This gave most of us a relief. The Americans and Arabs survive due to these cars and their absence from the markets will be really heartbreaking.

Somewhere in the mid-70s came these graceful and nimble little cars to participate in the rally and they stole the hearts of millions.  Here is a list of a few JDM cars that stole our hearts.

Mitsubishi Lancer EVO

The Lancer was born as a regular family car in the late 70s. In order to increase its audience Mitsubishi planned to enter the rallying world, this made Mitsubishi a rallying legend by the early 80s Mitsubishi began developing a Stage B rally car but even before the prototype was completed Stage B races were stopped. So Mitsubishi had a brand new car but nowhere to race so they entered the Stage A with the Galant that ran on the new car's tech. Then as the rallying standards changed to smaller cars, Mitsubishi then took the Lancer that was a regular guy in the corner of the class and made him drift past corners and changed the world forever.The first generation of EVOs were basically raw rally cars with the TM yaw control of the Mitsubishi. They made their mark with a bunch of attractive features like AWD, larger air intakes, 4WD suspension etc all that never belonged to a regular street car the EVO was a pure crossbreed between rally cars and regular street cars. By 2016 Mitsubishi discontinued the EVO due to financial instabilities. But there is still hope. Mitsubishi still might get a new EVO as they still sell Lancers in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Toyota AE86

Once again a car from the same era. Toyota replaced the Celica with the Corolla AE86 for the group A rally and the Japanese called it a Trueno. The AE 86 featured as the protagonist of the famous Initial D series. On paper the AE86 may not sound all that exciting, but its revolutionary DOHC 16v unit configured to a rear wheel drive system helped the AE 86 break away from its dreary Corolla counterpart.The 86 is a drivers car and to get most from the engine you will have to work hard to hear that engine scream its raspy tone .

Nissan Skyline R32 GTR

Many say the GTR is still in production, Yes!! true but the present day GT_R is no Skyline it is completely built on a different platform. The Skyline is one of the all-time greats, The GT-R badge had been retired since the 70s so it was always going to take a special car to bring back the GT-R name. The R32 was the chosen one. Setting itself a class a class apart, the GT-R was not only built to take on Group A rally or that tight corner hairpin bend on any downhill course in Japan, it was an all-rounder and performed well on tracks too earning itself the name GODZILLA.The R32 was also the first car to use Nissan's legendary RB26 Twin turbo engine featuring a state of the art Altessa 4WD system. The R32 GT-Rwas almost space age at its time and brought back the GT-R name back with a bang.  

Subaru ImprezaWRX STI

Launched in 1992 the Impreza WRX aimed squarely at the EVO and became an instant success across all platforms, be it rally or street race the Impreza was exceptional.  Shortly after the WRX was launched Subaru Motorsports branch intervened and created a further more interesting STI version that was almost a road going rally car. Over the classic  Impreza production run, 6 versions and several special editions were created , each version got its very own  set of upgrades and no matter what you choose, even 16 years after the classic Impreza rolled off production, they've got their DNA alive and their go anywhere attitude was relentless, all thanks to its flat 4 Boxer engine.

The Verdict

The list does not end here there are lot more JDM heroes lurking there in the market we know not their condition and waiting for a new one may not be a good thought and presently most of these cars are dead or they are largely being influenced by western culture and losing their identity and name on the market.