{"id":1921929,"date":"2026-05-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1921929"},"modified":"2026-05-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:00:00","slug":"the-50-best-japanese-cars-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1921929","title":{"rendered":"The 50 best Japanese cars of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The unkillable car. Trust us, we tried once on the telly show. Set it on fire, drowned it, even dropped a caravan on it (ah, the good old days). It hardly flinched. A TG icon and champion of that most Japanese of automotive traits: bombproof reliability.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Not a hot hatch, but certainly not room temp either, the diminutive Swift Sport like so many great Japanese driver\u2019s cars prioritised sensation over speed. With 123bhp, a delicious gear shift, and the footprint of a flip-flop, it was a car you could have the time of your life in, while barely keeping up with cyclists.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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High end SUVs are the vehicular status symbol of choice in the Western world, but in Japan, anyone who\u2019s anyone wafts around in a luxury minivan. Further proof that theirs is a more advanced society than ours. With private jet seating and legroom measured in metres, the Alphard and its ilk expose our beloved crossovers for the frivolous packaging disasters they are.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Toyota bucked the trend of automotive bloating with the third-generation MR2, producing a car that was both smaller and lighter than its predecessor. Extra impressive considering the Mk3 was a roadster and required additional stiffening to stop things getting all bendy down a twisty. It was never quite able to escape the MX-5\u2019s shadow \u2014 but to drive, it was every bit as special.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You often hear the Nissan Qashqai credited with\/blamed for inventing the crossover SUV, a category that, in Europe at least, has gone on to absorb all others. But it was in fact the RAV4 that first introduced the world to the idea of the soft-roader: a car with SUV proportions and respectable road manners. The difference being that the RAV4 could still actually, you know, go off-road, whereas Qashqais can be thwarted by large puddles.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Pulsar GTI-R may have looked like a haphazard Halfords job \u2014 its louvred bonnet scoop and giant wing incongruous with its unswollen arches and shopping trolley wheels \u2014 but it was a proper Group A homologation special, and serious bit of kit. If the Skyline was Godzilla, the Pulsar was your feisty pet iguana.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In truth it was little more than a rear-drive Corolla with pop-up headlights, but perfect weight distribution and innate balance saw the AE86 humble more powerful FWD machinery in touring car racing, while a starring role in the Initial D<\/em> manga series cemented it as the defining icon of Japan\u2019s greatest art form. No, not haikus, the other one.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Some would have you believe that British and Japanese cultures are disparate. But here\u2019s some empirical evidence that deep down, we\u2019re so not different after all. Because what could be more British than dropping a dog-hauling estate onto rally car gubbins? Turns out the language of muddy B-road blasting is universal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With its 65bhp power cap, the kei car category hardly lends itself to sportiness. But that didn\u2019t stop Japan\u2019s best and brightest from giving it a bloody good go in the early 90s. The result was a trio of sporty flyweights known collectively as the \u201cABC of kei cars\u201d. This was A. With gullwing doors and supercar styling, the AZ-1 was the most exotic of the three and \u2014 thanks to its relatively high price \u2014 by far the least successful.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Imagine ski boots suddenly became fashionable, and people started clumping around town in them just for the aesthetic. That\u2019s the Gen 4 Jimny. Its delightful design made it London\u2019s must-have accessory of 2018 despite comically pants road manners. Had urbanite owners dared get theirs muddy, they\u2019d have discovered off-road capabilities that more than made up for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The GT86 was a bastion of \u201cfun over fast\u201d and a bloody good car. But we were never able to shake the feeling it could have done with just a little<\/em> more fire in its belly. Clearly, Toyota agreed, because the subsequent GR86 delivered precisely that. The result is a proper Goldilocks sports car: utterly accessible yet genuinely thrilling.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s hard to draw a line from the original, blissfully straightforward NSX to this, its AWD, twin-turbo, tri-motor successor. And that put us off a bit at first. But once we were done being mopey old nostalgics and gave the thing a proper go, all that washed away. The Gen 2 NSX is a technological tour de force<\/em> with proper face-melting performance. One of the most underrated supercars of this century.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Resplendent in its iconic Castrol livery, the GT-Four terrorised WRC in the early 90s before Toyota was banned from the sport for two years, in one of rally\u2019s most infamous scandals. Perhaps that, plus its steep \u00a330k price when new, explains why the sublime GT-Four road car is so criminally overlooked in discussions about the great homologation specials.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Remember the \u201cABC of kei cars\u201d we mentioned? Here\u2019s C. Like the AZ-1, the Cappuccino exploited Japan\u2019s slight relaxation of Kei car restrictions in the 90s which permitted a monstrous 660cc of displacement. About the same as your lawnmower. Of the trio, it was the only one ever officially sold in the UK, albeit for just two years.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The last model overseen by the great Soichiro Honda, The Beat completes our trio of sporty kei cars. It combined a feral 8,500rpm redline with Happy Meal toy proportions, resulting in a driving experience that is exactly as hilarious as that sounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A Dakar icon, the bat-winged Pajero Evo turned the world\u2019s most gruelling motor race into its personal playground in the Noughties, winning outright seven years in a row. In many ways, its bonkers homologation car is an ideal daily \u2014 just think how much time you\u2019d save on the commute by driving as the crow flies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Over here, it\u2019s certainly the least revered of Japan\u2019s 90s sports car holy trinity. That\u2019s somewhat understandable: the Supra punched harder and the RX-7 was sharper. But as a daily, the ZX with its refined interior and GT maturity had them both beat. And that\u2019s not to say it was a slouch \u2014 with 300bhp, it laughed in the face of the Japanese OEMs\u2019 famous Gentleman\u2019s Agreement of the late 80s, which set a 276bhp power cap for all sports cars.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Japanese cars are either restrained and sophisticated, or unhinged and outrageous \u2014 there is no in-between. This orange lozenge of obnoxiousness falls firmly into the latter camp. Dishing out 911 thrills for Mondeo money, it burbled its way deep into our hearts in the Noughties, securing TG’s car of the year award in 2004.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Measuring less than three metres long and resembling a normal car that\u2019s crashed into a wall in a Tom and Jerry<\/em> cartoon, the iQ is the smallest ever four-seater and a shining example of the engineering ingenuity Toyota is capable of at its brilliant best. It\u2019s also a sobering reminder how little of that flair Toyota has shown of late\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Japan rarely stoops to the uncouth indulgence of big displacement \u2014 it\u2019s rare that anything with more than three litres or six cylinders emerges from The Land of the Rising Sun. The LC500, with its sonorous V8 fury, highlights what a massive bloody shame that is.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Not the first rotary-engined production car \u2014 that accolade goes to the NSU Spider, developed by Felix Heinrich Wankel, who invented the technology and gave it that definitely-not-funny name. But the Cosmo was the first to make it work. It looked like a spaceship and, thanks to its smooth, revvy, twin-rotor powertrain, it went like one too, establishing Mazda\u2019s credentials as the automotive world\u2019s rotary specialist.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There\u2019s an old Aussie saying: \u201cGoing into the bush? Take the Land Rover. Want to get out again? Take the Land Cruiser\u201d. Instead of being designed for ease of repair, Toyota\u2019s workhorse was designed to never break in the first place. There is surely no car more synonymous with rugged reliability. So beloved was the gorgeous Mk1 that Toyota kept it in production for over four decades, alongside new versions.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With a groundbreaking hybrid system and the drag coefficient of a lubed-up eel, Honda\u2019s first foray into electrification set fuel economy records that the subsequent gen 2 Prius could only dream of matching. As a car, it was hopelessly flawed \u2014 that slippery rear end left no room for rear seats or a decent boot \u2014 but as a feat of engineering and insight (wahey) into the future potential of hybrid tech, it was staggering.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Arriving in \u201999, facing backward and in a cloud of tyre smoke, the S15 was the final generation of Silvia, and the one most revered by the drift scene. If the Sprinter Trueno was drifting\u2019s poster child, the Silvia was its king: light, balanced, and endlessly tuneable.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Like Wagamama, the P1 was of Japanese descent, but actually made in the UK. Unlike Wagamama, it didn\u2019t leave you disappointed. Or make you touch knees with strangers. Developed by Prodrive, it took the best bits of an STI and tweaked the suspension to better suit the collection of small craters the Brits charmingly call \u2018roads\u2019.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Another UK-only special edition of a Japanese legend. FQ-badged Evos were a tiny run of cars fettled by Ralliart, freed from the constraints of the Gentleman\u2019s Agreement and dialled up to 11. Possibly 12. The magnitude of the Evo\u2019s impact on British culture is best illustrated by the swathes of Corsas, Polos and Fiestas that sprouted vortex generator roof spikes during the 2000s.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the late 60s Nissan, keen to prove itself as more than just a producer of white goods, decided to dabble in motorsport. Quite a dabble it was, too. Its contestant, the Skyline GT-R, notched 49 Japanese Touring Car victories. In a row. A legend was born, and a bloodline of giant killer road cars established. There\u2019d be no Godzilla if it wasn\u2019t for the \u201cHakosuka”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sometimes, a great deal of squinting is required to see the connection between the originator of a lineage and its descendants. Not so much with the Civic Type R. Low weight, red seats, and a masochistic desire to be thrashed like a wealthy businessman with mommy issues \u2014 it was all there from the beginning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The middle of a car is the best place for an engine. It just is. But before 1984, you had to be fairly loaded to afford something that employed that sacred setup. That changed with the MR2. Created in direct response to the 1970s global oil crisis, it uniquely blended mid-engined chassis balance and supercar proportions with ultra-low running costs. Two generations followed, each quite different, all utterly magnificent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Not the first hybrid car, but the one that took the technology mainstream. Marrying a 1.5-litre engine to a 40bhp electric motor, the Prius\u2019 huge fuel economy and miniscule emissions made it a smash hit with frugal cabbies and virtue-signalling celebs. About as desirable as a verruca, but easily one of the most influential cars ever made.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The MX-5 has never missed a beat. Every iteration has refined the recipe and improved on the one before (yes, even the blobby NC), which is why this latest iteration is the best Miata ever. It\u2019s a looker too, especially in Soul Red Crystal \u2014 a colour which, when we come to power, all Mazdas will be painted by law.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There are good reasons why the rotary never caught on. They\u2019re too fussy for road car use, too high maintenance. But just because something is flawed, doesn\u2019t mean it can\u2019t be fun \u2014 the physics abomination that is the Porsche 911 neatly illustrates that. The RX-7 is comfortably the finest road car ever to utilise the idiosyncratic engine, with styling and handling as sharp as the triangular blades maniacally spinning under its bonnet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The first and only V12 Japanese barge, the Century was a glorious marriage of Japanese craftsmanship and high-end luxury that left us desperately wishing the two would wed more often. Also a refreshing reminder that posh cars don\u2019t have to always be cocoons of leather and gadgetry. We\u2019ll take our Century with the lovely wool interior please, lace seat-covers and all.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Civic Type R\u2019s slightly more grown-up sibling (to the extent that a car with red seats and white wheels can be described as such) is one of the all-time great FWD driver\u2019s cars. What it manages with a mere 187bhp remains unfathomable. But is it THE best? We can think of one that edges it. Ha! Now you\u2019ll have to finish the article…\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The first Japanese sports car to attract international appreciation, the Z felt every bit as special as contemporary MGs and Triumphs and offered the added bonus of\u2026 actually working properly most of the time. Durable, muscular, and achingly beautiful, it paved the way for a lineage that (a few stinkers notwithstanding) gave us some of Japan\u2019s greatest driver\u2019s cars.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We\u2019d just about made peace with the fact that rally homologation specials had had their chips. Then this angry little nugget showed up and rocked our world. Boasting the most powerful three-cylinder engine ever made and oozing that delicious sense of hefty, chunky solidity intrinsic to rally weaponry, the GR Yaris was an instant classic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Contrary to popular belief, Honda did not simply take the raucous VTEC four pot out of the Integra and dump it into a low-slung sports car. It would\u2019ve been perfectly brilliant if they did, but that wasn\u2019t the Honda way. No, the S2000\u2019s screaming F20C was developed from the ground up by the team behind a certain supercar that we\u2019ll get onto shortly. To find a sweeter, revvier, more eager four cylinder, you\u2019d need to go superbike shopping.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Legend has it $1 billion and 1,400 engineers were invested into its development, all in the name of ensuring the end product was the quietest car ever made. While big, wafty Mercs and BMWs always endeavored to offer a dash of sportiness, the LS pursued comfort with absolute singular focus. We\u2019ve had warm baths more stressful than piloting one of these.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Only Nissan\u2019s four most skilled <\/em>Takumi (master craftsmen) were permitted in the room where the GT-R\u2019s blistering V6 was meticulously hand built. All that just for some bloke called Gazza to buy one and fit it with fart cans and a remap. Still, what a machine \u2014 a science lab dressed as a sports coupe that, even now production has ended, still gives supercar owners nightmares.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The convertible model that starred in You Only Live Twice<\/em> was never actually supposed to exist \u2014 cutting the roof off was just the only way they could cram all 6ft 2in of Sean Connery in. Had they known at the time that the 2000GT would go on to become the most valuable Japanese car ever built, one wonders if they might have tried hacking some bits off Bond first. Only 351 examples of the jaw-dropping GT were ever produced.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As the first ever mass-produced electric car, the Leaf was, understandably, a tad crude. Range was better measured in metres than miles, battery degradation was catastrophic, and the design\u2026 well, there wasn\u2019t one. But we had to start somewhere. And if it wasn\u2019t for this frumpy lump showing up so ahead of its time, we\u2019d still be waiting on the 300+ mile, rapid charging EVs that we\u2019re now up to our eyeballs in.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The greatest FWD driver\u2019s car ever made. The FL5 added in almost all regards to the magnificence of its predecessor, while addressing its fatal flaw: the Power Ranger styling. Astronomically expensive, yet somehow totally worth it. If it proves to be the last ever hot Civic \u2014 and alas, it looks like it might be \u2014 we couldn\u2019t think of a more perfect sendoff.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The ultimate version of the ultimate Evo. There were major upgrades to the hardware, but it was the little things that made the TME so desirable, like the go-faster stripes as seen on the Flying Finn\u2019s WRC car. It even shed its fog lights from the front splitter in the name of extra cooling, just like Big M\u00e4k\u2019s. Imagine trying to explain to a non-car person how cool that is.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If you wanted to look like a rally driver, the TME was unparalleled. But if you wanted to feel<\/em> like one? This was the car. With its flared arches, bored out 2.2-litre engine and trick power distribution system allowing for on-the-fly adjustments to front\/rear bias, the 22B was the realest of deals. To feel any more like McCrae tackling the Safari Rally, you\u2019d need to rub sand into your eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One of the more creative approaches to flouting the famed Gentleman\u2019s Agreement, the Supra wasn\u2019t so much a car as a starting point. With its unkillable cast iron engine block, oversized radiator and wildly over-engineered gearbox, it didn\u2019t just withstand aggressive aftermarket modification \u2014 it actively encouraged it. But, so long as you, the owner, were the one cranking it up to 1,000bhp, no rules were broken, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Every gamer\u2019s dream car. Not just because it starred in every racing game of the 2000s, but because of the onslaught of data the R34\u2019s space age dash supplied, with digital dials updating you on everything from boost to G-force. That sounds tiresome today, now that cars are iPads with wheels, but in 1999 it was like a spaceship had crash landed on Earth. Performance was similarly otherworldly. The ballistic, astonishing swansong for Japan\u2019s greatest ever sports saloon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After a 16-year hiatus (presumably to give someone else the chance to win a race or two), Nissan revived its Skyline GT-R program. Among countless innovations, the new car, codenamed R32, sported a new electronic brain that could redistribute torque to different wheels 100 times per second to almost entirely negate the understeer AWD cars typically suffer from. We are talking about a machine from the 80s. <\/em>What followed was a period of motorsport dominance that made the Schuey years at Ferrari look like a dead heat, and a road car that had Sierra RSs and M3s trembling in their sheds. Later generations improved the formula, but for sheer cultural impact, no Skyline holds a candle to the original Godzilla.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The twin-turbo axe murderer supercomputers are wonderful \u2014 but if we close our eyes and picture a Japanese driver\u2019s car, this is what appears. The first MX-5 was a pure, joyful expression of Japan\u2019s most fundamental automotive values: tactility, simplicity, and balance. In a world of ballooning weight and power figures, it provides an increasingly powerful reminder of what truly matters in a sports car. Namely, pop-up headlights.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Today, the idea of a supercar you could happily daily isn\u2019t remotely strange, but pre-2002, it was unthinkable. Seriously, try parallel parking a Diablo. Try tackling a wet M25 in a Viper. You wouldn\u2019t wish it on your worst enemy. The NSX, with its big boot, Honda reliability and Labrador personality showed there was another way. Was it a \u201cproper supercar\u201d? Open the taps on that naturally aspirated V6 and have a listen. Somewhere around 8,000rpm, the answer becomes clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What happens when Toyota applies its unmatched engineering might to creating an evocative supercar engine, then hires the acoustics boffins at Yamaha to help make it sound exciting? Good things, as it turns out. Specifically, a V10 that howls like an old F1 car and revs so fast that it requires a digital rev counter, because an analogue needle just can\u2019t keep up. The LFA\u2019s astonishing engine feels like a neat analogy for what we so love about great Japanese cars: superlative engineering, but an emphasis on sensation over performance figures. That\u2019s why, for us, it\u2019s the best Japanese car ever made.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The unkillable car. Trust us, we tried once on the telly show. Set it on fire, drowned it, even dropped a caravan on it (ah, the good old days). It hardly flinched. A TG icon and champion of that most Japanese of automotive traits: bombproof reliability.\u00a0 Not a hot hatch, but certainly not room temp […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-1921929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1921929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1921929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1921929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1921929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}