Cars
Japanese Roadsters: from Kei Cars to Global Success
From a 360 cc kei car to a V10 prototype – Japan’s roadsters trace a singular arc of precision, balance, and desire.
Taken one by one, Japanese spiders and roadsters stir a feeling that is genuinely singular: I want them all. Yes, all of them – because they are the expression of a culture capable of uniting its own deep values with what the Japanese themselves perceive as the desires of the West. Over time they have learned to interpret this type of car with uncommon precision, moving from the smallest of sports cars built to respect the limits of the kei car regulations all the way to models whose performance stands alongside the finest European supersports machines. Honda was among the first to believe in it, Toyota even built two open 2000GTs specifically for James Bond, while Nissan and Lexus explored the formula with increasingly ambitious proposals.
The true record, however, belongs to Mazda: with the MX-5, unveiled in 1989, the Japanese recovered the recipe of the English and Italian spiders of the 1960s – two seats, low weight, balance, and driving pleasure – and transformed it into a success of over one million examples. Here are the most significant models, chosen for you by the Roarington editorial team.
__1962 – Honda S360__
