22 Japanese takes on European cars

22 times Europe inspired Japan

They say it’s the highest form of flattery, imitation being rife in all human endeavour. So it’s little surprise to find plenty of examples of it in the car industry.

Though it’s been a trend-setter for decades, the Japanese car industry in the middle of the last century was playing catch-up. At the same time, it was trying to appeal to western fashion, which often meant tailoring cars to European tastes.

Although the following all offer something distinctly Japanese, few would deny that their designers and/or engineers used European models as jumping-off points.

Thankfully for us classic car fans, though, the results were often far better than simply a pastiche.

In no particular order, here are 22 Japanese models that have, to a greater or lesser degree, borrowed elements from European cars.

1. Mazda MX-5 

Our love affair with the roadster was on the rocks by the 1980s. The hot hatch had hammered the final nail into the traditional British roadster’s coffin, with relatively few within the motoring masses mourning its passing.

The image of the affordable open-top sports car at the time was that of a leaky, slow and rarely working antique. The thrusting ’80s car buyer wanted something new and usually European.

However, it took the Japanese – initially seen by many within the conservative British car industry as the ‘enemy’ – to reignite the world’s love affair with the traditional two-seater.

Mazda’s original (NA) MX-5 design borrowed heavily from that of the Lotus Elan, but unlike the classic Lotus, the MX-5, first launched in 1989, was willing and able to work 24-7, all year round.

2. Toyota 2000GT 

As with many of the cars on this list, the Toyota 2000GT took influences from all over the motoring world and distilled these into something familiar yet distinctly different.

Toyota wanted to showcase its expertise with a flagship GT that, with minimal modification, could be turned into a successful racer.

Jaguar’s E-type may have approached that from the opposite direction – growing from a racer into a more practical and usable GT – but the end result was clearly similar. 

Seen as Japan’s first supercar, the 2000GT married Japanese engineering prowess with looks that were part Corvette and a big dollop of E-type, and what’s not to love about that? Even James Bond was wooed by one.

3. Lexus LS400

The luxury-car industry benchmark since the 1960s has traditionally always been the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

It might not have continuously carried that moniker, but the big Benz always sat at the top of the tree, a target which other manufacturers often tried, but failed, to topple.

That was until 1989, when the epoch-shifting Lexus LS400 arrived. 

This remarkable machine came into being from a money-no-object development that saw the sole focus of its 60 designers, 1400 engineers, 2300 technicians and 200 support workers engaged in making the best-engineered car in the world.

The result shook the luxury-car industry, with new levels of refinement, technology and performance, and made Mercedes-Benz sit up and take notice.

4. Toyota Corona

The family man or woman in Japan has the same motoring requirements as any. It therefore follows that a very conventional three-box saloon would be just as marketable over there as in Europe.

The seminal family saloon in 1960s Britain was the Ford Cortina. Clearly using this best-seller as its inspiration, Toyota launched the Corona in 1965 – incidentally Toyota’s first model to be officially sold in the UK.

It was actually on its third generation by the time British customers could get behind the wheel, but with its outward-curving body design, three-box silhouette and trim that included Standard and Deluxe, there were no prizes for guessing its inspiration.

The Cortina copying worked well with the UK, US and in its native Japan all lapping up the Coronas – the RT40 was the first single Toyota model to sell more than a million examples (1.8 million globally).

5. Honda NSX

Ferrari was a firm many in the 1980s – save for those working for another marque with a horse on its badge in Stuttgart (Porsche) – would have thought unassailable. Honda didn’t think so, either.

Its engineering-led ethos had been successfully racing on two wheels for decades, but was better known in the car world, to that point, as builders of sensible and well-engineered, if a tad dull, family saloons.

That all changed with Honda’s entry as an engine supplier to Formula One in 1983. The firm had been absent from F1 for a generation but renewed its commitment to the top-tier formula for the 1980s and ’90s.

The NSX was Honda showcasing its more exciting motorsport side and it not only outdid the Ferrari 348 – quite comprehensively – it introduced the motoring world to the magnificent ‘Type R’ era.

6. Datsun 240Z

The most frequently compared machine to the Datsun 240Z, at least in the UK, is the Jaguar E-type, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

The 240Z has plenty of American muscle in its styling, as well as Porsche 911 and Alfa Romeo GTV in the mix. Like many more models in this list, however, its influence doesn’t define it, the 240Z is a masterpiece in its own right.

Introduced in 1969 to plug a small sports-car gap in the USA, the 240Z coupé was the type of machine to previously be built in Britain (Triumph GT6, for example). The 240Z sat above the modestly successful Fairlady 1500 (more on that later…).

The 240Z was the first ‘Z-car’ and the brainchild of Datsun USA president Yutaka Katayama, who was tasked with increasing the firm’s sporting image in America. We’d say that he left that box thoroughly ticked.

7. Toyota MR2 (W10)

Toyota, among its many accolades, is famed for perfecting the affordable mid-engined sports car.

The original MR2 made most of its rivals before and since (including its own Ferrari-355 aping follow-up) look distinctly half-baked.

The Porsche 914 had been bringing the mid-engine layout to the (well-heeled) masses since the 1960s, but Fiat’s X1/9 is the MR2’s more appropriate progenitor.

Gandini’s glaringly geometric design for the Fiat 850 Spider’s replacement made it look futuristic, long into its protracted production life.

The angular panels of the first MR2, plus its mid-engine layout, clearly show inspiration from the little Fiat, though to drive, the decade-newer Toyota was in another league.

8. Subaru Impreza (GC8)

Despite what many a YouTuber will spout at you, between demanding likes and subscribes, Subaru’s rallying career certainly didn’t begin with the Impreza; not even close.

The Tokyo marque had been contesting rallies on and off since 1980, but when it partnered with the British specialist motorsport-preparation company Prodrive in 1989, things really took off.

Subaru’s first serious World Rally Championship contender was the Legacy RS, from which the Impreza logically evolved.

The Legacy and therefore the Impreza were remarkably similar in concept and execution to the Ford Sierra Sapphire Cosworth, a model finding wide success in the late-1980s Group A WRC.

Is it just coincidence that Subaru fell on the same all-wheel-drive, turbocharged, four-door formula? Probably, especially considering Subaru had been dabbling with all-driven wheels since 1972. But the comparison is nonetheless valid.

9. Honda S600/800

Honda’s first right-hand-drive car was the diddy S600 Roadster. Ultimately, any tiny open-top sports car of the classic era has to pay homage to the Austin-Healey Sprite, but under the diminutive S600’s familiar body – first penned for the S360 kei car prototype in 1962 – it couldn’t have been more different.

Instead of the Sprite’s asthmatic 948cc A-series engine, that felt like it would explode if you dared to rev it to its 5500rpm redline, the little Honda’s 606cc, twin-cam overhead-valve unit made its peak 58bhp at 8500rpm, only forcing another gearchange at an astonishing 11,000rpm – in 1964.

Honda S800 pictured

10. Mazda RX-7 (FC)

Even the most die-hard Mazda defenders would struggle to claim that, for its RX-7 at least, Hiroshima’s designers were doing anything other than copying what Porsche was up to.

The first-generation RX-7 was a striking, if distinctly more individual, take on the Porsche 924 theme. Its follow-up, however, looked as though someone had been playing with the tracing paper on the side of a 944. 

Obviously, being rotary powered, the underpinnings of the RX-7 were very different to the cut-price Porsche’s.

However, with the latter selling rather well, it’s little wonder that Mazda decided to riff on the front-engine Porsche’s theme.

11. Datsun 510/Bluebird

We have the father of the 240Z to thank for the Datsun 510’s performance leaning. As we’ve seen already, he was keen to up the performance standing of the marque in the USA and therefore allegedly encouraged Datsun engineers to put larger engines into the 510. 

This conventionally styled, three-box saloon could have been any other anonymous import from the time, were it not for those aforementioned punchy overhead-camshaft engines and a very BMW 02-like chassis arrangement – front MacPherson struts and a semi-trailing-arm rear.

With its innately sporting layout, the 510 proved a popular circuit racer and rally contender. Its star ascended as high as winning the Sports Car Club of America’s (SCCA) Trans-Am 2.5-litre series, with a Peter Brock-prepared 510 in the hands of John Morton taking back-to-back titles in 1971 and ’72.

12. Datsun Type 14

Going back to the earliest days of Japan’s car industry, it was down to innovators to produce vehicles for public transport, usually trucks and buses.

Datsun’s first mass-produced machine of its own design arrived in 1935. The Datsun 14 design however, bore more than a passing resemblance to an Austin Seven, a trait the firm would continue post-war, though under licence building Austin A40s and A50s.

Before relations were that cordial, it’s rumoured Austin shipped a Datsun Type 14 back to the UK to disassemble it to check for any copyright infringements.

We can only assume none were found, or the car makers came to an agreement, because Nissan was soon permitted to build Austins under licence, until 1939, at least.

13. Nissan Pulsar GTI-R

This comparison is carried out entirely under the skin, because there’s clearly very little visual link between the Lancia Delta Integrale and the Nissan Pulsar GTI-R.

The latter was Nissan’s extremely formidable Group A rally challenger, designed to topple the former’s stranglehold on the late-1980s to early-1990s World Rally Championship. 

Both cars make use of a transverse, front-mounted, 2-litre four-cylinder engine with double-overhead camshafts (EVO II) and turbocharging. Both deploy their c200bhp through clever four-wheel-drive transmissions and both had roadgoing versions sold through dealerships, in order to be homologated. 

Unfortunately for Nissan, the Pulsar only scored one podium finish in its two seasons (1991-’92), a third-place when driven by Stig Blomqvist at Rally Sweden. The Integrale, of course, fared rather better.

14. Toyota Supra (MkIV)

In character, the magnificent MkIV Toyota Supra was more Porsche 911 than 928, though the end result fell somewhere in between the two; that said, it was distinctly different from its two main German rivals. 

The Supra grew from the earlier Celica, but eventually split off into its own exclusively six-cylinder-powered range.

By the early 1990s, Toyota’s confidence and motorsport pedigree were arguably reaching their zenith.

As the next-generation Supra arrived in 1993, it was the epitome of all its maker’s hard-won knowledge and engineering expertise.

There’s a very good reason why this Supra has become such a legend among Japanese modern-classic car enthusiasts.

It drives astonishingly well as stock and has internal engine components that seem invulnerable, making silly boosted horsepower figures the norm.

The Porsche 911 not only had a new rival in the Supra, it had a new benchmark to aspire to.

15. Mitsubishi Lancer Celeste (A70)

The car with a great many names – (10, in fact) though we’ll just refer to it as the A70 Mitsubishi Lancer Celeste – was a practical and attractive coupé with a hatchback rear and more than a passing resemblance to a certain Ingolstadt model of the same nature, released a few years earlier…

Though looking like an Audi 100 Coupé is hardly a bad thing, is it? Audi traded heavily on transatlantic muscle-car cues, anyway.

The 1975 Celeste wasn’t just pretty, it was tough and innovative in its own right. Engines were borrowed from the Lancer – along with the rest of its mechanical components – and came in 1.4-, 1.6- and 2-litre flavours.

There was a 2.5-litre Plymouth version, too, but due to the era, it was detuned and pretty gutless.

That didn’t stop American SCCA fans adopting the Celeste as a circuit racer, with some success, too.

The Celeste was replaced by the front-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Cordia at the end of 1981.

16. Toyota HiAce 

Toyota’s HiAce was introduced in 1967 with a familiar one-box, cab-over design that came in transporter, pick-up and camper body styles.

It might have been Toyota’s take on the Volkswagen Type 2, but it offered a lot that the VW didn’t.

For a start, it was powered by a range of far more refined water-cooled engines that didn’t clatter like spare change left in a washing machine.

HiAce development and production was spearheaded by Toyota Auto Body works, a subsidiary firm that had previously focused on commercial vehicles, including the Land Cruiser.

As the van craze swept Japan, thanks largely to the copy-cat HiAce, production figures soared, with 6 million made by 2017.

17. Honda N360

Were it not for the engine displacement, and a few other minor modifications, the original Mini could have made an ideal Japanese kei car.

Honda clearly saw the potential, developing its own take on the Mini formula with its N360 in 1967.

Japanese domestic customers, hoping to nip around the tight confines of the country’s urban centres while saving tax, lapped up the little kei Honda.

Just like Issigonis’ baby, the N360 had a front-mounted and neatly packaged engine with its transmission found in the sump.

However, very much unlike the Mini, the N360 was powered by an air-cooled parallel-twin-cylinder engine. There was even a van version with a proper hatchback rear door.

18. Subaru 360

Imagine, if you will, that a Volkswagen Beetle and a Fiat 500 could somehow manage to conceive offspring. If so, the Subaru 360 would probably be the end result.

This was America’s first taste of Subaru and it was one that left a bit of a tang in the back of the throat.

The car’s rear-hinged doors had a habit of flinging open on the move if they weren’t correctly latched.

The crash safety of this pint-sized kei car also didn’t stack up, especially when impacting one of the far larger cars America was making during the 1950s and ’60s.

The 10,000 Subaru 360s imported to the USA from 1958 to 1971 could therefore easily have been the only Subaru output the USA ever experienced but, thankfully, history took a different course.

19. Toyota Publica

Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry proclaimed its desire for a national car project in 1955.

This led to a number of manufacturers taking up the mantle of producing a peoples’ car, to get the nation mobile.

Toyota’s submission was something akin to a Citroën 2CV, wrapped in a Trabant-like body – though distinct in its own right.

The 1961 Toyota Publica’s 697cc air-cooled, two-cylinder, horizontally opposed engine drove its rear wheels.

The initial cars were exceptionally spartan with options like a heater and radio being omitted.

The Publica evolved through three generations until it was eventually replaced by the Starlet in 1978.

20. Honda CRX (first-generation)

Sporty Hondas are the norm these days, yet back in the 1980s that was far from the case.

The brand didn’t have the performance cachet among four-wheel enthusiasts and the CRX was an attempt to address that.

As Volkswagen had done with its Scirocco, Honda based its new sporty coupé on the underpinnings of its hatchback stablemate, in this instance the Civic.

Alfa Romeo is perhaps the better comparison, however, because it’s rumoured that one of the CRX’s lead designers owned an Alfa Romeo Junior Zagato and referred back to Ercole Spada’s creation when working on the CRX.

The side profiles of both cars are very similar…

21. Datsun Silvia

We associate the Silvia today with sideways Fast & Furious antics, the S13-S15 models proving especially popular among the drift crowd.

However, the first car to bear the name was very different. The original Silvia was first shown at the 1964 Tokyo motor show in October of that year and, to all intents and purposes, looked very much like the far better-known Lancia Fulvia Coupé that followed in 1965.

The design of both cars was clearly heavily influenced by a Fiat 1300/1500 concept car that appeared at the 1961 Turin show, built by Carrozzeria Savio.

In this era, all manner of influences were making their way into car design, both in Europe and around the globe, so it’s impossible to tell who was borrowing from who.

22. Datsun Fairlady 1500

Decades before Mazda was inspired by the traditional British two-seater sports car, Datsun was making its own homage to appeal to US customers.

The Fairlady range – so-called allegedly because of the success of the Broadway musical My Fair Lady – had been around since 1959, but it was with the introduction of the SP310 in 1963 that things got a whole lot more European.

Coming two years after the MG Midget, there’s obviously some Abingdon influence in the 1500, but it still manages to have an attractive air all of its own.

The humble Datsun also allegedly kick-started Paul Newman’s racing career, which is quite the claim to fame.

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