Year of the Japanese sports car

Cast your mind back to 1989. The Berlin Wall came down, China’s Tiananmen Square incident caused international outrage, Russia withdrew from Afghanistan, a military junta changed Burma into Myanmar and Nintendo’s Game Boy brought us the handheld gaming device.

1989 also happens to be the most significant year in Japanese automotive history, because it brought no less than six now-legendary models and the launch of two luxury brands.

Yes indeed, the Nissan Skyline GT-R (R32), Subaru Legacy, Mazda MX-5, Toyota MR2, Nissan 300ZX and Toyota 80 Series LandCruiser all debuted in 1989, while Lexus and Infiniti were both launched in the US the same year.

Dare we say the next most important year for Japan’s car industry was 1997, when the first Toyota Prius surfaced and put ‘hybrid’ on the international map while Sony PlayStation’s Gran Turismo driving simulator was causing a sensation in lounge rooms around the world.

If all indications are correct, another watershed year is rapidly approaching for Japan’s motoring industry -- the year 2017.

With their ears to the ground and fingers on the pulse, our sources are telling us that in 2017, Toyota and BMW will launch a co-developed sports car, Honda will unveil a medium-sized, mid-engined coupe, Nissan is hinting at a radical sports car introduction and we are hearing that Mazda plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its rotary-powered Cosmo with a new rotary coupe.

Consummated in 2011, the Toyota-BMW tie-up is the kind of mutually beneficial relationship that is starting to become more commonplace in the industry. Collaborations that come to mind include Renault-Nissan and Mercedes, Mazda and Fiat, and Toyota and Subaru, to name a few.

We brought you news of this project back in January, so to recap…

The Japanese-German connection is building a coupe that will employ the front-engine, rear-drive layout of the current Z4, but will push the limits of lightweight construction with generous injections of carbon-fibre and aluminium, not unlike the BMW’s i3 and i8. Powering these two cars will be a BMW 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine aided by a new interpretation of Toyota’s plug-in hybrid system.

Expected to generate over 220kW, the radical new hybrid system will employ a capacitor that boasts power storage and acceleration characteristics similar to that of Formula 1 KERS technology.

One source tells us Toyota is seriously considering the recently revealed and rather stunning-looking FT-1 concept as the body to house this technology for Toyota.

Meanwhile, our Honda source tells of a ground-breaking project that promises to create one of the most radical line-up of sports cars ever.

In June this year, dozens of Honda’s top executives and engineers will convene a secret, in-house meeting at their Tochigi R&D centre in Japan to discuss the market potential for a mid-size, mid-engined coupe that will slot in between the mighty NSX and the recently revealed turbocharged 660cc powered S660 mini-coupe.

From what we are hearing, the potential for this coupe to get a green light is very strong, because deep down inside, Honda really wants to make this car. If it does, it would form the world’s first-ever mid-engined sports car threesome from a single brand.

Boasting NSX-like lines but downsized proportionately, this coupe will be fitted with a revised version of the new Civic Type R’s 2.0-litre turbocharged engine with over 260kW of power. It is also rumored to employ hybrid technology co-developed in conjunction with its new McLaren F1 relationship.

To efficiently transfer this prodigious power to the tarmac, the new Honda coupe is expected to employ a modified version of the NSX’s SH-AWD four-wheel-drive system.

In the Nissan camp, the chatter is even more radical. Remember that funky-looking Deltawing race car-inspired BladeGlider concept? Shaped like a rocket with a rear track width double that of its front-end and a staggered three-seat cockpit layout, this mind-bending concept pushes the limits of automotive thinking.

While the DeltaWing employed a turbocharged 1.6-litre petrol engine, the BladeGlider is driven by lithium-ion batteries and two in-wheel motors in the form of a pure electric powertrain with significant influence from the LEAF.

You are probably asking why we are mentioning this outrageous two-door concept. Because Nissan bosses say that it hints at an upcoming production version.

The inspiration for the car's staggered-track, as well as its impressive downforce and superb handling (proved by racer Michael Krumm in the DeltaWing at Le Mans) was drawn from two signature aerial images: the silent freedom of a glider and the triangular shape of a high-performance 'swept wing' aircraft such as the F-14 Tomcat. Hence the term 'glider' in the BladeGlider's name. Nissan wants you to feel as if you are gliding it, not driving it.

Our source tells us the LEAF-inspired powertrain will be upgraded and adapted to fit the car’s unconventional construction, and generate over 220kW. We believe Nissan bosses when they say this car will surface in a production version, but we wonder whether it will retain that rocket-like shape, how it will drive and park on public roads and whether it will pass stringent crash tests.

Finally to Mazda. In 1967, the Cosmo Sport debuted as the world’s first-ever rotary-powered production car. Selling just 1519 units over a five-year period, it was not a huge hit, but it did set a precedent that has had repercussions to today in the form of the RX-7 and RX-8, among others.

We’ve been hearing rumours about an all-new rotary coupe for years now, but nothing concrete has surfaced. Until now. One source tells us that Mazda wants to celebrate its rotary’s 50th anniversary in style by launching a totally new rotary car. We hear that engineers are working on a naturally aspirated rotary coupe that leans heavily on the company’s SKYACTIV technology.

That is a critical development as the outgoing RX-8’s powertrain suffered from poor mileage, excessive oil consumption and insufficient mid-range torque. By applying SKYACTIV technologies to its next-generation rotary, our source says that a naturally aspirated engine will clear all those issues and produce upwards of 240kW.

We also hear Mazda is using a revised version of its next-generation rear-drive MX-5 platform for the rotary prototype’s evaluation. But given the rotary coupe would generate more than twice the power of the MX-5, that platform will have to be significantly reinforced.

Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda look like ushering in a new era of Japanese sports cars in just three years. Bring on 2017.

Image: Holiday Auto Magazine