Japanese Cars that showed Innovation, Design, and Wackiness

Some of us are dating ourselves here when the Japanese auto makers were first introducing themselves to the American car-buying public. Way back then, the late 60s and early '70s, Nissan was called Datsun. And no one had ever heard of Toyota (or Tiyota) and Honda. The former's first cars were tiny, underpowered, and had strange names like Toyopets.

During those first years, we got to see a lot of models. But there were also a lot of models we just didn't get to see. Why? Some were stranger than what we did get to see while others became the prototype for some of the models of today.

Some of the models include:

The Mazda Cosmo 110-S was introduced in 1967 and was the first for the Wankel rotary engine, the engine Mazda is now known for. What people liked about the 2-rotor design was that it just about eliminated vibrations which was the problem with the alternative engine design, the NSU Single-Rotor. As far as looks were concerned, the Cosmo was similar to the Triumph Spitfire and the 1961 through '63 Ford Thunderbird. Only 1176 of the Cosmo were actually constructed.

In 1967, Toyota unveiled its 2000GT and it became one of the first cars from the automaker that people really took seriously. Even Carroll Shelby was impressed. He raced them. And the producers of the James Bond movies were dazzled enough to include a model in the film "You Only Live Twice."

The 2000GT looked something like the Jaguar E-Type in appearance and helped pave the way for the Datsun 240Z which later grew up to be the Nissan 300Zs. It is said that only 12 or 13 2000GTs made it to the U.S. in the late 1960s. But today they're worth a pretty good amount of pocket change -- say about one hundred thousand!

In the 1980s, most of us didn't know about the Nissan Skyline GTS-R. But readers of Motor Trend and other magazines did. This car was classified as "road-going racers" -- with racing versions that generated up to 700 horsepower and more! -- but it never made it out of Japan. Some who are familiar with this car say today that introduction into the U.S. market back then could have helped boost Nissan's image in the U.S. where we like muscle cars.

Honda's first attempt to introduce a larger car to the world market became the assignment of the Honda Coupe 9. But it never left Japan, either.

People who are familiar with it say with the 9 said it looked "odd." The cooled engine included a fan attached to the flywheel that pushed cooled air across the engine block. The now heated air was then directed into the car. Interesting concept. Would it have really worked to provide heat for passengers during cold days, especially in Chicago or Buffalo? We guess we'll never know.

Additional models can be found at the origional article above. Our take? Previews of Japanese cars for the upcoming auto show reveal the Japanese continue to be innovative with their concepts. (And, thankfully, like the I-Real, will remain as concepts.)