Audi R8

The next wave of Japanese supercars arrives

If you bend your ear to the near future, you may hear a faint flittering. It is the sound of Porsche and Ferrari quaking in their boots. We now know with some certainty that Honda's replacement for the NSX (right) will soon arrive and also that a new Skyline GT-R is on its way from Nissan. The prospect is enough to set complacent European arses trembling.

In the late 1980s and early 90s, the two cars that appeared under those names put the finishing touches to Japan's utter trouncing of the West's car industry. That the Japanese could teach Europe's most esteemed manufacturers a lesson in how to build the most advanced supercars was a portentous blow as stunning in its way as the Japanese routing of the Russian navy in 1904.

Developed with the participation of Ayrton Senna, the Honda NSX was comprehensively the best race-bred

neil lyndon can
hear Europe’s thoroughbred car makers tremble as the Japanese approach

mid-engined supercar ever produced. It was affordable, tractable, reliable and sublimely rewarding to drive. The Nissan Skyline GT-R was a confection of advanced gizmometry like a build- your-own supercar out of a geek's computer game. The only thing its digital systems couldn't do was predict the winning lottery numbers.

Porsche and Ferrari were dumbfounded. Their uncontested right to produce unreliable cars that were near-impossible to drive was extinguished overnight. To survive, they had to produce cars as superb as the NSX and the Skyline GT-R.

Now it's happening all over again. Honda has already exhibited the Advanced Sports Car Concept that will become the NSX's successor. Nissan is expected to unveil the new GT-R at this year's Tokyo show.

Porsche and Ferrari may shudder but the rest of us can't wait.