The Audrain Automobile Museum in Newport, US, is celebrating the contributions of the Japanese automobile industry with its latest exhibit, JDM & Beyond, which opened to the public on March 16 and runs through to June 9, 2024.
The 1990s are often regarded as the golden age of Japanese sports cars, and it’s an era that’s well represented in the exhibition
JDM & Beyond is an eclectic tribute to the Japanese Domestic Market from the land of the rising sun, and includes everything from pint-sized kei cars to motorcycles, tuner cars, sports machines and even a Grand Prix-winning F1 racer.
Fittingly, the exhibition begins with an example of a motorcycle that helped to mobilise Japan in the aftermath of World War Two, a 1963 Honda C105T Trail 55. This particular bike is a variation of Honda’s Super Cub, which stands as the most produced motor vehicle in history, with more than 100 million examples manufactured between 1959 and 2017.
Japan’s automotive history can then be traced through to the 1970 Subaru 360 Deluxe Sedan and 1975 Honda Civic CVCC, which presaged the country’s success as a globally recognised car manufacturer.
The Subaru 360, unlike the brawny Imprezas of more recent years, is a small, curvaceous kei car reminiscent of Italy’s Fiat 500. The 360 was nicknamed the ‘ladybug’ in Japan, and developed just 25bhp from its miniscule 356cc two-cylinder engine. The Civic CVCC, meanwhile, represents Honda’s first successful model in the US market, at a time when the oil crisis was punishing all domestic models equipped with large, inefficient engines.
The 1990s are often regarded as the golden age of Japanese sports cars, and it’s an era that’s well represented in the exhibition, with some of the most iconic JDM cars ever conceived. Highlights include a 1989 Nissan R32 Skyline GT-R, a 1993 Honda NSX-R that was famously developed by Ayrton Senna, a rotary-powered 1993 Mazda RX-7, a 1994 Toyota Supra and a 1997 Subaru Impreza 22B homologation special.
Hardcore JDM fans will also be drawn to the miniature gullwinged oddity that is the 1993 Autozam AZ-1, as well as the 1995 Toyota Supra GT300 Top Secret. Powered by a highly tuned V12 engine, the Supra is the very car that landed famed tuner Smokey Nagata in hot water when the police caught him driving at 194mph on the A1(M) near Peterborough, UK. Smokey was subsequently banned from entering the UK for the next decade.
The jewel of the exhibition, however, is undoubtedly the Honda-powered McLaren MP4/4 Formula 1 car raced by Alain Prost during the 1988 season. For decades, the MP4/4 was the most dominant F1 car in history, winning 15 of 16 races in 1988, before its record was finally broken by Max Verstappen and his Red Bull RB18 in 2023. Prost drove this particular chassis to three victories and three second-place finishes.
For tickets and more details about the Audrain Automobile Museum’s JDM & Beyond exhibition, please click here.
