Watch Best Motoring’s Real Life Gran Turismo Sunday Cup

It is a trope to describe Japanese show Best Motoring as Gran Turismo in real life, but in this instance, it really is. In a 1992 battle between front- and rear-wheel drive cars, the crew put together a lineup that is simply wonderful.

From Mazda, we get an FC RX-7 and an NA Miata; Toyota provides a Corolla Levin AE86 and a Starlet GT; Honda brings both Civic and CR-X SiR; and rounding things out are two Kei cars, a Subaru Vivio RX-R and a Suzuki Cappuccino. It’s a lineup straight out of a lower-level race from the earlier editions of Gran Turismo, and also a very convincing argument for the excellence of early-1990s Japanese cars.

The video encompasses the usual Best Motoring battery of tests, including a slalom and an autocross, but it’s the track battle halfway through we’re most interested in. It’s at Tsukuba, naturally, and it’s a ton of fun.

Despite all the legends in this test, it’s one of the more obscure cars that’s quickest, the Toyota Starlet GT. This was a 130-horsepower, turbocharged hot hatch that, astonishingly for 1992, featured adaptive suspension. It weighed under 2,000 pounds, too, so no wonder it was quick. The CR-X and RX-7 were just two tenths behind in terms of lap time, but the rotary Mazda finished the race first.

Frankly, though, we’d take any one of these cars. They’re simple and relatively low-powered, but each is from a high point in the history of Japanese cars.