Retro: Turbo Nissan 300ZX vs Mazda RX-7 vs Toyota MR2 on Motorweek from 1990

Motorweek bills itself as “Television’s Original Automotive Magazine” and that is correct: they have been on the air seemingly forever.  Quality and consistency have been high over all of these years. We have a number of favorite road tests in memory and thanks to YouTube one of them finally is available to watch again.

1990 was a great year for car enthusiasts and the era of Japanese supercars was about to begin. First, though,  was a trio of turbocharged cars from Nissan, Mazda, and Toyota.  We remember test driving all of these and we’ve seen a number of them since with some of students in HPDE track events.

Enjoy this retro MotorWeek test comparison of the turbo models of all three cars:

Just three years later we’d have the fabulous twin-turbo Supra, an all-new RX-7, and a very slightly updated 300ZX. That was the start of the what was known as the “Japanese Supercar” era. You can find various teats of these cars online as well, but the real story about those cars is their modification potential. 500 HP Supra TTs quickly became the norm rather than the dream, and the number routinely doubled inside 10 years or less. The RX-7 has potential, too, although terrible quality issues ruined it for most. The 300ZX had strength limitations in it’s engine block that stopped a few people in their tracks. And of course the incredible GT-R never made it to the shores of North America officially.