Got this from lancerregister.com, and decided to share this with you allLooking back over the last 15 years or so, it is easy to see how Japanese cars really came of age in the 1990s. This era spawned numerous iconic motors whose popularity shows no sign of waning and while we still have the Evo (better than ever) and the WRX (ditto, but fugly), most of the other great 90s Jap cars are either dead & buried or close to it. Let's do a post-mortem:Evo - Very much alive, but moving away from homologation rootsWRX - Very much alive, but moving away from homologation rootsSupra - DeadRX7 - DeadGTiR - DeadCelica GT4 - Dead3000GT - Dead300ZX - DeadGalant VR4 - DeadSoarer - Dead? They may still chuck out a few each yearNSX - Better than ever but no-one buys themSkyline GT-R - About to get the chop and to be replaced by what looks like a grand tourerAE86 Trueno - DeadSay what you like now with hindsight about any of the above, then they were rightly welcomed as a breath of fresh (and cheap) air in a staid and boring market. Most of them benefited from at least 3 of the following: 4WD, 280ps, amazing tuning potential, value for money and a real spirit of 'well we like it, surely someone will buy it!' that seems to be lacking nowadays. The solid, often racing-driven, engineering combined with a real passion amongst our oriental friends for tuning & modification mean that almost all of these cars are still feted for big power, longevity and above all fun. Almost any car in the list can now be bought with a lot less than $15k too, and in the main they make excellent buys.Many lesser sports cars that were hatched in the 90s or before still survive & thrive; Type-Rs, Celicas and MR2s abound, but they often lack the giant-killing ability of their forebears, being down on power or being limited by FWD. However, their continued production should still be applauded, remember that in 1992 a big hp hot hatch had 130bhp and could crack 0-60 in under 8 secs! Nowadays, even though cars are heavier and much safer, anything with less than 180bhp and a 0-60 in the 7 second bracket can't be taken seriously against the likes of the CTR or Focus RS (RIP).Many modern sports cars coming from Japan seem to lack the ultimate performance versions that would have been standard had they been launched in 1995; witness the RX8 - great car by all accounts but no turbo version, or the 350Z - looks good and has the requisite 276bhp but somehow looks more of a TT/Boxster rival than a *****-out sports car. That's not to say they aren't great cars but do you really think they will attract the following of the Evo, WRX or GT-R?The demise of Group A surely has something to do with this. We have no race-bred 206s, Xsaras or Focuses blatting down the high street and as car enthusiasts I'm sure we all regret the passing of a formula based even loosely on production models. Is that all there is to it though or has something changed in the Japanese psyche that will prevent such a steady stream of great drivers cars in the future?So, will the 1990s be looked back on as a Golden Age in Japanese car production like the British 60s sports car era or will we again see such a rash of amazing high-performance cars from Japan?