Posted Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 10:02pm
From two brands, a single vehicle emerges: an affordable, basic, rear-wheel-drive Japanese sports car. Twenty years ago, this sort of vehicle was commonplace. Japanese carmakers had been giving us inexpensive, reliable, rear-drive sports-car catnip since the 1970 Datsun 240Z. After effectively killing off their Italian and British inspiration in the U.S., though, the Japanese were left to battle themselves.