Heck, it was the fastest JDM car during its production span ... the AE86 also weighed as little as 1,995 pounds. Not bad for a cheap four-cylinder Corolla from the 1980s! Impressed yet?

That’s not to say Japan’s performance car industry didn’t exist before 1990, but the average American’s awareness of Japanese domestic market models (or JDM cars) was minimal, at best.