Age Of Consent// Driving Three JDM Sort-of-legends, Now Legal In America.//

“God, that thing is awful,” said senior editor Tony Quiroga as he exited the 1993 Nissan Skyline GTS-25 he had just parked along Mulholland Highway above Malibu.

- John Pearley Huffman

“The exhaust just drones, I hate shifting with my left hand, and the petrified tires are terrible. Who would want this thing?”

Plenty of us, it seems. At least those of us who are parishioners at the Church of JDM. Even if it means dealing with righthand drive, owner’s manuals written in Japanese, and at least 25 years of wear and tear. That’s JDM as in Japanese domestic market: vehicles built for over there that were never sold over here.

To get a taste of what we’ve been missing stateside, we went to TopRank International Vehicle Importers in Cypress, California, a dealer that specializes in JDM vehicles. From TopRank’s inventory, we selected the Skyline as well as a 1993 Toyota Mark II Tourer V and a 1992 Mazda Autozam AZ-1 micro sports car. In deference to the trio’s age—and particularly that of their tires—we didn’t subject them to our usual instrumented tests. And this isn’t a comparison test. It is a chance to take three JDM survivors out for a romp, get a feel for the species, and check it for viability. At least from a financial perspective, these aren’t far-fetched. TopRank listed both the Skyline and Mark II at $17,995 and the Autozam at $15,995, prices within the realm of possibility for middle-class mortals. Peak JDM idolatry, legal in the form of the R32-generation Nissan Skyline GT-R, starts at about $30,000 for a veteran showing battle scars. Low-mileage cream puffs can push well beyond that. Considering the library of GT-R hagiographies out there, it seemed reasonable to skip Godzilla this time.