Mazda RX-7

When the FD3S landed in late 1991, Mazda was months removed from the 787B's outright Le Mans win, and the road car carried that swagger. The 13B-REW's sequential twin turbos opened at 255 PS, double wishbones sat at every corner, and the whole thing weighed around 1,250 kg with near 50:50 balance. Against the heavier Supra and GT-R it was a scalpel among sledgehammers — the purest-steering Japanese sports car of the bubble era, and arguably of any era since.

On the street it became rotary tuning's flagship: RE Amemiya, Knight Sports, and FEED built everything from kanjo missiles to 400 PS single-turbo conversions, while Keisuke Takahashi's Competition Yellow FD gave Initial D its most menacing silhouette. In JGTC GT300, RE Amemiya's RX-7 stayed competitive deep into the 2000s, taking the 2006 title more than a decade after its production peers had retired — proof the chassis had genuine racing bones.

Collectibility now is simple supply and demand. Apex seals, heat-soaked engine bays, and two decades of drift abuse culled the population, so clean, unmodified cars — especially 280 PS Series 8 examples — trade like blue chips. Above them sits the 2002 Spirit R, 1,504 cars deep, the final factory rotary sports car and the FD's ceiling-setter: when Spirit Rs cross six figures, every honest FD underneath moves up with them.