Toyota Chaser Tourer V

The JZX100 Chaser landed in September 1996 as Toyota's executive express: rear-drive, understated, and in Tourer V trim hiding a 280 PS single-turbo 1JZ-GTE behind a grille your bank manager would approve of. With the optional five-speed manual it was a wolf in a grey suit — a big sedan that would out-accelerate sports cars while carrying four people and a briefcase full of plausible deniability.

Drifting found it almost immediately. The long wheelbase made it stable and readable sideways, the 1JZ took boost like a compliment, and used examples were cheap enough to bin on a Sunday and rebuild by Friday. Through D1 Grand Prix's founding era and a thousand touge and dockside nights, the JZX100 became the definitive four-door drift chassis — which is precisely why so few survived intact.

That attrition is now the whole story. Chaser production ended in 2001 and the nameplate died with it; US 25-year eligibility arrived in 2021 and the drift tax turned into a collector premium. Clean, factory-manual Tourer Vs are the needle in the haystack — most cars wear welded diffs, bar work, and history. The sensible sedan became scarce by being too much fun.