Eight used Japanese sportscars for less than £10k we’ve found this week

Amazingly, you’ve got a fair choice of S2000s available at this budget, so potentially this list is moot: the unwritten rule is if you can afford a Honda S2000, you should immediately buy a Honda S2000.

Sure, at low revs you’ll curse ever taking it into town. Glance at a BMW Z4 or Porsche Boxster and might regret your choice. But find a good road, get the roof down and wind it up to over 6,000rpm and suddenly everything makes sense. Unburstable VTEC engine, superlative gearbox, great steering and chassis, slightly plasticky interior. A very good car.

Here’s a silver ‘GT’ car for £8,750.

Admittedly, a ten grand limit is a difficult ask to step into perhaps the finest front-drive car of all time, because most Integra Type Rs are currently asking for upwards of £15k. Still not a huge amount of money for a spectacular machine.

And it remains spectacular, both dynamically and in legacy. It was the car that layered Honda as a company in a sheen of heroic performance, especially here in the UK. Studiously put together (just 25 were built each day) with proper functioning aerodynamics, it also packed that classic 189bhp 1.8-litre VTEC engine. When it kicked in… well, you know the rest.

Here's one for just under £8k.

Bear with us here. Much like the RX-7, you simply won’t find any Skylines for under £10,000. So along with wanton vehicular destruction and unfathomable action scripts, we also have another thing to thank the Fast and Furious movies for.

But wait! Here’s a ‘Skyline’ for under ten grand! Except it’s not a proper Skyline! It’s an Infiniti! But this one’s not an Infiniti! Over in Japan, these G35s were badged up as Skylines.

Whatever, the fundamentals remain as thus: it’s been spun off the Nissan 350Z’s platform and features that car’s front-engined, rear-drive layout. Plus you get a 3.5-litre V6 and proper rarity.

This one – with clear ‘Skyline’ badging – is just £7k.

You’re welcome. One of the rarest performance cars you’ll see in the UK, it’s not widely known outside of Gran Turismo and hardcore Japanese performance car circles. So you’ve got rarity on your side. 

You’ve also got – as we have with the one we found – a fabulous, unburstable 2.0-litre V6 very much on your side. It’s a fabulous engine packed inside a decent front-driver with pretty looks. Just remember that most UK cars are imports, so history checks will be difficult. 

This one’s a super, super rare Ralliart FTO for good measure.

Finding an unmodified third-generation RX-7 is, frankly, a fool’s errand. Finding any third-gen RX-7 for anywhere near ten grand doubly so – most are hovering near the £30k mark. So why not choose a rarer – and therefore higher – path with this second-generation car?

After all, here was a motor that capitalised on the American success of the first-gen and took inspiration from none other than the Porsche 928. There’s still a rotary underneath, and as the seller for this delightfully kept sub-10k example helpfully explains, “it’s an honest car with pop-up headlights, what more could you want?”

Indeed. Check it out here.

Naturally it’s the Z32 that gets all the attention, but as you’ve no doubt discovered, we’re charting an alternative, lesser-travelled, possibly financially ruinous path by plumping for the first-generation Z31 car. Because even Japanese reliability can be tested after nearly 40 years on British roads.

Still, this one’s an absolute steal – we’re thinking full ‘project car’ vibes here. This 1985 example is up for just £2,650, which leaves you many thousands to squander in its restoration. Starts and drives at least, which is a good… start.

A healthy addition to Nissan’s wonderful line of Z cars, this Californian-designed brute offered many cylinders (six, arranged in a V formation) situated in the front of the car, a fair chunk of power (276bhp, at least at the beginning) sent to the rear of the car, and a manual gearbox attempting to harness it all. It’s a cracking car to drive, and ten grand gives you a fair choice of motors still on offer.

We’ve found a 2005 bronzed-orange example for £8,495, leaving you plenty left over for spare tyres.

Heroically small and heroically rare is Honda’s rather sublime Beat kei car. A tiny three-cylinder engine is mounted in the middle, powering the tiny rear wheels while its two-seater convertible body – designed by Pininfarina! – allows the fitment, albeit snugly, of two regular sized human beans.

We’ve found this dinky roadster, that absolutely loves to rev, for a proper steal at just £5k, leaving you plenty left over in your budget for either a) a full, considered restoration, or b) banzai modifications. Remember to choose… wisely.