Top Gear's greatest cars of the last 30 years: Nissan 350Z and Toyota GT86

“The right shape, the right noise, the right pace, the right poise. All at the right price.” That price being £24,000, in 2004, for the Nissan 350Z. The mid-Noughties were a healthy period for punchy, affordable coupes, with the Audi TT and Mazda RX-8 making strong cases (and the Chrysler Crossfire and Alfa Romeo GT less so). And the brawny, squirtable Nissan had enough about it that TG forgave the unsophisticated cabin plastics and lack of sound deadening. “In a year that has so much good stuff, it’s a no-brainer.” 

Nissan obviously thought so too, because it really didn’t rock the boat much when the 350 was replaced by the 370 – another handsome brute powered by a lazy V6. And though the new 400Z has sprouted a couple of turbochargers and a touchscreen, it still owes a heck of a lot to the 350. The triplet of gauges on the dash. The fastback stance. That stumpy gearlever. Without the 350Z, the entire lineage of cars called Zed would’ve stayed, well, dead. 

It was only natural to line it up with the only other Japanese coupe that’s been TG’s best in show since ’93. The Toyota GT86 entered a very different world than the one the 350Z inhabited – one where coupes were under the cosh of SUV crossovers, manual gearboxes were being phased out, and turbocharged power totals were an arms race that’d forgotten about zingy throttle response. The 86 – a joint venture with Subaru, hence the flat four boxer engine also found in its Scooby BRZ twin – was the car to bring rear-drive giggles back to the masses.

We could guff on about the low friction Prius tyres or Ferrari-embarrassing centre of gravity. But over to one Jeremy Clarkson for the winning verdict... “It’s a car that wants to have fun with your middle parts.” Quite.