Here are 10 peak nineties and noughties Japanese performance cars for under £20k

Kick-starting this week’s used car round-up is also the most powerful stock car present: a naturally aspirated V8-engined Lexus IS F. The 416bhp is encased within a body that’s matured rather well over the years and continues to act as the left-field option to the E92 M3 and the W204-generation C63. Very noisy, very cool, very much want.

We love a quirky hot hatch here at TG, and the Pulsar GTI-R is exactly that. A humble shopping car taken to Nissan’s most creative engineers for a play, the result is 227bhp channelled through a five-speed manual in a rowdy-looking, 1.2-tonne body. Sounds like fun, no? Here’s one for less than a new Dacia Sandero.

The Celica GT-Four isn’t an uncommon appearance in Japanese performance car lists, but this particular one is. That’s because it’s a Carlos Sainz Limited Edition, which means it looks ready for the hills of Finland from the off. But better still, it’s been boosted to a frankly ridiculous 418bhp - more than twice what it left the factory with. Bonkers thing, which means of course we love it.

Two things you’ll always get with any generation of Evo are addictive (and highly scalable) performance and an invisible ‘certified yob’ hashtag plastered across your forehead. So how do you choose which one to buy? Simple: you go for looks. And where looks are concerned, the sixth-gen is possibly peak Evo. The metallic blue coat worn in this example only confirms that.

A four-pot screamer, built almost entirely for you to redline to your heart’s content. This DC5 Integra Type R is even finished in the correct shade of Championship White and remains one of the few unmodified examples left on the British market, save for the upgraded infotainment system. VTEC nirvana for £16k? Yes, please.

It’s not quite full-bore Godzilla spec, but the RB25 in this GT-T still pushes a healthy 430bhp and looks almost identical (save for the badging). It’s got 89,000 on the clock and the last bid, at the time of writing, was £20,000. Go on, you know you want to.

Another commemorative special edition for a rallying hero, though this time it's for the late, great Richard Burns. The RB5 was created to celebrate Burns’ return to the Subaru WRC team, where he’d eventually clinch his first and only world title in 2001. £16,500 seems like small money for such a big piece of history.

How menacing does the double-black paint look on the low-slung, sweeping silhouette of this RX-7? Though the exterior remains largely stock, the internals have seen some big modifications applied, including a new turbo, intercooler and exhaust system. The engine’s also seen just over 1,000 miles since the last rebuild, so there’s plenty of life yet.

One of the most iconic ‘if you know, you know’ cars. A black/white AE86 will even be recognisable to some non-anoraks, but one in an unassuming shade of grey with gold alloys? No chance. The only issue with this example is that it lives in Belgium. Time to book that ferry.

We’ve picked this Silvia S15 as our wildcard choice because obtaining it for 20(ish) grand will require a fair amount of negotiation. But get your sweet-talking right, and you could walk away with one of Japan’s most iconic nineties hero cars in almost showroom-fresh condition. Simply stunning.