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Lexus LFA v Nissan GT-R Nismo v Subaru Impreza 22B: Japan's greatest hits
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Jul 24, 2025
The iconic Lexus LFA, rally-bred Subaru Impreza 22B and Nissan's bulletproof GT-R Nismo are three of Japan's greatest ever models. Editor-at-large Dickie Meaden and deputy editor James Taylor head to some of Britain's best roads for the group test of a lifetime. Subscribe for evo’s latest performance car reviews, head-to-heads and track tests: https://bit.ly/3Ommfyv Follow us: https://twitter.com/evomagazine https://www.facebook.com/evomagazine https://www.instagram.com/officialevomagazine/ https://www.tiktok.com/@evomagazine?
View Video Transcript
0:00
It's not really like anything else I've driven, the Tarama, this is a very special engine
0:17
We're in the north of England on some of our favourite roads, favourite photographic locations
0:22
and we've brought together three iconic Japanese modern classics. So we have a Subaru Impreza 22B, we have a Lexus LFA and we have a Nismo R35 GTR
0:37
They represent very different sides of Japanese car culture. There's nothing like them. It's the best way to describe it, there's nothing else like them
0:45
Japanese performance cars as a whole have almost built up this almost mythical status
0:57
in that they do things so differently from European car makers and US car makers
1:02
They're kind of their own unique thing. So part of the reason we've pulled this test together is to celebrate what makes them special
1:08
and have three of the very, in our opinion, greatest Japanese performance cars ever made
1:14
Narrowing down our choice of cars was pretty hard, actually. We've arrived at those three
1:19
I think they represent very different sides of Japanese car culture, really
1:25
So obviously the Impreza is an absolute rallying legend. And it's not anymore, but the more affordable, relatable car
1:33
The Subaru and Mitsubishi Evo wars were kind of a defining part of the automotive world, I guess
1:40
at the end of the 90s, start of the noughties. but it feels like the Subaru's grown into maybe more of an icon
1:47
At the other end of the scale, we've got a money, no object, clean sheet supercar
1:53
which was the Lexus LFA. The LFA has developed this reputation as a bit of a unicorn
1:58
It's a kind of a moment in time and a car that will probably never be repeated
2:06
And in between those two is probably the most iconic of all Japanese performance cars
2:12
that's the GTR. It's been around for decades but the R35 has kind of been the peak of that because
2:22
it's influenced so many other performance cars from other countries as well. It's quite literally
2:26
changed the face of cars. The 22B is very close to Evo's heart partly because it was in the very
2:33
first issue but I think it's the poster car for that era of Impreza and also of the Mitsubishi
2:40
we were always comparing those cars and the 22b was the it was the ultimate Impreza really
2:46
I can't stop smiling in this it just takes me takes me right back right back to the 90s so
2:55
obviously predating 22b but I spent so much time in Impreza turbos and STIs and
3:01
and they were just such joyful things. I'm a child of the 90s and the Impreza was such an important part of the car world for me growing up
3:14
Colin McRae was the hero of world rallying and Colin McRae rally was the game on the PlayStation 1
3:19
that we were all playing at that time and the Gran Turismo game was huge
3:23
And then the 22B is the ultimate example of the classic Impreza Jura
3:31
so much of this car it's not that i'd forgotten but you just glance in the mirror and you see that
3:41
big wing sat there obscuring view and you always had to do that to see what was behind you
3:46
obviously the big scoop in the bonnet which is a really iconic design feature of all the
3:53
turbocharged depressors and perhaps best of all in the door mirror you just get that big blistered arch
4:01
I think the 22B always had some star quality about it, didn't it
4:06
And it was peak pro-drive, peak Subaru. It was the ultimate in every regard
4:15
and the end of an era, really, because rallying changed quite soon after
4:19
so it was just all of the good stuff kind of put into one of our favourite cars
4:27
It is quick. I'm not going anywhere near the red line, and just the urge, the pull in the mid-range is so strong
4:36
It feels so nimble. It feels up on its toes and ready to dance
4:42
It doesn't feel inert at all. It feels kind of alive and communicative
4:46
I'm starting to understand why this model is so revered. Yeah, it really is every bit as special as I thought it would be
4:55
It feels a lot faster than I thought I would. That engine really likes to rev
4:59
it's got so much more flexibility and kind of potency than a regular Impresor engine
5:06
These cars have so much energy and the 22B, it's a big ball of energy
5:12
It's boosty but it's tractable, it's revvy but you don't need to rev it
5:18
It kind of has an answer for whatever road you're on and whatever mood you're in
5:24
and whatever speed you want to carry, it just seems to revel in the road
5:29
I think of all the cars we've got here, GT-R is the one that stands for the most
5:35
I guess it's got the most history. This is kind of last to the line, really, which makes me sad
5:40
It was like nothing else when it came out, and it stuck very rigidly to that formula
5:45
It's improved, but it hasn't really evolved. Even though the ride's really firm, the quality of the movement is so good
5:56
The body is so well controlled and it feels like it just changes direction so well too
6:05
The R35 generation GTR came out so long ago, all the way back in 2007
6:10
and it's really unusual for a car to stay at the top the way it has
6:14
When it first arrived on the scene, it was so different from everything because here was this very big, very heavy car that could turn in these incredible lap times around the Nürburgring
6:23
And I think it really changed the course of how other car manufacturers approach things
6:32
Such a totally different character, this car, to the other two. It's a big brute of a thing, but I kind of dig that
6:39
I think Japanese cars have always polarised opinion a little bit. I think GTR more than most, I guess because it challenged the established European heroes, for one
6:49
So that put some people's noses out of joint. so they dislike the car on principle almost
6:54
In some ways the GT-R is kind of the antithesis to what Evo stands for
6:58
because it's quite heavy, it's quite complicated, it's so fast that you could argue if you really dug in with it
7:04
it would be too fast for the road. And it has perhaps accelerated this technology arms race with cars
7:09
where they've all become more complex than they were before and maybe some people look at the numbers
7:14
and try and think of it as a car, as a target to beat
7:18
But then you drive it. You have to drive it to understand what they're about
7:36
It really does drive how it looks big muscly square thing just a proper nightclub bouncer of a car, I think
7:47
It's quite brutal in some ways, but it's also very pointy, quite delicate
7:54
You almost drive it like a sort of big Mitsubishi Evo or something
7:58
It's a really unique thing. It takes a lot to make something like a 911 Turbo S feel a bit soft
8:05
but yeah, this is GT-R, it's just next-level stuff. For aggression and focus and just, yeah, just bludgeoning its way down the road
8:18
That's the only way you can describe it. I think it's a car where you have to drive it to understand it
8:23
and until you've driven one, you're never quite... I didn't get it until I drove one, and I'm a big fan now
8:28
I think whenever you mention or talk about the the Lexus LFA you're immediately drawn
8:55
to the engine and the famous exhaust note and it is a spectacular engine
8:59
There's nothing quite like it actually, certainly it's completely different to any of the other
9:04
V10s you might think of and that would be enough for most cars but I think the more
9:09
time you spend with the LFA the more you find that actually the engine is just a small part
9:15
of what is a really extraordinary car. I've got a 1.3 V10, I've got a quiet road
9:33
Let's go. I think it sounds maybe even more exciting outside the car than it
9:42
It's a pretty special noise. There's a lot of inductions, one's exhaust noise
9:46
But from the outside, it sounds like this sort of weird experimental prototype that shouldn't be on the road
9:52
We're just over 3000 RPM and it already sounds like it's in the stratosphere and it revs all the way to 9
10:00
So, God knows what it's going to sound like up there at 9
10:09
There's the famous story about them having to have a digital rev counter because supposedly an og needle couldn't keep up with the engine
10:15
And the revs just go up and up and up. You get to about 4.5 and it already feels quite intense
10:20
and then you realise you're only about halfway there. There's so much headroom in it. It's a real engineer's car
10:28
You can feel every single bit of the car has been obsessed over
10:32
and had fortune spent on it because it only went into this car
10:37
That's the crazy thing about it. It's a complete one-off. The things that make the LFA stand out
10:46
It's just the way the car feels so highly developed and honed
10:54
And they've spent such a long time sweating all the details in the way that only really Japanese manufacturers seem to do
11:02
I love the way this car goes down the road. It's just got such a focus and a sense of purpose and that kind of supercar feel
11:11
And yet you're sat back comfortably. It rides pretty well. It steers really nicely and accurately
11:16
the brake pedal is right there no slack it's so easy to drive smoothly and slowly which is often
11:24
a bigger test of a car actually where you might expect it to be a little bit intimidating or
11:29
not give you quite the feel you want or wherever you go with it it always seems to work it just has
11:35
this brilliant balance and it's approachable and it's feelsome and the harder you drive it the
11:40
better it gets so you can drive it harder and harder and harder and harder and it just seems to
11:46
up its game. This V10 engine is so exciting, so exciting, it sounds brilliant, it just has such
12:00
sharpness and that whale is quite unlike anything else even a Carrera GT which is the obvious
12:10
obvious things to compare it with. We're immediately drawn to the engine and the famous source note
12:18
and it is a spectacular engine. There's nothing quite like it, actually. Certainly, it's completely different to any of the other V10s you might think of
12:26
so that Audi or Lamborghini, and that would be enough for most cars
12:31
but I think the more time you spend with the LF80, the more you find that the engine is just a small part of a really extraordinary car
12:38
It's not massively powerful, certainly not massively powerful in 2024, but what it has, you feel like you can use and you can access, and that is worth more than another 200 horsepower
12:56
We forget how fast cars have become because it didn't feel that quick
13:04
Obviously, it's a very fast car, but in the context of 2024, it didn't feel supercar fast
13:09
but it had way more character than so many of the supercars on sale today
13:14
Just the nuance in the engine, the difference between putting it under load at 4,000 revs
13:21
and really winding it up to eight or nine it is like two completely different cars
13:32
so i think the gtr developed this reputation perhaps unfairly as a car that kind of drives
13:41
itself that's kind of technology first and drive a second but to drive it it actually feels weirdly
13:46
it's almost agricultural in some ways. It's a totally ogue feeling car actually
13:52
It feels anything but digital. It's such a techy car but it feels really mechanical
14:00
There's this kind of urban myth that the GT-R is a digital car
14:04
but it's not really like anything else. It's its own unique feel
14:10
It's a unique experience in the car world. I'd forgotten how at times quite crude
14:15
this gearbox sounds, there's all sorts of chunters and clunks and clonks and you don't expect a
14:22
paddle shift double clutch box to give you that sense of working away but that's all part of this R35 experience. I think technology plays a big part in
14:33
the car and it's paddle shift and it's all-wheel drive and it's got all this funky kind of four-wheel
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steer and so it places a, certainly when you read a description of the car it's heavily
14:46
reliant on what underpins it either electronics or hardware but actually the driving experience
14:53
is quite pure. You don't really feel a lot of this crazy stuff going on beneath you, all it seems to
14:58
do is pull enormous amounts of grip out of the road surface and deal with bumps and lumps it almost happens too quickly for you to separate out how it doing it I think it a fascinating thing to drive and a massive thrill
15:16
The acceleration is on another plane to the Lexus. You can feel it's got so much more torque, so much more power
15:23
so much more performance on tap. It's a different kind of car doing a different kind of thing
15:28
but it's equally addictive in its own way. There aren't many other cars I think that could cover ground from point to point as fast as this thing can
15:36
So it's quite a unique kind of reign at the top it's had for so long
15:40
But its limits are so high compared with, say, the 22B and the LFA to a lesser extent
15:47
But to actually kind of drive it at the limit, you are going very, very quick
15:51
So it's a different proposition from those cars. The 22B, it's just appropriate for fast road driving in a way
15:58
big heavy cars today just they're very capable and very impressive but they don't give you as
16:06
much road to work with and they just they need so much technology to make them work and I think
16:12
I'd forgotten how old school these cars are I can't remember the last time I drove a five-speed
16:18
stick shift and it feels so small and it feels so light there's so much feel and feedback kind of
16:25
flowing through it. It's also quite nice that it's narrower than the other two cars on the test
16:30
so you can kind of pick your own line through a corner more easily on the type of roads we've
16:34
been driving on. This car is so quick, honestly, I'm barely using any throttle, and it is so eager
16:42
it boosts so easily. You can feel how light it is as well, it does not feel like a heavy car
16:48
at all. It must be the lightest car of these three by some margin. Embarrassingly, I don't
16:53
I don't remember the curb weights for these cars off the top of my head
16:57
but this feels so much lighter than the other two. No worries at all going through the puddles
17:03
You know, in the LFA, I was being pretty ginger through the puddles
17:07
but in this car, I mean, it's what it's built for, isn't it? The LFA was already scarily expensive when it was new
17:16
and now today it's even more terrifyingly expensive because values are climbing north of a million pounds now
17:22
That almost colours your judgement of the car before you drive it I suppose. I guess I was expecting it to be mind alteringly, life changingly brilliant
17:30
And the first few miles in the car it didn't blow me away the way I thought it was
17:35
The gear change feels so slow, it's a single clutch. Actually the first thing I did in it was I pulled out of a T-junction and did a kind of nodding dog impression as it changed gear so slowly
17:45
In every other respect, I think it's even more impressive because as time has gone on
17:50
engines have become slightly less raw, slightly less physical, slightly less expressive
17:55
and that really comes through in the car. The more time I've spent with it, the more it kind of got under my skin
18:01
and I think it definitely deserves this status it's grown into as a kind of legendary car because it is so unique
18:08
It manages to combine that kind of supercar edge with GT Comfort and looks like nothing else
18:14
It feels like nothing else and no one else has really even tried to combine the qualities that the LFA has
18:23
You don't really think of the Japanese as being builders of truly exotic cars
18:28
but the LFA really confounds that notion. The Lexus always seemed quite an expensive car at the time
18:39
I think because there was a disconnect between what you expect from a Lexus and what the car
18:44
actually delivered but now I think it's much easier to see the LFA for what it is and the
18:51
enormous amount of investment that went into it. I don't think they certainly lost Toyota
18:57
lost a fortune on every car they built, they built 500 in two years, never built anything
19:02
like it before, never built anything like it since, probably never will be anything like it again
19:07
whenever I'm near an LFA I'm always slightly in awe of the thing I love the Jekyll and Hyde nature
19:14
of it it's on the one hand it's like ultra Lexus everything is super luxury and super super high
19:22
quality all the switches and the trim and the hi-fi and you've got every creature comfort you
19:28
could wish for and yet you can feel structural rigidity in the car the way it goes down the road
19:36
and you've always got this really feral V10. It's actually not that refined
19:46
It's quite noisy. The engine is quite, it's very present in the car. It's not isolated as you might expect
19:52
So it's a very weird, hard to pin down combination of cars. You don't really know what to expect the first time you drive it
19:59
And even when you've spent a full day in it, you get out and you're still slightly bemused
20:03
by the way it goes about what it does. I would have happily just driven it and driven it and driven it for days and days and days
20:09
I never really wanted to stop driving it, which in this job you don't always get
20:15
I love the attention to detail. It sounds really weird, saying how much you love an indicator stalk or a wiper stalk
20:23
But these things are just like beautifully sculpted chopsticks almost. It's consistent throughout the whole car
20:35
The GTR kind of had some history and legacy cars to draw from and try and beat
20:44
You come to the car knowing the GTR name means a lot
20:49
and it's a bit like coming to a Ferrari or something, I suppose. There's a lot of history there
20:56
I love the fact this is a Nismo. I love all the history surrounding Nismo and its competition pedigree
21:03
and the Amori factory in Tokyo. And if you're fascinated by that
21:09
then it just adds an extra layer of appeal for this car
21:13
I think the infotainment display, like any car of a certain age
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it feels quite old, looks quite old. But I love the fact that it was designed
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or the graphics were designed, by the same people that did Gran Turismo
21:27
I think that's a real nod to wider car culture. Gran Turismo was certainly my first exposure to the GT-R
21:35
So I think it's really extra cool that Nismo have made that acknowledgement to the game
21:44
and that the two kind of cross over so perfectly. I remember we were trying to put the content list for the first issue of EVO together
21:58
and right at that point the 22b was probably the hottest the hottest car in the world really
22:05
everyone was going mad for it but it was only a Japanese market car at that point not many of them
22:11
had been released and we heard through the grapevine that a car was coming to the UK and we
22:18
made contact with the owner and he was very generous and keen for us to try it so we you know
22:24
There was always a race to get the next new Impressor or the next new Evo at that point
22:29
And there was a bit of a competition between us, Auto Car, Performance Car when we were there and Car Magazine
22:36
So yeah the 22B was on our list And when we got it I think we knew we achieved something that people were going to notice with that car
22:49
I love how simple it is, how small it is. I mean it's very cheap and plasticky really inside, which they always were, but you always
23:00
had to look beyond your surroundings and just soak in the driving experience
23:09
One of the things that people immediately associate with a 22B is that wide arches look
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and that rear wing and you feel that when you're in the car as well, apart from seeing
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it on the outside, ahead of you you've got that letterbox scoop from the front bonnet
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you look in the rear view mirror and you can see that big cooped rear wing. It's just so characterful and evocative of a really great time
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Great time for cars, great time for rallying Yeah, I miss these cars, I miss them a lot
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And the 22B was always the daddy as soon as they launched it
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It looked so good, so good It's kind of a Goldilocks car because it's really fast without being irresponsibly fast for the road
23:59
It's really grippy, but you can still play with the balance and move the car around
24:03
The steering's kind of really light and yet somehow has loads of feel. I don't quite know how they do that
24:08
The ride's pretty firm and tied down, but it soaks up the bumps really well on these roads
24:13
You probably wouldn't want to do it now given the car's value, the way they've gone, but you could drive it into town and park it outside, go up, and it would be fine
24:20
it's still a usable car that you could drive all the time. Yeah, it's the type of car that doesn't exist anymore
24:26
and we're kind of poor for it, I think. There are showier cars and there are faster cars
24:45
more track-focused cars, and yeah there are better cars now you know time has caught up with the lfa
24:53
certainly where the gearbox is concerned but are they cooler and more interesting cars i don't know
25:00
i'm struggling to think of one yeah okay a million pounds for a lexus possibly more than a million
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pounds now i don't know it seems nuts but to be around this car to see its construction and to
25:14
understand its character and to extend this amazing engine. Right now it feels like
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it would be worth every penny. Yeah, I think everybody wonders what it would be like to drive
25:31
and the really nice thing that's come out of this test is it wasn't a disappointment. It wasn't a don't meet your heroes moment
25:37
because it's every bit as weird and wonderful as its reputation suggests. I would love to own
25:43
one of these things but I could never own one of these things because you just want to drive it so
25:49
fast and it's capable of driving so fast it is so so fast so much quicker than the other two cars
25:57
here I mean they're both very very fast car after 22b and the LFA but the GTR was so much quicker
26:03
than both of them weirdly on top of that there is this weird kind of delicate feel to it as well
26:08
the steering is quite pointy it's so responsive and you can move it around on weight transfer
26:12
like you can with much smaller lighter cars, it feels way lighter than it really is
26:18
It's not all about going flat out. It is a special thing and an exciting proper occasion
26:24
at whatever speed, just sitting in it, just looking at it. But as soon as you're in it and the engine started
26:32
you just start to grow horns. And yeah, it's very hard to resist
26:38
so if I was challenged to sum up the 22b in one word I'll go with sweet because it's kind of the
26:46
sweet spot it feels yeah just the right level of performance of grip of visibility of the dimensions
26:53
of the car it kind of feels just right for these roads and and just right for 2024 ironically
26:59
the problem with driving this car is I immediately want an Impress Turbo again
27:04
I can only dream of a 22B, but although all the others have become more collectible, they're kind of in reach
27:13
And I do love the idea of spending time with one of these cars. What a fantastic car
27:19
I think initially when you bring a car like this to the test, you know it's fabulous
27:23
But when it's up against an LFA or a GTR, they're very, very, very big-lead machines
27:30
and this comes from quite humble stock but I really shouldn't worry because
27:34
it's every bit as special and certainly on the roads we're driving today I think it's
27:42
it's definitely definitely the weapon of choice if I could choose I would take the NFA just because it's such a special car and I still
27:59
feel like I'm discovering things about it. Every time I drive it, I feel like I discover
28:02
something new, and it's just this weird, incredible car that will never be repeated, so
28:08
to spend time with it feels like such a privilege. I love them all. I have more fun, more of the time in the
28:14
22B, so if I could take it home and keep one, that would be the one. I love them
28:20
and I love the LFA in particular, because of all the things James has said, and it gets
28:25
better and better the more you drive it, but there'd still be more occasions where I'd just jump in the Subaru and even onto the shops or something in it. To have had
28:33
these three cars together for three whole days I feel very very lucky not
28:37
many people have had the chance to drive one of these cars let alone all three together. So if I had to sum up the GT-R Nismo in a single words I'd probably go
28:46
with brutal because it's it looks pretty brutal but it also translates to how it
28:51
drives it kind of almost pummels the road into submission in a way. It's just no
28:57
compromise, absolute maximum attack kind of car. Even when you're not driving it
29:03
hard it's telling you it wants to be driven hard so it's full on
29:09
The Lexus LFA, it's another car that you want to keep driving and discovering and it never really stops rewarding you
29:14
It always surprises you, it's never quite what you think it's going to be
29:19
It's a sort of monument to Toyota's will to make something completely unique and it always was that and it always will be that
29:26
Everyone calls it a unicorn, don't they? I guess that's the word I keep coming back to
29:30
It's got this sort of weird living legend status. I think the 22B, it's just endless fun
29:37
Whenever you get in the car, you have a massive smile on your face. You get out of the car still with a massive smile on your face
29:43
It's just completely infectious. I think we've been very lucky to have lived in a time when all these cars have been around
29:51
but it also makes me feel a little bit melancholy because I don't know if we're going to have cars like this again
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