Hands up if you, or someone you knew, ever owned a BFMR or BFMP Familia at some point. Now keep those hands up if you’ve ever blown a gearbox in one of ‘em before… just kidding.

it’s not hard to see how the humble Familia managed to garner a reputation over here as being the “Evo” of their day. when import laws were first relaxed in the early 1990s they were one of the most popular hi-po vehicles shipped to our shores directly out of Japan, purely due to their ubiquity and bang-for-buck value – at a time when most 2-litre turbo vehicles still remained the domain of rich middle-aged folks, the Familia with its smaller 1600cc B6T engine offered a sizeable chunk of the experience for comparatively little money. The fact that a locally-sold version (the Ford Laser) also shared the Familia’s mechanicals and drivetrain further added to its perpetuity.

1985 BFMR Mazda Familia GT-X

And as the decade wore on, the natural rate of devaluation brought them within easy reach of many an 18-year-old amping for their first taste of performance car nirvana.

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if there’s one endearing thing about Japanese car culture, it’s that they never seem to forget the classics.

Hachimaru Hero, vol. 1: Eternal Idol AE86

Hachimaru Hero by Geibunsha Publishing is one of the few Japanese automotive magazines to focus entirely on the cars of the ’80s. From beloved highway stompers such as the Fairlady 200ZR to the humble family wagon Civic Shuttle, a bewildering array of cult to cooking cars are covered in ten incredibly well-produced volumes.

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during the 1980s turbocharging craze, it seemed that every Japanese manufacturer ended up developing at least one forced-induction engine. A few of these were of the “gun” variety – boasting healthy power and big torque figures – and were ultimately slotted into highly-sought-after flagship models and top-shelf sportscars.

However for every legendary FJ20ET, G63B, 7M-GTE and 13B-Turbo pushed out to market, there existed an equal or greater number of lesser-known, lesser adored, more mundane cooking-spec engines which also happened to benefit from TEH POWAR OF BOOST. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the end result, the fruits of such labour were harnessed to power various Japanese iterations of the ’80s “hot hatch”, a market unto its own at the time.

one such example is Toyota’s 3E-TE engine.

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