If you like cars, Japan is a really quite interesting country. So interesting in fact, that Episode 3 of Top Gear Series 25 has dedicated a full hour to exploring the quixotic charms of the country.
First off, Chris sets out to discover the two most Japanesely styled cars on sale today, comparing the thuggish Honda Civic Type R with the manga-esque Lexus LC500, through the time-honoured medium of driving really fast around a circuit.
Elsewhere in Japan, Rory attempts to cram as much weird Japanese car culture as possible into a single night, meeting up with the mad BŌsŌzoku car tuners and a bunch of very lurid Lamborghini owners, before sneaking a drive in a car that really, really shouldn’t be road-legal. Or driven by anyone taller than about five foot one.
Then Chris and Matt come up with a frankly genius plan to balance the severely imbalanced Top Gear books. Nineties Japanese sports cars: they’re amazing, but if you live in the United Kingdom and you want one that’s neither been substantially modified or substantially crashed, you’ll pay silly money. Chris and Matt reckoned they’d figured the solution: buy a couple of mint Japanese sports cars at an auction, ship ’em back to the UK and sell them on for a tidy profit.
Tune in, Sunday 11 March, BBC Two HD and BBC iPlayer. Rory Reid’s companion show Extra Gear is on at 9pm, BBC Three and BBC iPlayer.