Toyota 2000GT

In the 1960s, Japanese cars meant sensible and cheap. The 2000GT was Toyota's answer to that reputation: a low, elegant grand tourer built with Yamaha, often called Japan's first supercar. It looked and drove like nothing the country had made before, and it forced the established European makers to start taking Japan seriously.

Under the long bonnet sat a 2.0-litre inline-six making 148 hp — modest today, but wrapped in a car that handled and finished to a standard no one expected from Tokyo. It even earned a turn in the wider culture, appearing as a Bond car in the 1960s. Just 337 were built, which is part of why it became the first Japanese car to sell for over a million dollars at auction.

The 2000GT didn't sell in numbers or change an industry overnight. What it changed was perception — the moment Japan announced it could make an object of desire, not just transport.