No niche was too obscure to fill, and no technology was too outlandish to pursue. This prosperous time emboldened Japanese automakers to think bigger, invest heavily in their R&D and chase a growing segment of increasingly wealthy consumers. Toward the end of 1985, after decades of steady economic growth, Japan began to experience an economic bubble driven by a stronger yen, low interest rates and aggressive speculation, resulting in a massive inflation of stock prices and real estate. Over two decades later, thanks to people like Duncan - and an allowance in a 1988 piece of legislation called the Import Motor Vehicle Safety Compliance Act - these cars are finally getting their due. It is a staggering representation of an auto-industry era that was marked by innovation, creativity and excess, and which was long withheld from a generation of American automotive enthusiasts who were unable to legally experience it in person, having to settle for vicarious exposure through video games and movies. His diverse collection of over 600 Japanese vehicles comprises sports cars, kei cars, vans, trucks, luxury cars and even hearses. By Duncan’s estimate, he has the largest collection of Japanese-market cars in North America. In fact, as of writing, he has 150 of them, along with hundreds of other Japanese cars and trucks from the ’80s and ’90s, parked in his warehouse in Christiansburg, Virginia. Today Duncan, now 65 years old, has his Figaro. “I didn’t know at the time that it would take twenty-five years.” “I thought, ‘Man those are cool… I gotta have one,'” says Duncan. It was there he first laid his eyes on the Nissan Figaro concept car: an aggressively retro convertible just over 12 feet long, five feet wide and powered by a one-liter engine putting out barely more than 50 horsepower. Duncan, who had been a dealer of foreign cars since the age of 19, scored a trip to Japan to visit that year’s Tokyo Motor Show. In 1989, Gary Duncan had a seemingly life-altering experience. Discounted domestic shipping + 15% off in the GP store for new subscribers.
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