BACK in 1970 the Japanese car was beginning to gain sway in Britain but many of the offerings were bland in appearance by British standards.
Although tremendously reliable some were prone to rust and many Brits were saying they would not catch on in a big way.
Just how wrong they were was proven by the appearance of the first Toyota Celica which became the boy racers' dream
Still majoring on reliability but cooking on gas with a buoyant home market and bags on confidence Toyota designers let their hair down and designed a coupe which was both frivolous and sporty.
Often referred to as the Japanese Capri, the Celica, takenfrom the Latin for celestial, had a three year development period and the wraps were thrown off at the 1970s Tokyo Motor Show.
Toyota had half an eye on the success of the Ford Mustang, but were realistic enough to realise that their offering – puny by comparison – was never going to attain the admiration of the American great. But it certainly had a very good try.
The school run was left in the slow lane by this amazing coupe which was built around the company's high performance in-line fours.
It was like a breath of fresh air, being fun to drive and very good looking. It was one of the first Japanese cars that people aspired to and it set the company on a roll in the UK.
The Celica's success took the manufacturer a little by surprise because although it was never intended to be a high volume car by 1977 one million Celicas were on the road.
Not only that, a Celica driven by Ove Andersson was driven to an impressive ninth place in the 1972 RAC World Rally Championship and later GT versions had great success in world rallying.
Throughout its career it was powered by various four-cylinder engines and went though a rather bewildering series of model evolutions, the biggest being in 1985 when the car's layout was changed from rear-wheel drive to front-wheel-drive.
At various times it was available as a notchback, liftback and convertible and they were all good lookers.
Perhaps the most ferocious performer was the four-wheel-drive turbocharged GT-Four which attracted a lot of fans.
The first generation was targeted to be a more affordable alternative to Toyota's sports car and star of the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, the 2000GT.
And it proved to be inspirational in Britain because a tremendous number became proud stars of the driveways being lavished with lots of wax washes and expensive polish to keep the dreaded rust away.
If any Japanese car deserves the title of classic then this one does.