5 ’90s Sports Cars Collectors Are Quietly Buying
Maybe it’s just millennials finally kicking that avocado toast habit and freeing up a few bucks to throw at the cars they lusted after in high school, but the collector car market is catching up to the ’90s. Plucky hatchbacks, endangered species sedans, and no shortage of proper sports cars are turning the corner from being merely used cars and into something more.
We’re not talking about the first wave of ‘90s gems, of course. A fourth-gen Supra or an Acura NSX has been pulling big money for a long time, whether through legendary driving dynamics or iconic film appearances from back when The Fast and the Furious wasn’t a superhero franchise. Instead, we’re here to celebrate a handful of cars that hold serious appeal for enthusiasts of a certain age or those with particular late-20th-century automotive sensibilities.
Each of these cars is on a potential upswing. However, at least for now, these five continue to fly far enough under the radar with prices that are still reasonable despite plenty of collector potential, not to mention a driving experience that’s hard to find today at any price. So throw in your favorite CD-R, crack open a Surge, and let’s have a look.
Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4
The Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 had a lot going on. The name alone is a mouthful, and it’s hard to explain just how much the thing stood out visually in the ‘90s, to say nothing of the heads it can still turn today. The VR-4 was the sportier variant, with a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6, all-wheel drive, and four-wheel steering. It had an electronically controlled suspension, active aero, and what Mitsubishi called its “Active Exhaust” system, which let you turn up the volume on engine noise at the press of a button.
In its time, this was about as close as you could get to a spaceship, at least as far as sports coupes co-developed with Chrysler are concerned. All that tech lands a little differently 30 years later, so it’s perhaps not surprising that the collector market hasn’t quite known what to do with these. Values mostly hover in the neighborhood of $20,000, with nice examples going for more and more typical ones for much, much less. Cars and Bids, self-appointed brokers of record for exactly this kind of enthusiast-bait, has established the baseline pretty well, including examples transacting as low as $8,500.
Toyota MR2 Turbo
Ignoring the turbo version for a second, the MR2 itself was a special car on its face. It was a tiny, mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive Toyota that looked borderline exotic by the standards of the straight-line design language of its day. The Turbo paired a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with a proper little turbocharger, delivering 200 horsepower in a compact package. There’s probably an alternate ’90s timeline where the MR2 gave the Miata of the time a run for its money, but several hundred additional pounds of curb weight and a reputation for handling that never really approached that Miata-flavored tossability meant it didn’t break through in that respect.
But today? It probably wouldn’t be your first choice for an autocross build, though it’s starting to get a little traction in the minds of collectors — only a little. The market seems to be valuing these on the whole just slightly higher than that VR-4, with stellar ones transacting in the mid-$30,000s and the rougher ones below $20,000. Besides, the MR2 family is the only mid-engine Toyota you‘re going to find, unless of course you’re ready to upgrade to a Previa.
BMW Z3 M Roadster
If you ever wanted an undeniable example of what a difference a body style can make, compare the Z3 Coupe (affectionately known as the “clown shoe”) with the Roadster. Regardless of the body style, the M variant was a proper BMW M car, and for whatever reason, the market has decided to let the hardtop get a running start on collector-level appreciation. Meanwhile, the roadster lags a bit behind, at least for now.
That means you get the “Miata in a tuxedo” energy of the base Z3, augmented by a 3.2-liter inline-six with 240 horsepower and a manual transmission, and still find one in the mid-$20,000s. You won’t turn as many heads as something that looks like circus-appropriate footwear, but you get the same drivetrain and late-’90s M-car character with the wind in your hair along the way. Right now it sits right between being a used enthusiast BMW and a genuine collector car. We’ll see which way it goes in the decade to come.
Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo
The 300ZX is one of those “you had to be there” cars. You didn’t see them everywhere. The Twin Turbo was a genuine menace in the Japanese performance scene, and yet it never really developed the kind of mythology around it that the Supra did or even the cult following of something like the RX-7. It had a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 good for 300 horsepower in a rear-wheel-drive platform with an available five-speed manual. The shape might not have been exotic, exactly, but it was imposing — picture it standing next to Nissan’s 240SX like Darth Vader next to a stormtrooper.
In any case, these might actually cost a bit more than you’d guess, with Classic.com reporting a market benchmark that is just beginning to approach $30,000, but plenty of examples are transacting much closer to $15,000. If the 3000GT is the over-engineered spaceship of this roundup, this might be the more restrained, sophisticated alternative, with still enough bleeding-edge ‘90s performance tech to keep things interesting.
Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1
Our last entry here feels a little different. It doesn’t have the ultra-quirky ‘90s vibes. It costs more than everything else here. It also goes faster, certainly in a straight line. Plus, you know: America.
But a ZR-1 is a special thing in any era, and not every generation of ‘Vette got one. This, the ZR-1 variant of the C4 Corvette, represented a whole lot more than just a base model with some aesthetic touches and an upgraded intake. This was a brand-new 5.7-liter V8 co-developed with Lotus, putting out 375 hp when it launched in 1990 and sending the ZR-1 from zero to sixty in less than five seconds.
The Classic.com benchmark for this one is around $37,000, but we just watched one sell on Bring a Trailer for $22,222, which may look like a steal at some point. For now, though, this is a whole lot of American performance muscle for not a lot of money.
Like everything else on this list, the ZR-1 may or may not pique your interest as an enthusiast. That said, we’re willing to bet that something here does, unless you’re too old or too young to appreciate the appeal of an aftermarket head unit that goes in the glovebox when you’re not using it.
Sources: Classic.com, Cars & Bids, Bring a Trailer, Hagerty
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