The Forgotten Toyota Sedan That Outruns BMWs Without Anyone Noticing

Most fast sedans scream for attention. A BMW M5 or Mercedes-AMG might try to look subtle, but car people spot them from a block away. Japan, however, quietly built something different in the 1990s: a four-door Toyota that looks like a grocery getter but hides a turbocharged inline-six straight out of a sports car.

It's called the Toyota Chaser Tourer V, and for years it was the ultimate sleeper — a sedan that could dust a Mustang GT at a stoplight without anyone seeing it coming.

The Chaser never left Japan. While the Camry handled overseas sales, Toyota kept this rear-wheel-drive sedan for the home market. The final generation, the JZX100, arrived in 1996 looking like any other nondescript 1990s sedan — boxy, plain, forgettable. 5-liter straight-six closely related to the legendary 2JZ in the Mk4 Supra.

6 seconds — right on par with the BMW E34 M5. And because the 1JZ-GTE is famously tunable, owners regularly push it past 600 horsepower without breaking a sweat.

For years, the Chaser was a drift legend in Japan and a bargain for enthusiasts who knew about it. But America is catching on. Under the 25-year import rule, clean Tourer V models that once sold for under $15,000 now fetch around $30,000 on auction sites like Bring a Trailer. That's still a fraction of what a Mk4 Supra costs — Hagerty lists a good-condition Supra Turbo at $88,000 — and the Chaser offers four doors and more practicality.

The secret is out, but for anyone who wants a proper rear-wheel-drive manual sedan with massive tuning potential, the Chaser remains one of the most compelling Japanese performance cars you can still buy without taking out a second mortgage.