TV: Best Motoring

Unless you're into cars, you've probably never seen Best Motoring. I don't believe they air Japan's number one automobile video magazine very much here in the States, and I would be unaware of the show if it weren't for my petrolhead friends. Fortunately, I've managed to watch quite a few of these interesting shows.

Not surprisingly, they focus on Japanese cars. The basic show is similar to the "Car and Driver" TV show but with an eye towards performance and handling more than price or features. Several side volumes, including "Hot Version," deal with exotic supercars or heavily tuned production models. Often you can view entertaining downhill races that really show what $20,000 and a good tuning shop can do to a stock import car. All in all, it's fun to watch and I'd love it if more auto dealers and mechanics played this instead of daytime soaps in their waiting rooms.

Best Motoring has ventured here to the U.S. from time to time, where they test some of our domestic vehicles:



Occasionally, they feature some exciting races with some of Japan's best race car drivers, like the legendary Keiichi Tsuchiya: