Its not fair to call these cars wannabe's simply because they all have a previous history like the Z. The original corollas were some fun azz "Punto-Ocho's" that really set it off for jdm tuning. The Z was the first car to get high recognition, but the tuner scene originally started with the toyota corollas and mazda rx3 etc... these cars were stereotyped as ricers back then but they shocked people on the track. Then came celica's supras then starions. Which the Mitsubishi starion founded the first ECU tunes back in 1982. As though nissans were affordable but much more expensive than the above. So toyotas, mazdas and mitsu's were the original poor mans rockets. Nissan was the more expensive niché car that saw tuners from older used models vs tthe other brands that were tuned from new or newer year models. Later on civic crx, and preludes entered the seen putting honda on the tuning map hardcore out of left field.
The FR-S is being compared to its corolla predecessor, the FT-86. One of the best original import tuner platforms of the early 80's. That hatchback was sick. I would love for mitsu to bring the starion back.
PS. There is no resemblence between the FR-S and Z. I just don't see it. It looks like a sleeker version of the new scion tc.