Miata Mailing List: February 1995, Message #70
sponsored by



     


   From: mott@poly1.nist.gov (Peter Mott)
Subject: sport vs. sportY
   Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 18:46:17 -0500

Quentin's list of sports (i.e., approved) cars:

>  RX-7              1st gen Z cars 
>  Miata             NSX
>  Corvette          MR2
>  CRX-Si (1st gen)  CRX del Sol
>  Capri

His sportY (i.e., beneath consideration) cars:

>  Camaro            Firebird
>  Integra           240SX
>  Celica            Supra
>  2nd and 3rd gen Z cars


BEGIN flame

I think quick handling is the soul of the sports car: road-holding
engineering is primary, styling and "attitude" distract from _moving_
down twisty roads.  The best way to improve handling is to reduce
weight.  Thus, a true sports car must be light weight, has 2 seats
(rear seats deleted to reduce weight), rear wheel drive (to improve
handling), and a manual transmission (ditto).

Weight is probably the best way to distinguish "sports" from "sportY".
It shows where the the money was spend--cornering or cushions?--thus
betraying the underlying design philosophy.  This would naturally
exclude those luxury personal cars such as Jag XJS, Mercedes 500 SL,
and seriously question the last generation of Z-cars.  Light weight
also helps distinguish muscle cars from sports cars.  Put a V8 into
anything and it'll go faster down a standing 1/4 mile, but it'll
handle worse because of the extra 500 lbs.  This makes the Corvette a
borderline sports/muscle car.

Lately there have been a lot of serious, driveable front wheel drive
cars available, such as the Lotus Espree.  To appear on my "approved"
list, normally excluded cars such as those with FWD, 2+2s, etc, are
required to petition for special consideration, and only the cars with
the most awesome handling are accepted.  In other words, delete the
disgusting FWD Capri (too much "attitude", not enough handling)--it is
definitely beneath consideration!

END flame


Peter Mott