A sportscar shouldn’t have...
Discussion
Another `possible' filter could be the fact that most of us `need' a car of some sort, but getting a car that one wants rather than needs might be why some buy sportscars.
Hard to say whether any of us `needs' a sportscar , but I suspect many of us want one (quite badly in some cases!
)
Hard to say whether any of us `needs' a sportscar , but I suspect many of us want one (quite badly in some cases!
)Pan Pan Pan said:
Another `possible' filter could be the fact that most of us `need' a car of some sort, but getting a car that one wants rather than needs might be why some buy sportscars.
Hard to say whether any of us `needs' a sportscar , but I suspect many of us want one (quite badly in some cases! )
exactly! If you need a car, but don't need 4 seats, a large carrying capacity, or diesel economy, why not have something interesting? Why not have a sportscar?Hard to say whether any of us `needs' a sportscar , but I suspect many of us want one (quite badly in some cases!
)A Boxster, MX - 5, GT86 etc are a great daily driver for a lot of people. Reliable, comfortable enough and fun to drive. Better than a Passat for sure. An Elise, at least a Mk 1, is possibly already going a little bit too difficult to live with day to day, with its difficult to manage roof, particularly difficult entry and exit, and no carpets mean you spend the journey listening to small stones skittering across the aluminium floor every time you change direction, but if you can put up with those, then who'd rather drive every day in a Focus than an Elise?
For me, the appeal is there for the ordinary sportscar, and the appeal of something more focussed then becomes as a weekend toy.
Some prefer to make the boring commutes more comfortable and isolated. I can understand that. I prefer a car that makes the drive more interesting even when it's not working hard. And sometimes that means being in a car that feels a little, but not too much, out of its comfort zone when going slowly. A low seating position and a view that remind you you're not in a practical shaped tin can like all the cars around you, but you're in something built to be set free on an empty road. Built to excite, engage and enjoy. Built to excel on drives that don't have a destination.
Edited by kiseca on Friday 20th December 13:09
Lily the Pink said:
Niffty951 said:
If you want to feel good about your driving and put fast laps in on track, buy a post 2004 Porsche 911 or 2006 Cayman.
From your username I guess you have (or have had) a 951 ? Is that a sportscar ? What about an n/a 944 ?The pre-oval dash <1985.5 was the most pure 'sports car' experience but the later ones were superb GT cars. They changed the wheel offsets and suspension strut angles in the late 250 turbo and m030 cars and made them a lot tamer, they gained 'safety understeer' but they could still bite. There was usually about one story a month on 'Titanic Porsche' about a car being written off.
The reason I make the distinction between pre 2004/2006 P-cars and cars made after that is because I feel there was a real shift in the dynamics. You'd have to be a real fool to crash a 987 Cayman but a 986 Boxster is very very capable of biting.
Miserablegit said:
There’s a very nice 911 GTS parked outside my office (not mine I hasten to add). When I walked past I noticed it has headlamp washers. I know they were compulsory for HID headlamps but are not for LED and it got me thinking... A sportscar really shouldn’t have headlamp washers...
They are for when the light output exceeds 2000 lumen, I like my sports cars with good lights...cerb4.5lee said:
Tyre Smoke said:
A soft top E Type is, a FHC E Type isn't, it's a GT.
Or perhaps that's just personal perception.
That is a good shout because I see the TVR Chimeara(soft top) as a sports car, whereas I saw my Cerbera(fixed roof) as a GT car. Or perhaps that's just personal perception.
Tyre Smoke said:
Anyone who says a Honda Coupe is more of a sportscar than a MX5 is clearly missing the point.
A hot hatch isn't a sportscar.
A soft top E Type is, a FHC E Type isn't, it's a GT.
Or perhaps that's just personal perception.
The 2+2 E Type FHC is a GT, not the early FHC, that's still a sports car.A hot hatch isn't a sportscar.
A soft top E Type is, a FHC E Type isn't, it's a GT.
Or perhaps that's just personal perception.
YouTalkinToMe said:
The 2+2 E Type FHC is a GT, not the early FHC, that's still a sports car.
Unfortunately the term GT has long since lost it's original meaning of Grand Tourer. Despite their monikas it's impossible to regard a GTi Golf or even a GT86 as a Grand Tourer. I can't really regard any TVR as truly worthy of the title either. It does get worse - a GT3 Porsche is neither a Grand Tourer and certainly not a GT3 car (a true GT4 car would completely demolish it).Surely sports coupe would be a less contentious term. That said I personally do consider 2 or 2+2 coupes with serious sporting pretensions to be sportscars. So a FHC E-type, an Alpine A110, GT86 etc are all sports cars to me.
Wikipedia gets it right for the Grand Tourer too.
"Grand tourers emphasize comfort and handling over straight-out high performance or ascetic, spartan accommodations. In comparison, sports cars (also a "much abused and confused term") are typically more "crude" compared to "sophisticated Grand Touring machinery."[20] However, the popularity of using GT for marketing purposes has meant that it has become a "much misused term, eventually signifying no more than a slightly tuned version of a family car with trendy wheels and a go-faster stripe on the side."
"Grand tourers emphasize comfort and handling over straight-out high performance or ascetic, spartan accommodations. In comparison, sports cars (also a "much abused and confused term") are typically more "crude" compared to "sophisticated Grand Touring machinery."[20] However, the popularity of using GT for marketing purposes has meant that it has become a "much misused term, eventually signifying no more than a slightly tuned version of a family car with trendy wheels and a go-faster stripe on the side."
bcr5784 said:
Wikipedia gets it right for the Grand Tourer too.
"Grand tourers emphasize comfort and handling over straight-out high performance or ascetic, spartan accommodations. In comparison, sports cars (also a "much abused and confused term") are typically more "crude" compared to "sophisticated Grand Touring machinery."[20] However, the popularity of using GT for marketing purposes has meant that it has become a "much misused term, eventually signifying no more than a slightly tuned version of a family car with trendy wheels and a go-faster stripe on the side."
I class my 370Z as more of a GT because I think that it is too heavy to be a sports car. Although with it only having 2 seats and a soft top I guess none car enthusiasts might class it as a sports car though. "Grand tourers emphasize comfort and handling over straight-out high performance or ascetic, spartan accommodations. In comparison, sports cars (also a "much abused and confused term") are typically more "crude" compared to "sophisticated Grand Touring machinery."[20] However, the popularity of using GT for marketing purposes has meant that it has become a "much misused term, eventually signifying no more than a slightly tuned version of a family car with trendy wheels and a go-faster stripe on the side."
A true GT is something like a Bentley Continental/Mercedes SL etc I reckon.
My Cerbera was really difficult to pigeon hole though, it wasn't light enough(between 1100kg-1200kg) to be a sports car and it was a 2+2 so that also rules it out as a sports car for me. A sports Coupe like my old 200sx and the GT86 fits it far better I think.
As everyone has mentioned though...everyone has a different idea of what is a sports car for sure.
Gojira said:
Doesn't answer the question, but Wikipedia gets it spot on 
"Attributing the definition of 'sports car' to any particular model can be controversial or the subject of debate among enthusiasts."
I don't think many folks would argue with that...
"Attributing the definition of 'sports car' to any particular model can be controversial or the subject of debate among enthusiasts."
I don't think many folks would argue with that...
yes -- safe to say this has been established over the last 26 pages. Tyre Smoke said:
Anyone who says a Honda Coupe is more of a sportscar than a MX5 is clearly missing the point.
A hot hatch isn't a sportscar.
A soft top E Type is, a FHC E Type isn't, it's a GT.
Or perhaps that's just personal perception.
It is. A hot hatch isn't a sportscar.
A soft top E Type is, a FHC E Type isn't, it's a GT.
Or perhaps that's just personal perception.
How can a ‘hot hatch’ (which the dc2 isn’t really) be sportier than a sports car?
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