Mid engine hooks up.Originally Posted by Bucky
Back in the day, a guy built an MR2 Spyder with a turbo. About 280 hp to the wheels. 205/50-15 R-comps, basic suspension, still the open diff. Its 0-30 time was the same as the fastest (at the time) street-ish Skylines with 500+ hp and the biggest tires they could fit all around.
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Yup. The coupe Foxes and the 03-04 Cobras are the analog of the 69-70 Bosses/Mach-1s for our generation. Along with the FRC (fixed roof coupes - non hatched) C-5 Corvettes imo.
Anything with an eLSD should have the dramatically reduced (if not eliminated) torque steer. Besides the Civic Type R already mentioned by Rob, a lower priced/lower performance car to look at would be the Hyundai Veloster, and a higher performance/higher priced car being the newest generation Audi TTRS which, despite the Quattro name, actually has a FWD-biased Haldex AWD system. Ditto the Audi A3, I think.
That being said, you can't cheat physics. You'll never get the same grip and sensation of powering out of an apex as you will with a RWD car, and you'll always be subject to more understeer.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
When I was 9-years old, my parents bought a Rio Red '95 Mustang GT. And I was promised that car for my 16th birthday.
When I was 14, a girl ran a red light and made a sweeping left turn in a Late '70s Delta 88 and nailed my mom as she was driving through the intersection. She hit the driver's side so hard it pushed the whole front end of the car over towards the passenger side about an inch. Totaling a 5-year old car with 100k miles on it.
Mom was okay after some PT. And I cried when I saw my Mustang at the body shape before they towed it off.
I ended up with a 1984 Ford F150. Which admittedly was a better car for a 16-year old kid than a Mustang GT.
Three times I've tried to buy three different '95 Cobras in Rio Red. And each time I missed out, once I literally saw the car drive away as I arrived with a cashier's check.
Pretty much convinced that Rio Red '95s are my unicorn.
Already mentioned: Honda Civic Type R, Hyundai Veloster N
Also: Ford Fiesta ST, Ford Focus ST, Fiat 500 Abarth, Mini Cooper S, Renault Megane RS (not sold in US, replaced the Subaru WRX as the French highway pursuit vehicle)
One more to the list: the current (Mk8) VW Golf GTI.
I haven't really looked into all these different cars seriously. With that said, if I had to choose one right now and we took the Audi TTRS off the list since it's sort of a different class of car, I'd probably take the Mini first and the GTI 2nd. Minis are just cool and the current generation are actually exceptionally reliable, and the GTI simply because I was really surprised by a VW rental car I had a few years back and how fun/nice it was for the price.
Still deciding on how best to trade-in the Camaro, @BehindBlueI's?
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
The Golf GTIs have pretty much been at the top of the hot hatch list for decades.One more to the list: the current (Mk8) VW Golf GTI.
I haven't really looked into all these different cars seriously. With that said, if I had to choose one right now and we took the Audi TTRS off the list since it's sort of a different class of car, I'd probably take the Mini first and the GTI 2nd. Minis are just cool and the current generation are actually exceptionally reliable, and the GTI simply because I was really surprised by a VW rental car I had a few years back and how fun/nice it was for the price.
Still deciding on how best to trade-in the Camaro, @BehindBlueI's?
They must be doing something right to keep Clarkson happy.
I'm driving a Fusion at work now and it's a 1.5T, not exactly a world class rally car or anything, but the torque steer is pretty noticeable. It just got me to wondering.One more to the list: the current (Mk8) VW Golf GTI.
I haven't really looked into all these different cars seriously. With that said, if I had to choose one right now and we took the Audi TTRS off the list since it's sort of a different class of car, I'd probably take the Mini first and the GTI 2nd. Minis are just cool and the current generation are actually exceptionally reliable, and the GTI simply because I was really surprised by a VW rental car I had a few years back and how fun/nice it was for the price.
Still deciding on how best to trade-in the Camaro, @BehindBlueI's?
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
Yea anything not performance oriented is still going to suffer; almost none of them have proper LSD or torque dampening tech. The little turbo engines these days have pretty solid low end torque. It seems most companies are trying to use a more sophisticated traction control system, rather than a trick differential or suspension. Which makes sense it is cheaper to write code than it is to redesign parts.
Even Clarkson seems to be a fan of Toyota trucks when you start talking much older vehicles.
One problem with the entire field of automotive journalism is that a "long term test" is a year. They never deal with the savagery of out-of-warranty problems that shouldn't be problems.
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