Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

The upcoming Toyota/Subaru roadster will also have well under 300hp.
 
Mazda still lists the 2011 RX-8 on their website :p

And I know of at least one you can still buy brand new.
 
What about S2000 drivers? :)
Never had a customer with a S2000. :)

Met two Subaru SVX owners(less than a 1000 in this country) but no S2000.

The people here are very very boring with their car choices. Just having a blue Impreza makes my car far more noticeable in a sea of beige, white, black, grey and silver.
 
If we're counting old sports cars, there's a ton. Everything Japanese up until a few years ago, for example.
 
My uni organised a debate (on how tech transfers from motorsport to roadcars, and vice versa) with several top engineers tonight:

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Sufficient to say, everyone in here should know who the bloke in the middle is. The guy to the left to him (not clear on the picture) was a guy from Prodrive, who sounded an awful lot like the guy who was in the Prodrive P2 segment on TG several years ago.

I enjoyed it, but felt a bit cheated cos the whole thing got delayed by 30min but still ended at the scheduled time...
 
He just talked about iStream and mocked all the OEMs who had come to him who had completely ignored the significance of factory footprint/emissions -- he did talk about other things too, but those were specific to Gordon Murray Design.

The most depressing thing of the whole night was that basically the whole panel said that driving enthusiast cars will almost be non-existent in a few years.
 
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Off the top of my head at least two, Porsche Boxster and Porsche Cayman.
But they have 300+ models

Or an NSX, I'd imagine. Also a sports car with under 300 HP for those who are counting.
Wasn't later years 320? Though its been out of production for a while
 
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The most depressing thing of the whole night was that basically the whole panel said that driving enthusiast cars will almost be non-existent in a few years.

That seems silly IMHO. There's still plenty of demand to keep them going. See MX-5, 911, BMW 1M, Toyota 86 (Although I suppose that could end up being a flop... but there must have been enough demand to push them to make it), etc. Although then again, the definition of "driving enthusiast cars" can be debated forever, but I'd say those all qualify.
 
Doesn't the FT have less than 300 horsepower?
 
So? Mainstream sports cars with less than 300hp was your criteria, not mainstream sports cars that cannot be upgraded to over 300hp.

I was saying that I can't really think of any with under 300hp and the majority seems to be either above that threshold entirely, very close to it (like Evo with 290) or at least have a higher tier model with that kind of power.
The Merc SLK is well under 300hp, except the top of the range versions. Same with the BMW Z4.
I didn't even know the SLK was still on sale here, had to look it up, MB US does still list it but I haven't seen one in at least 6 years.

So what we have learned from this is that German sports cars come in "less power than a Camry" trim :p
Doesn't the FT have less than 300 horsepower?
Yes argatoga mentioned it but the FT and the Miata are kind of outliers as they are roadsters that are historically low power and low weight. FT is strange though because its a fixed roof roadster...
 
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That seems silly IMHO. There's still plenty of demand to keep them going. See MX-5, 911, BMW 1M, Toyota 86 (Although I suppose that could end up being a flop... but there must have been enough demand to push them to make it), etc. Although then again, the definition of "driving enthusiast cars" can be debated forever, but I'd say those all qualify.

The greater demand is for efficiency, which isn't the main selling point of your mentioned cars (you could argue for the 911, but still). If you think about how many cars there are for sale in total and then compare that list to the cars you mentioned, it's already a very nichey market. After excusing himself of being an old fart, Gordon said that he was afraid that the new generation now would never experience to drive a car which is driven by the correct wheels. :p
 
So what we have learned from this is that German sports cars come in "less power than a Camry" trim :p

What you should have learned is that a single number is not very relevant.

Hell, the top-spec Unimog has much less power than a V6 Camry. Meaningful? :no:
 
The greater demand is for efficiency, which isn't the main selling point of your mentioned cars (you could argue for the 911, but still). If you think about how many cars there are for sale in total and then compare that list to the cars you mentioned, it's already a very nichey market. After excusing himself of being an old fart, Gordon said that he was afraid that the new generation now would never experience to drive a car which is driven by the correct wheels. :p

I'm not by any means saying that they're in super-high demand or something, and indeed efficiency is the greater demand at the moment. However, I still can't see enthusiast cars dying anytime soon. So long as they can make money off of them, car companies will be interesting in making them.

But I do think Gordon is right, to some extent. Even today you really have to try to buy a RWD vehicle. The most mainstream RWD vehicles I can think of are premium cars, from Mercedes and BMW. I suppose you could count the MX-5 and FT86 solely on price, but they are impractical for many people.

Now before this turns into FWD vs RWD, I'd like to make it clear that I am not promoting either side, just pointing out a lack of mainstream RWD cars :p
 
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What you should have learned is that a single number is not very relevant.

Hell, the top-spec Unimog has much less power than a V6 Camry. Meaningful? :no:

Last I checked Unimog was not a sports car..
EThe most mainstream RWD vehicles I can think of are premium cars, from Mercedes and BMW.
And even those are moving to AWD, BMW just recently added X-drive to a bunch of their models, MB has a ton of 4matic cars as well. Infiniti has their X models as well. The world is generally moving away from the pure engine in the front, driving wheels out back model because of a bunch of concerns including safety. (Also ESP systems are much more effective with AWD than they are with 2WD)
 
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