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Old 03-23-2012, 08:16 PM   #656 (permalink)
Zaggeron
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Austin, TX
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+1

Agree completely. Case in point. Yesterday I drove my Z home via 2222 in Austin -- a twisty road, but quite busy during rush hour. It was fun, but mundane because of the heavy traffic.

Today I drove my normal daily driver -- Mazda 3 -- down the same road with the same traffic conditions. Did I go slower? Yes. Did it feel like I was going faster? Yes. I hate to admit it, but it was just funner in the Mazda under those sorts of conditions.

I love my Z but I'm replacing my Mazda with the BRZ. For my day to day commute in heavy traffic with bursts of acceleration down the twisties, It seems like a good choice.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vo2max99 View Post
I'm not really bothered by the acceleration #'s because it appears to be a blast to drive regardless. I guess some folks feel they need to prove something I don't get it. There's always going to be someone out there with a faster car. How fast your car is doesn't prove anything.

A lot of sports cars these days have so much power they aren't as rewarding to drive on a day to day bases. Sure if you have a racetrack in your back yard that's another thing but for daily driving a car doesn't need a 12:1 power to weight ratio or better to be fun to drive. There are plenty of good examples that demonstrate this but some don't seem to grasp this.

I bet this little BR-Z although much slower than most sports cars turns out to be one of the very best sports cars to drive. So if this is the case why would one dismiss a BR-Z just because it runs a ~ 15sec 1/4mile? What if it ran a 14,13 or 12 sec 1/4mile?

Why does it matter as long as its rewarding to drive? Just adding more power isn't likely to increase the fun to drive factor but likely make it's limits less approachable and hence less fun to drive on a day to day bases. People always suggest the MX-5 somehow needs more power but it really doesn't for the same reason.

A lot of sports cars have so much power and such high limits that their not even remotely attainable to approach 99% of the time unless you're at a race track going balls to the wall. Cars like the S2K, MX-5, RX-8, BR-Z,etc have limits not so high that you can actually explore them on a day to day bases. These cars can easily be drifted, ran through the gears, etc without breaking all kinds of laws / causing un wanted attention and so on.

Most sports cars these days have such high limits you can't come close to approaching them during normal everyday use. So as a result they're only really fun on a racetrack. It's nice to see companies build driver's cars vs. cars which are really quick but not much fun to drive on the street.
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2010 Platinum Graphite 370z Roadster:Touring/Sport
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