Davey

As long as it keeps the tight, quick feel of the steering, I'm all over that. Cars like the Mustang with 16:1 steering racks just don't have the crisp turn-in like you get from a BRZ, RX-8, Miata, S2000... But those cars don't have the brute force of something like the Z, and especially not the Mustang and Camaro.

The Mustang will go round a racetrack really fast, sure. But driving one, they are heavy, and you can feel it. The steering wheel feels like it belongs on a pirate ship, and as if it's barely even connected to the front wheels on the S197. There is ample dive and squat in the suspension, little feedback from the steering, etc. - though the S550 is greatly improved over the S197 in all of those respects, it's still not as "good" as the Z in those ways.

That is what people are getting at, or at least, that's what I'm getting at... Balance between the actual performance, and the enjoyment of driving it.

If I'm getting paid to win money on a racetrack, I suppose I'm going to drive the fastest damn thing I can afford to drive and I don't care what it feels like, it could be a nightmarish handful that keeps me at my wits' end the entire time, if it's faster, it's faster. But when I drive on the street I'm driving for my own enjoyment and I do not care about 0-60 times or lap times so much as if the car has enough power to "feel fun" to me - and also part of that "feeling fun" is the steering response, flat cornering, predictable braking, etc. That stuff is all way more important to me than the actual lap times turned in on a racetrack by a professional driver who isn't even me, and may not be enjoying it at all.

Now, on the other hand... There's the Miata/BRZ... It's just too slow to be fun IMO. The Z is not too slow to be fun. As I said before, low to mid 13's at over 100 mph in the quarter mile and a top speed (electronically limited) of 155 is slow? Come on, dude.

It could be faster, but it's fast enough to be fun.