Quote:
Originally Posted by AutoX Z
Sure this might be the death of the muscle car but I think it will be the rebirth of the traditional sports car. There's going to be a big push to make smaller lighter cars now that people realize how big an enemy weight is. So sure the giant V8's and possibly V6's are not long for this world with the advances in direct injection and turbo's there's still a bright future for performance cars.
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I couldn't agree more. The old Colin Chapman line, "For more speed... add lightness" applies. My Sentra SE-R was about 2100 pounds and went damn well with only 130hp. I've driven a Caterham Super 7 which is under 1500 lbs, and it was a hoot! DAMN fast, and very visceral (but a bit scary next to an 18-wheeler on the highway).
I continue to watch in horror as each generation of cars add more weight and need to increase engine size to return decent performance. I hope the new focus on efficiency starts to drive weights back down, but the costs of exotic materials and the safety and content requirements of new cars make this a difficult engineering challenge. I'd be really happy with the same power-to-weight ratio as my 370Z in a 2000lb car!
I'm sure it would get a lot better fuel mileage. But I still wouldn't want to meet a Chevy Tahoe head-on...
HJM