Which Direction for Good Handling, Forgiving Z?

Originally Posted by wheelspeed

Your comment about a Corvette Z06 feeling super wide is very interesting, because that's been a concern of mine. I hate that companies just throw on a wide package to get easy, higher g's on a skidpad for the magazine tests, and meanwhile it's so wide you can't avoid a Pittsburgh pothole without leaving your lane. I've suspected the Vette and SS 1LE might irritate me that way, and your comment supports that.

People keep mentioning the M2. I guess I should drive one. The company I work for is German owned, and the main bosses all own German. Maybe it'd do me well to have a German car. But after having 4 BMW's in the 90's and 00's, I'm kind of past it. I still watch for E46 M3 and old Z3 M Coupes, but no so into the new BMWs. I did like M2s when they came out and thought I'd look at off-lease M2s around now, but meh. Plus, with a nice '18 Ford Flex, I'm finally in a position to get a 2-seater. Getting a car with more practical interior feels like a waste. There's a lot of room in the Flex. I can fold the seats down flat and sleep in it. I haven't had a 2-seater since I was like 20 years old. ($2800 '84 Fiero in 1990 ha ha.)

Not a fan of S2000s. It's like my peeve with mfrs throwing on wider stance to chase skidpad results... making a small engine rev to 9000 rpms to get a decent hp rating seems like cheating. It's fine for the track where you can hold it between 6-9k rpms, but F that for driving to work. Just seems like a stupid car to me and I'm tired of people liking a stupid street car that revs to freakin' 9,000 rpms. Like I'm gonna drive around my local streets at 6k rpms like an a-hole. No, 97% I'm driving around 3-5k rpms and the car's gonna suck like that. Sorry... obviously some kind of trigger. :-) Plus bald guys don't like convertibles.

I would like to do some HDPE stuff, but I didn't get into that because I feel any car will be fun for that. I even took my '09 Mazda 3 on a couple "Track-cross" events that were a Wednesday night kind of thing with just one car at a time and only 1/2 course, timed. It was still fun as hell with all of 150hp/150 torque on all-season tires. And anyway, I suspect 75% of cars that are rated good for track days kinda suck for street driving on crappy Pittsburgh roads, so I really prefer a "drivers car" instead of track car. It's what I meant by "fun and forgiving" car. You know, spirited corner-attacking, across frost-heaves and tar snakes and the car can handle it okay without going nuts. Drives me nuts that magazine reviews drive a car on the roads and comment about interior, but no comments about handling until they take it on the track. NO, I don't wanna know about a cars handling on a track... tell me how it is on the roads. If it does well on a nice smooth track holding the rpms at 8000 rpms like the goofy S2000, then I'm probably not going to like it on northeast roads.

But okay, now my test-drive list is expanded to M2 and Cayman. I'm not one to waste people's time joy-riding their stuff, so I better do that before I buy something or I never will. And maybe one will make me fall for it. And another 370z of course. I do remember that my test drive of a '12 about 2 years ago felt like 'home' to me from the inside. But couldn't get any concept of handling from that little slow ride through the 'burbs.

EDIT- Above was posted at 10:30pm and there may or may not have been a little drinking before posting.

EDIT2 - Holy moly NSX's from like '90 are about $90k!!! Did you miss my $60k cap? No way doing that. The closest thing to my "emotionally illogical dream car" is a 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera with whale tale, which I found one in North Carolina for like $50k with zero warranty. I'd do that way before a $90k 30-year old NSX. Dear lord.

EDIT3 - Might be reason for my love of 350/370Zs is that they resemble '84 911s to me.