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Mustang is way too big and handles curves way too badly to be considered a sports car in any sense of the term.
It's a GT car.
Quote:
Originally Posted by getatag
I was in the same situation as you several years ago. I drove the 370Z, the Miata, the S2000, and a Z06.
Here's the way I ranked them:
1. Z06 Pure muscle car, looked good, came in manual only (at the time, now auto available), handled well and accelerated exceedingly well. Could be a boulevard cruiser or a real race car with only the driver's desires causing the conversion. Average gas mileage in town, great mileage on the highway. Nothing, let me repeat that, NOTHING, feels better than V-8 horsepower under foot.
2. S2000 Convertible top, descent mileage, plenty of pep if you used the redline and the gearbox. Reliable, comfortable and appealing. Reasonable modifications if you wanted to own a track car.
3. Miata Plenty of bang for the bucks. A bit underpowered, but parts readily available to make it a screamer. A bit noisy, but that is the nature of a convertible. Plenty of eye appeal, but sometimes gets the reputation of a chick car. This was a really difficult choice for me along with the S2000. It could have gone either way.
4. 270Z Nah, just nah! Nice, reliable, zippy, but something missing in the drive feedback.
"Boulevard cruiser or race car" Yes, that's the beauty of the 'Vette.
V-8 horsepower does feel great, but as great as a screaming Ferrari?
370Z. Do they have a turbo one these days? If they do and you didn't drive it, your opinion on the Z may become different. I've been out of the loop for some time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by USNRET04
Are you totally set on a true sports car, or willing to look at sport sedans that are quick and fun to drive?
I have a relative that had the Taurus SHO. Fun drive but I didn't like FWD on that model.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SWFL_Native
I'm sure you could find an older Cayman S or Boxster S in that price range.
I feel like some responses here are stuck in 1980 arguing against certain cars being a "true" sports car. The automotive landscape and the cars within it are different now than they were decades ago. Pony cars are no longer just dinosaur live rear axle, straight line power machines. We are in an era where top end Camaros are not just powerful but have such terrific dynamic handling capability to set better lap times on road courses than some six figure super cars.
Point being, you can still find cars such as the Miata that come close to the original concept of the traditional sports car (great handling, light weight, etc), but that most people generally have a broader definition of what is and is not a true sports car (compared to more of a grand touring car) than limiting themselves to the one or two cars on the market that most resemble what was a sports car a few generations ago.
In terms of the OP, I'd say not to worry about the semantics of what is or is not a "sports car" and focus on what you want it to do. Do you favor very small and light cars with very nimble dynamic handling characteristics (even at the cost of overt power and straight line acceleration?). Are you more about burying the throttle and feeling the fury of a ton of power and speed? Or are you looking for something somewhere in the middle, which good power and pickup, but some feeling of nimbleness (and by nimble I do not mean how well it sticks, but how eager and easy it is to get it to change direction). Answers to these will guide you towards what is best.
S2000 is really a nice car in your price range, but getting harder and harder to find good used vehicles. They have either been chopped up/'customized' or fallen into hands that really want the few which are left and are not regularly for sale.
Yeah they're hard to find. Or they're marked up because the owner/dealership doesn't really want to sell it or knows someone will still want to buy it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Bear
I looked at the Miata last year. Price is right, but every year I look back at the previous models and they just don't 'age' well. They seem to have modern/classic lines, but then they quickly turn to looking like a bucket of bolts. Maybe just me, but I am glad I didn't buy one...yet.
I'm not sold yet on buying one (im biased towards american cars) but I do want to test drive one. And the price is very tempting, the new ones look similar to a Porsche IMO
Mustang is way too big and handles curves way too badly to be considered a sports car in any sense of the term.
Youre absolutely uneducated and clueless on the matter. You do know that the base Mustang V6 outlapped a 370Z around VIR (Car and Driver "Lightning Lap")? Or how about the Mustang Laguna Seca version outlapping an R8 and M3 at its namesake racetrack? Or how about the GT350R outpacing exotics around the Nurburgring?
You need to not be so ignorant towards Mustangs. For real.
I feel like some responses here are stuck in 1980 arguing against certain cars being a "true" sports car. The automotive landscape and the cars within it are different now than they were decades ago.
We can change the definitions when the cars they define don't exist anymore. But there are hundreds of thousands of traditional sports cars still running around, still being rebuilt, still being raced. Just because there are only a couple of them being made NEW does not negate the definition or the existence of the cars the definition describes.
We didn't start calling other kinds of cars convertibles in '75-76 just because there was only one factory convertible being made at the time in the US. Words have definitions so we can continue to communicate.
Do we call DVDs and thumb drives cassettes, because they are doing the same job as cassettes, and there are few new cassettes being made?
Post WWII, the Europeans defined the segment, and created most of the cars IN the segment, so yes, it's a Eurocentric view. The WWII vets brought back a lot of them and really kicked off the craze in the US. MGs, Triumphs, Austin Healeys, Fiats, Alfas, Porsche Speedsters, Talbots, Daimlers, Turners, ACs, TVRs, etc, from the '40s on up through the '70s all were in this market. There's a reason the Corvette was called America's Sports car when it was introduced in the '50s. it was the ONLY ONE. You can't have an American centric viewpoint on sports cars when we didn't really MAKE them.
Neither term is "regulated" any more than the term SUV is "regulated." The FIA however, as the ruling body, created and defined the term and most manufacturers stuck to them. Just because some American marketing dipwads decided that they could appropriate any term they want doesn't make the definition any less relevant. Words have definitions, That's how we are able to communicate. If words can have any meaning you want, then there's no more communication.
So where's the divide in when the term is being used correctly? US brands vs. Euro Brands? US market vs. Euro market? Production cars vs. track cars?
Mustang is way too big and handles curves way too badly to be considered a sports car in any sense of the term.
Modern Mustangs handle very well. Not sure where you're getting your information, but it's about 20 years out-of-date. It's a sports car by almost any definition of the term, except for purists who believe only 2 seater convertibles with 4 cylinder engines made in Britain are sports cars.
Example: A 2015 Mustang lapped VIR 3:05.2 seconds in Car & Driver's Lightning Lap testing. That's quicker than a 2013 BMW M5, 2009 BMW M3 Coupe, 2012 Lotus Evora S, 2015 Lexus RC F, 2009 Porsche Carrera S, 2009 Porsche Cayman S, etc., etc.
BRZ/86 is the only other sports car sold new for less than $30k.
Now used, and if you push your budget another $5-10k, you can get yourself a Lotus Elise.
If your not scared of wrenching, there are a lot of classic English sports cars for $30k. Fewer every day as they are appreciating...
Ford's sports cars are over $100k, so not worth mentioning. You could get a C5 or C6 for that, but it's more a GT car
The definition of "sports car" notwithstanding (I think the OP really meant "performance car"), a new Mustang GT can be had for under $30K. My local dealer has one on the lot. MSRP means absolutely nothing, especially for domestics. A base Mustang GT will do vile things to a BRZ or Miata on a real racetrack: 15+ seconds quicker around VIR. Even a new 4 cylinder Mustang, which can be purchased new for around $24K, bests the BRZ by 3 seconds. Ouch.
I agree, though, that other than being dog slow, the BRZ is really fun-to-drive, great handling car.
Sorry, but none of those is a sports car. Neither is a BMW M6.
I'm pretty sure the OP meant "performance car". The vast majority of the motoring public refers to high performance cars as "sports cars". But I think you already knew that.
Post WWII, the Europeans defined the segment, and created most of the cars IN the segment, so yes, it's a Eurocentric view. The WWII vets brought back a lot of them and really kicked off the craze in the US. MGs, Triumphs, Austin Healeys, Fiats, Alfas, Porsche Speedsters, Talbots, Daimlers, Turners, ACs, TVRs, etc, from the '40s on up through the '70s all were in this market. There's a reason the Corvette was called America's Sports car when it was introduced in the '50s. it was the ONLY ONE. You can't have an American centric viewpoint on sports cars when we didn't really MAKE them.
At the same time as the C1, the Thunderbird was a sports car too. But then it moved to a cruiser.
I can only think of a handful of American sports cars made in the last 40 years: Ford GT/GT40, Vettes/Caddy XLR, Vipers, Solstice/Sky, Panozes (Panozi?), and some boutique manufacturers.
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