Hi everyone - Jeff Zurschmeide, About.com's new Guide to Corvettes, with you again. Aaron's away this week and all his passwords are easy to guess, so I figired I'd share some thoughts about the nature of sports cars, both old and new.
Back in the first golden age of sports cars during the 1950s and 60s, automakers had a habit of producing their sports cars in a basic version, a super-duper hot rod version, and then a kind of in-between version. The in-between car was often idiosyncratic and nearly always reflected the factory design team's conception of how the car really should drive and handle. In other words, those cars hit the sweet spot between performance and comfort, and they were most often sold in small numbers at an attractive price.
For example, cars like the Porsche 356SC and 911SC were perhaps not as fast as the uber-fahren Carrera models, but they had a certain balance of comfort, performance, and longevity that made them the favorites of those who really knew and understood the breed. Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, and other serious sports car players all indulged themselves with these special low-production models. If you check your trivia, you'll find that people like Sergio Pininfarina, Enzo Ferrari, and Ferry Porsche all tended to drive these special cars, preferring them over the all-out performance models.
So what do those great sports cars of yesteryear have to do with today? Well, automakers are still making sweet spot cars, but they often don't make a big deal out of it. For example, consider the Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart Sportback or the Corvette Grand Sport.
Ralliart is Mitsubishi's in-house style and performance shop, dedicated to motorsports and specialty editions of Mitsubishi automobiles. If you look at the whole Mitsubishi Lancer lineup, the car comes in a variety of flavors, from the most basic $15,000 Lancer DE to the top of the line $40,000 Lancer Evolution.
The Lancer Ralliart bridges the gap between the economical Lancer and the awe-inspiring Evo by taking the best points of each and placing them in a balanced, affordable package - it's turbocharged to 237 horsepower, but not crazy fast like the Evo. Similarly, Chevy created the new Corvette Grand Sport by taking a basic Corvette and tarting up the handling with Z06 suspension and brakes. The Grand Sport is a cut above the baseline, but it's not by any means a 638 horsepower Corvette ZR1.
Both the Ralliart and the Grand Sport are perfect for a brisk drive down a winding country road. In the Ralliart, I passed a garbage truck like it was, ummm, a garbage truck, and I won't even tell you about my drive in the Grand Sport until the statute of limitations runs out. Both of these cars move sinuously through curves - not as hard as the Evo or as punchy as the Corvette Z06, but these are definitely true sports cars.
The point is simply this - automakers are still hitting same sweet spot formerly occupied by the Porsche 356SC and the Ferrari GT Berlinetta Lusso. Those are the cars Ferry Porsche and Enzo Ferrari chose to be their own daily drivers, for good reason. Take your time and shop around and you can find one, too. -- Jeff Zurschmeide
Related:
- Jeff's Corvette Grand Sport test drive
- Aaron's Corvette Grand Sport test drive
- Aaron's Lancer Ralliart test drive
Photo © Aaron Gold
Jeff,
Don’t forget to use spellcheck when you’re not banging gears: “so I figired I’d share some thoughts about the nature of sports cars, both old and new.”
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I agree with your assessment of the Ralliart. I have praised it on these pages before, stating that it is the best all around car of the Lancer breed. I feel the same about the WRX as being the best of the 3 Imprezas (Subaru).
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again….cars like the Lancer aren’t sports cars. They are 4-door sedans. They may have a little sporting flair, but they’re still 4-door sedans. The one thing they definitely are NOT is Sports cars.
The other cars mentioned are the ones I like best. The “affordable” alternative to the overpriced versions that generally achieve the same result with nearly the same look. I’d take a Corvette Grand Sport any day over the ZR-1. The ZR-1 may be a lot of fun, but I can have lots of fun in a Grand Sport too at a fraction of the cost.
Jeff, thanks for musings. Interesting points in a world where more is generally accepted as better. It also serves as a partial repudiation of strict minimalism. So….sometimes more is less and less is less–a worthy thought.