Pulaski

I'd like to add sportscars, and the nearest things that America can produce: Mustangs and Corvettes.

Jonion

I left out sportscars and supercars as I suspect many people have different ideas of what a sportscar is
And I didn't want any ambiguity ya know

Nutek

I think of a Sportscar as being something like an MX-5 or a Spyder.

Mustangs more of a Muscle car. 'Vettes... I'm kinda on the fence about those.

All of the above benefit from having a stick shift imo.

Bink

Yeah, I'm with you. I think 'Vettes are hard to categorize.

I have an employee that has a Mustang and insists on calling it a sports car.
I have tried telling him, that although it's pretty cool, it's a muscle car and not a sports car. Now, if they finally end up putting independent rear suspension on it as opposed to a live axle, I may have to reconsider that statement.

S Folinsky

I've owned both stick and automatic over the years. My experience with automatics goes back to the old "Slip and Slide Powerglide" that Chevrolet would use.

For many years we would buy stick. But they became rarer and they do diminish the resale value of the car.

As a general rule, automatics have gotten a lot better and the gas mileage penalty is quite minimal these days.

Also, most automatics last the life of the car; clutches do not.

BTW, the one completely unreliable automatic transmission in our family was the CVT in daughter's 2003 Mini. The only other automatic I had go bad was a ZF in a 1986 740GL where the combined radiator transmission fluid cooler cracked and coolant contaminated the transmission. I guess that was more the fault of the radiator -- but it was a European car.

RoadWarriorFromLP

The Mustang is a pony car. The original pony car concept was a compact (by the definition of the day) family sedan chassis with a coupe body attached to it, i.e. it was more about styling and affordability than it was about finesse.

A sports car should handle well. It's debatable to refer to a Mustang as a sports car -- I would vote nay.

Historically, muscle cars were similar in concept to the pony cars -- coupe body bolted onto a family car chassis. But they were larger than the pony cars, and had a large V8.

Most of the Mustangs have small block V8s, which would preclude them from being muscle cars. They're also a bit too small. The Dodge Challenger with the 392 V8 would be a muscle car. It's a long car, and the engine is a large V8.

dakota44

The original Mustangs, with 6 cyl and small block v8's were Pony cars, based on the Ford falcon chassis. Mustangs these days are not. The Mustang GT can be had with 420hp and the Shelby Mustang with a 5.8L engine, 662hp and 632 lb/ft of torque....now that is muscle and I would put it up against the Challenger any day in a race. Even the Shelby Mustangs of the 60's were muscle cars.

markonline1

The old ST over here was not the same as the one sold in Europe though as far as I'm aware. From what I can gather, the old SVT was similar to the old ST170. I'm assuming the US ST being introduced this year is similar spec to the European one which means a boba fide hot hatch. Problem is, the yanks don't like hatches. That hopefully means I can pick one up relatively cheap in a few years when the used ones hit the market.

With regards to Mustangs being sports cars......PMSL!!!! I don't know too many sports cars with rear axles that are limited to 112 mph to protect the drive shaft LOL

dakota44

You sure about that? 145mph GT 5.0 L



Or you could read this and watch the video...Shelby GT500....
http://www.caranddriver.com/features...-gt500-feature

Ford claimed 202 mph at a test track in Italy and these guys got in the area of 190mph.

markonline1

Yeah, I'm sure. That's the V8. The V6 is limited.

Here's what happens if you map out the limiter and don't upgrade the driveshaft

http://youtu.be/LZXBjVIrR08

I should just say as well, even after watching that video, I'm still a massive Mustang fan!!!

dakota44

Why would one even consider the V6 model as anything but a runabout and far from a muscle car? Who the hell would want to drive one 100mph? Most V6 Mustangs are sold to women. Enough said. You should have qualified your original statement with "V6 Mustangs are not sports cars". You left out the other two very powerful models.

Jonion

If you buy a V6 Mustang you deserve all the associated problems you asked for.
That is simply wanting a Mustang badge over a decent car.


I've experienced a few Mustangs GT500 and Shelby are not to be scoffed at.

They did have a period where they looked absolutely horrible, bland and irrelevant. But the real models are a hoot.

And the live axle debate isn't really a worthy one, there are cars with much more modern suspension that handle far worse.
My Mk2 Eskys seemed to do pretty well with them.

MostlyYank

Chrysler VS Ford - the argument continues.



But then there's the 580 HP Camaro ZL1 ....

Old musclecars, Car Craft used to do a street car shootout, the winner was either a 426 hemi or 427 rat, back and forth. Sad to say the Fords usually got knocked out pretty early. Good to see them changing that.

Live rear axles too? If you can drive around a sweeping curve and not have the back end skitter about if you hit a bump, unnatural! Begone! lol

Pete

yukichon

Not sure if any car was as tail happy as the Ford Capri...needed a bag of cement in the boot to keep it going round corners

ottotheboar

Don't forget to chuck in the Viper the V10 is not a bad engine.