I’ve never driven anything but “sensible” cars…clearly there’s something about a high-performance sports car…Thunderbird, Corvette, Lamborghini…that people will pay tons of extra money for. So for those of you out there who’ve had the privilege - what does it do that’s so appealing? And do you get any of that “extra performance” benefit driving on ordinary, speed-limited roads…or do you need to go somewhere special to really have fun with a vehicle like that?
It’s really fun. Porsche 911 turbo experience here. Not my car, but I had driving priviledges.
It went really fast, hugged the ground when taking corners, sounded really cool when it revved up.
I would never own one, but it was fun to try.
Corvette here (my SO’s) I drive it quite a bit (in the summer) and like it because it’s fun. Just driving it around town is fun. And it looks cool, it turns heads.
When I drive a performance oriented car, the main difference is that I can feel the momentum vs. a sedan. The turns and twists of the road and the car are translated to the driver, and you also have the power and control to change something that you are only now aware exists.
Oh, and corners are a lot more fun.
Driving a BMW Z4 is like driving a motorcycle. But boring.
Seriously, I find driving an overpowered car dull, because no matter where you go, you’re likely to be stuck in traffic. You have to fight hard to get a chance to let it open up.
I think if you really want that “driving on the edge” experience, you should get something underpowered for the streets, so that you’re always pushing it.
I had a 1976 Datsun 280Z for a while. That little thing was quick. I drove it on the H2 freeway. Mid-day that road was pretty empty and I was able to go 100 past tourists and smile and wave. It was fun.
300ZX and Pontiac Firebird. Not the sportiest.
You can REALLY pass at highway speeds. You can take advantage of open opportunities in traffic better, and a curvy, hilly road? Pure bliss.
Its a good thing. If I had to pick one specific reason, I would say “responsiveness”. You want to do something, and BANG! it happens, whether its passing a blue-hair or taking a 35 mph corner at 60.
Good fun. I would highly recommend it.
By the way, there is nothing that says a sensible car can’t be a ton of fun. Try one of these. Big-time room for the wife and kids, and handles and drives like a true performance car. Just bought one myself! 
http://www.fedtrust.com/list/4842.htm
I’m not as stupid as you look.
My first car was a 1966 MGB roadster, and my next (concurrent) two were 1977 MGB roadsters. My next car was a Porsche 924, and up until 2000 I had a Porsche 911.
Each of these cars had a very good power-to-weight ratio, and each accellerated and handled well. The MGs were the slowest, but they were roadsters so I had the option of going topless. I can’t wait until my next '66 MGB is ready. The Porsche 924 was faster and handled better than the MGs. It could really hug the corners!
Best of all was the Porsche 911. It had gobs of power. It would accellerate very vast up to about 4,000 RPM, then it was like activating an afterburner. Whoosh! And I’d had Bilstein sport shocks put on that were just one level below racing shocks. It was a pretty hard ride up to about 70 mph, but after that it was great! (Actually, I didn’t mind feeling every pebble in the road at slower speeds.)
So you have something that accellerates well, and holds corners like it’s on rails. G-forces. Gotta love 'em. Driving a sports car as it’s intended to be driven is a very visceral experience. It’s not something that can easily be explained; it needs to be experienced. And the sound! Running through the gears – snick! snick! snick! – and hearing the engine revving fast is music. The stiff suspension lets you feel the road – important when you’re driving fast – and the tight steering puts you right where you want to go. It’s marvelous!
I guess that’s why I like motorcycles so much. You get as much or more visceral enjoyment at a much lower cost. But one of these days I’d like to get another Porsche…
Personally I love taking a good sports car in on curvy mountain roads. Going to a place where the posted limit is about 35 and taking it at 80 or more gives pretty much the same sensation as a roller coaster, but better because you are in control. At the moment my car is a Subaru SVX, which isn’t a true high performance car, more of a fast GT car. But with 235 HP and good handling AWD I can get my fix in fairly well, even if it is an automatic, which ruins part of the effect.
Heretic!
Actually, I’ve heard Porsche’s Tiptronic transmission yeilds faster times around a track (in the hands of an experienced race driver) than their manual transmission. But after my Cherokee, I’ve decided that any other vehicles I buy must have standard transmissions.
Well I am more than willing to be set again on the path of the righteous . I know I guy who does custom conversions to manual on the SVX for $4000. I will be awaiting your check to help in my redemption.
P.S. the SVX is a great car with a monstrously crappy automatic transmission they borrowed, which was the only one available on it. If they had bothered to design a tranny for the engine, the car would probably still have strong sales today.
Driving a sports car is a fantastic experience. I’ve got one of the new-model miata’s and even though it doesn’t have the largest engine in the world its light weight makes acceleration pure bliss. I do a lot of road trips in the mountains simply because of my highway-curve addiction. I never do a road trip to get somewhere - just do it for the drive.
As JohnnyL.A. put it, there’s something magic about clicking through all the gears and hearing the engine do its thing. The sound of an engine running at 6-7000rpm (assuming you’ve got a high-rev engine) is pure bliss.
-n
Miata: The MGB that works.
But I’ll still take my '66 MGB, even though it tops out at like 105. Restoration starts when I give the guys who are working on it a cheque…
Oh, here’s another take on driving a sports car. Imagine you have to take a London girl-band who have just landed at LAX up to the Hollywood sign for a photo shoot, and having to fit four people in a 911. Imagine having a motion picture camera whose case won’t fit in the car. Imagine wanting to carry something home from Ikea. There are drawbacks to sports cars. Plus they require more maintenance than regular cars and the maintenance can be expensive. (Sometimes it seems as if when you put the “P” word on a part, the cost doubles.) That’s why I sold the Porsche and bought a compact SUV.
But I can tell you that I’ve never driven any car that was as much of a blast to drive as that 3-litre Porsche. I can only imagine what fun I could have in an exotic!
Actually, an old Ferrari 308 like Magnum P.I.'s or a Mondial, which I think looks great, isn’t that expensive to buy. But I’d rather have a new Porsche 911/996 than an 20-year-old Ferrari. Anyway, here’s a local ad I just turned up:
An '85 Mondial is going for $20,500.
I’ve had sports cars most of my life, and now I’m driving a minivan.
The biggest problem with a sports car is that it’s hard to enjoy them while staying legal. When I had my sports cars, I always had at least a ticket or two on my license. Now I have a minivan, and my driving record is clean.
So now I want another sports car…
If you live in an area where they haven’t rusted away, you might want to look at a Datsun 240-Z. This is a pure sports car, with good power to weight, awesome handling, tight rack-and-pinion steering, etc. And you can probably find one for under four grand.
If you want a new car, and you want it to be a sports car but also practical and inexpensive, I would highly recommend a Subaru WRX. They make a wagon and a sedan. 0-60 in 5.4 seconds, 30 mpg if you keep your foot light, and it’s AWD. One of the best handling cars on the road. And, they’re only $24,000.
Small, open roadsters like the old MGB’s, Austin Healeys, or like a more recent Miata, also make you feel like you’re going faster, just because they’re so close to the ground. When the pavement is zipping by, and you feel as if you could reach out and touch it, it creates quite a “zoomy” feeling. The downside, of course, is that the really low models tended to scrape bottom on speed bumps, parking lot entrances, and the like - the old Austin Healeys were particularly treacherous.
79(?) 280ZX
67 Vette
69 XKE
2000 Vette
It is absolutely wonderful. Even if you are just driving around town, it is still absolutely marvelous! Just knowing that you could blow the doors off most of the cars on the road is a definate power rush.
Most sports cars, like MGC’s are pretty low to the road, so getting in/out of them is tricky sometimes. But the fun thing is that people get out of the way when they see me in their rearview mirror.
There’s a technique to entering and exiting sports cars; sort of a fluid movement. Even with my destroyed knees I never had any trouble. I would place my right leg in the footwell, my right hand on the seat back, and my left hand on the windscreen pillar; then just swing in. Getting out was the reverse. The Porsche was easier to get into with it’s Carerra seats. The MGBs were almost as easy, but the seats weren’t contoured as well as the 911.
About being seen: I was in the '66 MGB on a small sidestreet next to a four-lane avenue in Lancaster. In front of me was an El Camino that was very high in back and which had one of those perforated, printed screens in the rear window that were so popular in the early-to-mid-'80s. The woman wanted to make a left onto Avenue K, but there was eastbound traffic. Since there was no westbound traffic she pulled into the lanes. Naturally I pulled up to the line at the stop sign. Seeing westbound traffic approaching, the woman decided to back up. There was nothing I could do. She crunched my beautiful chrome grille. Now, I had had the car painted Vermillion Red (bright red-orange) and I thought people would see me. I don’t know if her jacked-up El Camino was too high for her to see cars behind her, or if she didn’t bother to look before backing up. But she said she didn’t see me.