Old (mid 80's) C & D article on Sports cars

[gogriz91]

Found this while cruising another website. Kinda slammed the ZX but made me wonder how a 240 or 280 would have fared. Kinda funny how there's no British representation at all, not even a TR7.

Just For Fun

The times they are a-changin', sports-car wise

By Mike Knepper

Want to start an argument? Get two or more enthusiasts together and ask them to define "sports car." Not too many years ago, we all agreed on the definition. In fact, it was so obvious, the question never arose. Sure, we disagreed on the best example of the breed, but a sports car was, well, a sports car. The top went down, or more likely came off completely and was stored in the trunk, along with the side windows; it had two seats; it had a buzzy but willing engine; inside it was hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and wet whenever it rained. But mostly it was fun. Lots of fun.

Today, it's not so simple to define a sports car. There are just a handful of cars around that meet the old top-down, two-seat requirement. Joining them and clouding the issue is a small host of new-era sports cars; two-seaters to be sure, but with unmovable steel tops (not counting sunroofs). Their instrument panels are awash with gauges in the best sports-car tradition, their transmissions contain five forward gears, and their performance and handling will put to shame all but the very best of the old order. Certainly they aren't sports cars in The Tradition, but The Tradition may be almost inoperative these days. These new-generation cars are sedan quiet, toasty warm, and A/C cool. They don't offer the wind-blow, sun-warmed intimacy with the world the top-downers do. But while there's a back-to-nature philosophy rampant in certain circles, it doesn't seem to be carrying over into our automobiles. The old order may be passing. Two-seat roadsters may be little more than interesting anachronisms.

But what about plain old fun? Certainly it's still there, little altered by advancing technology, in today's two-seat roadsters. But what form does fun take out there on "the leading edge"? Has all that modern technology sublimated fun in the interest of comfort and like pleasures?

California, it's rumored, is the home of automotive truth. It's also a million degrees warmer in the winter than Ann Arbor, so that's where we decided to gather vehicles and editors for two days of truth seeking, sports-car division.

The first problem was deciding which vehicles to use. Bringing in everything available would have made the tests unwieldy. We'd have had something like a car for each foot, and then some. A representative sampling seemed the logical way to go.

To represent the old school, we chose Alfa Romeo's Spider Veloce and Fiat's Spider 2000. The Alfa is easily the most refined proponent of the top-down school you can find these days. It's the result of years of endless fine-tuning of the same package and its contents. You can accuse Alfa of stubbornly avoiding change, but give them credit for sticking with something until they got it right.

The Fiat was chosen for a couple of reasons. It's always been a good sports car, actually winning one of the Car and Driver gang-bangs a few years ago. For '79 it has a new two-liter engine and such nontraditional refinements as power windows and a chin spoiler.

To represent the new boys, the choices were obvious: the Porsche 924, the Mazda RX-7, and the Datsun 380-ZX. Datsun started this revolution in sports cars with the 240-Z and has reigned supreme ever since. At least through 1978. However, there is a pretender to the throne. Mazda's RX-7 is an obvious monkey-see, monkey-do imitation of the original Z-car philosophy, right down to the (comparatively) low-price/high-performance ratio. The Z has a big head start, so the RX-7 can never hope to catch up in sheer sales, but with the ZX so obviously heading down luxury lane, the title is not only up for grabs, it's changing hands.

The 924 was another obvious choice for this fact-finding mission. The name on the nose is probably entree enough to any gathering of sports-type cars, but the 924 was particularly right for this one. Porsches, you'll remember, have been the subject of the it's-a-sports-car-no-it-isn't argument for two decades, with such august bodies as the FIA and the SCCA alternately deciding yes they are, no they aren't, depending on which position was backed with the most political clout at rules-writing time. But regardless of the traditional arguments, the front-engined, hatchbacked, two-seats-plus-a-sorta-seat 924 is very much a part of the new wave.

Our sixth participant was included because it seemed like a good idea more than anything else. Going in, we knew the L82 Corvette was both outclassed and beneath its class in this group. No way could any of the other five hope to match the Vette's performance. A hundred more horsepower will do that for you. And also, no way could the antiquated Vette hope to be the equal of the newcomers when it comes to the advantages in ride and handling that sophisticated engineering can produce. But a Corvette is a sports car, and we'll double Sherman's annual contribution to the Police Benevolent Association if a Corvette isn't fun to drive.

Which brings us back to the underlying theme of the operation: fun and the having of same. We had agreed early on that a straightforward, objective, head-to-head evaluation was not our purpose. Our collection of cars was simply too eclectic for that, too apples and oranges. Rather, we wanted to find out what these admittedly disparate variations on the sports-car theme provide in basic motoring fun, how much and what kind of pure driving pleasure they produce. For enthusiasts, of course, performance is an important part of it all, so there would be straight-line, slalom, skidpad, and racetrack tests. But the hard numbers would be secondary to subjective, over-the-road evaluations.

The idea was to make a run north from Los Angeles to Santa Maria via a very circuitous route that would include freeway, block-it-out two-lane, and twisty mountain trails laid out by the highway department's resident mountain goat. By frequent switching from car to car, we would be able to experience each car in each type of driving situation in a minimum of time. After an overnight stay in Santa Maria we would make a dash across the high desert, traverse the famous Grapevine pass on Interstate 5 and drop down to Willow Springs Raceway outside Rosamond for a little while-knuckling on the racetrack. And some comparative lap times to go with the drag-strip and skidpad data Sherman had gathered prior to the trip. (Sherman, by the way, would do all the official lapping at Willow Springs, working each car down to its best time. The rest of the crew would factor their racetrack impressions into their overall evaluations.)

Despite the horsepower, suspension, and brake differences, all six cars were surprisingly close in lateral acceleration, braking, and handling through the slalom, and those things are certainly near and dear to the heart of any sports-car connoisseur, a big part of having some good boy-racer fun. Perhaps, we agreed as the trip north began, there won't be that much difference between the old and the new.

Wrong. There's a big difference. The realization came after the first day's run up the Ventura Freeway and across the Santa Ynez Mountains to Santa Maria. By the end of the day we'd cycled through each car at least twice, and our five opinions meshed in an extremely rare fit of unanimity: cruising up the freeway to the mountains, the permanent-toppers were the hands-down winner. They were quiet, they were comfortable, they were relaxing. The Alfa and the Fiat, on the other hand (in The Tradition), were basically just the opposite. After 50 miles of freeway, the wind and the noise start creating less thrill and more fatigue. And there were major complaints about driving positions. The Alfa still suffers from a pedal/seat/steering-wheel relationship that forces your right leg into an extremely uncomfortable position that's actually painful on a sustained cruise. The Fiat has its own version, which Sherman says has the driver sitting on the main floor, with the steering wheel on the mezzanine. In the mountains, however, the roadsters scored big. Since a blind-corner confrontation with a center-straddling eighteen-wheeler was a strong possibility, our driving was brisk but restrained. Ultimate power and ten-tenths handling weren't important. Sawing through the switchbacks that plunged headlong into the narrow canyons that dwarfed us between towering bluffs is the kind of driving a sports car — a top-down sports car — was created for. The Alfa and the Fiat were sheer delights, traditional fun. The Corvette, with its big hatches popped, was nice, but not the same. Ditto to the 924's sunroof: close but no cigar. The steel-roofed cars felt confining, less than fulfilling. But once the mountains were behind and a hundred miles of high-speed two-lane and Interstate had to be traversed, the wind in the face quickly lost its novelty, the roadsters' tops went up, and the noise and driving-position complaints returned.

Although, as favorites began to emerge, there was disagreement on which cars were best at what, the day's driving had revealed some basic points. The Porsche and the Mazda were already at the top of each list. We liked their smooth sophistication, their ability to do everything well, though the RX-7 was pronounced a little tail-happy in the tight bits. The Corvette's rumbling power drew some adherents to its camp, with the crew about evenly split on its over-the-road comfort. The Datsun found little favor among us: a good straight-line cruiser, but soft springing and inadequate pitch control take any fun out of brisk motoring, and that's quite an indictment against a sports car. The Fiat and the Alfa? Top-down pleasures aside, both Spiders acquitted themselves admirably, with the Alfa slightly ahead because of its power and low gearing, which gave it more flexibility than the Fiat.

Although the second morning's run through the inland canyons toward Willow Springs looked promising on the map, we weren't prepared for what we found. Once-in-a-lifetime stuff.

We left the Holiday Inn on the heels of a retreating shower that left the air crackling-clean and the sky a brilliant blue. A fog that would have made our drive a nose-to-tail grope if we had started an hour earlier had lifted to become little more than cloudlike patches where it clung to the canyon walls above the Cuyama River. The highway was one of those beautiful, smooth gray ribbons that seem to be some strange cross between blacktop and concrete, providing the best qualities of both: smooth and sticky. The river had cut a lazy, gently sweeping course through these mountains, and the highway was its parallel: gently up, then gently down, then gently sweeping left or right; 80 mph was perfect. Anything less would have been too little, anything much faster would have been too demanding and a waste of the visual excitement. For an hour that seemed only fifteen minutes, we followed the swoops and dips and rise of that magical piece of pavement in what can only be described as complete harmony with our cars and the world we were moving through. When the canyon finally broadened into an eluvial plain at its eastern end, the river wandered its way off across the valley floor, and the highway, shrugging off the confines of the narrow canyon, straightened and began to go its own way. The magic was over. The string of cars pulled onto the shoulder beside a row of eucalyptus trees, and the editors slowly appeared.

"That," Bedard said, looking back down the road toward where it disappeared into the canyon, "was simply wonderful." With the euphoria of the canyon still very much with us, we began the final leg to Willow Springs and some hot-lapping.

Although few owners will ever drive their sports cars at the limits a racetrack allows, it's still nice to know what a car will do out there on the proverbial ragged edge. Will the brakes go away, just how severe is the understeer hinted at in brisk everyday driving, is the driving position as good — or bad — when you're really working as it seems on the street? On the racetrack small things become big things, the unimportant becomes critical. While Sherman compiled the official lap times, the rest of us got final impressions for our evaluations.

On the racetrack the Alfa's and the Fiat's top-down capabilities weren't important. There just wasn't time to enjoy being close to the elements. In fact, it's a distraction. At Willow it got down to how well the cars work, which has a direct bearing on how much fun they are when you're playing boy racer. In that respect, the Alfa turned out to get it on quite nicely, although it's almost impossible to heel-and-toe. The Fiat's tendency to lift a wheel demurely in corners while the front end washes out was a decided minus in the fun column. The Porsche seemed the most at home on the track, again going about its assigned task in a typically Teutonic no-muss, no-fuss way. Its handling actually improves as speed goes up. The RX-7 likes to go around corners fast, though getting a handle on its skittish tail takes some practice, and the rotary engine's quick response and low-speed torque make for some rapid exit speeds. The Datsun simply isn't as happy on a racetrack as it used to be; the soft springing and the pitch control are again a problem. The Corvette may not be the most sophisticated in suspension, but with all that power it was fun to drive and not surprisingly the quickest around Willow. Throwing a belt and overheating didn't win any friends for it, however.

Conclusions? Check the accompanying box for a rundown on how your favorite editors ranked the six players, and how the cars fared overall. Automotive Truths? That's something else again. If nothing else, we discovered that the Alfa and the Fiat are staunch upholders of The Tradition; that the job of top-down motoring when the sun is shining, the air is balmy, and the trip is short is not only still a part of the automotive scene — no matter how much things change — but still simple, unadulterated fun. And that's important.

But things do change, have changed, and 1970s technology has created a new kid of sports car: cars that go faster, handle better, and treat the driver better. As you can tell from our rankings, these are the sports cars we prefer. The admitted joys of top-down motoring just can't make up for the limitations inherent in the engines, drivelines, and suspensions of the traditionalists. It ultimately boils down to personal preferences. If you've never owned an Alfa Spider or a Fiat 2000 or a Midget or a Spitfire or an MGB, the lure may simply be too strong to ignore. We've all been there, and we understand.

HOW THEY VOTED

OVERALL FUN RATING:

1. Porsche 924

2. Mazda RX-7

3. Corvette L82

4. Alfa Romeo Spider

5. Datsun 280-ZX

6. Fiat Spider 2000

Rich Ceppos:

1. Porsche 924

2. Mazda RX-7

3. Corvette L82

4. Datsun 280-ZX

5. Fiat Spider 2000

6. Alfa Romeo Spider

Don Sherman:

1. Mazda RX-7

2. Porsche 924

3. Alfa Romeo Spider

4. Corvette L82

5. Fiat Spider 2000

6. Datsun 280-ZX

Mike Knepper:

1. Porsche 924

2. Corvette L82

3. Mazda RX-7

4. Alfa Romeo Spider

5. Datsun 280-ZX

6. Fiat Spider 2000

Pat Bedard:

1. Porsche 924

2. Mazda RX-7

3. Alfa Romeo Spider

4. Corvette L82

5. Datsun 280-ZX

6. Fiat Spider 2000

Larry Griffin:

1. Porsche 924

2. Mazda RX-7

3. Corvette L82

4. Alfa Romeo Spider

5. Fiat Spider 2000

6. Datsun 280-ZX

[Alfadog]

Good article! I kinda feel sorry for the 280ZX though... thanks!!

[PrOxLaMuS©]

To represent the new boys, the choices were obvious: the Porsche 924, the Mazda RX-7, and the Datsun 380-ZX

haha.. mis-type??

Did you re-type that whole thing? or find it online!

WoW... thanks man!:cheeky:

[gogriz91]

Of all places, I found it while cruising a Porsche website...just cut and pasted.

I've been cruising 911, RX-7, and Celica forums looking for 240 related stuff. It's insightful and sometimes funny to see what other enthusiasts say about first gen Z's.

I'm trying to find some pictures online from the early racing days of the 240 with BRE, Bob Sharp and anyone else who ran a 240 in SCCA in the early 70's. From the pictures I have found, the 911's and Triumphs were the most prevalent comparable cars so I'm searching their forums to try to find Z related material. (Yeah, I've got some time on my hands right now)