How would you define a sports car?

The concept of "sports" anything took a real beating for me when they started to stick it on the sides of new Windstars and Caravans.

I have a roadrace car, a circle track car, and a supercharged V8 street car. None of them are sports cars.

pinchvalve wrote: I have always thought small, light, and tossable.

But doesn't this go back to the porn analogy?

Streetwiseguy wrote: The concept of "sports" anything took a real beating for me when they started to stick it on the sides of new Windstars and Caravans...

Agreed.

here's my take: a sports car is any car that could be considered fun to drive. open ended enough to fit just about any user group, but specific enough to leave out all the BS and minivans and tubs of wallpaper paste with jello for suspension

nope - sports cars fit a lot of either/or categories:

Either V8 and coupe, V6 RWD w/ IRS, 4 door and boosted, 3/5 door and boosted or proper gearbox, coupe with a NA 4 banger AND a proper gearbox, mid/rear engined (stands alone as criteria) or any car with a motor that wasnt produced by the same company as the chassis...because that took some doing

I always thought that the definition of a sports car is a twomseat convertible, rear wheel drive, with a manual transmission, and more power than "necessary", i.e., the MGB, Lotus Elan, Mazda Miata, etc.

But to me, it's really any car where performance, specifically handling, is the definitive feature of the vehicle.

A vehicle that exists exclusively for the sake of being driven.

Channeling LJK Setright here...

"Any car where I don't want a cigarette on a winding road." (paraphrased)

LainfordExpress wrote: But to me, it's really any car where performance, specifically handling, is the definitive feature of the vehicle. A vehicle that exists exclusively for the sake of being driven.

This! Two seats, motor, chassis. Drive me. Lots of cars with hard tops can be called sports cars. I consider my 80 vette to be a sports car, even with it's spaghetti noodle chassis. I didn't realize that when I bought it, what I did realize was...two seats...no trunk...and a big motor sitting between the frame rails. Now if i could just get the weight of this portly sucker down under 3k I think I'd be onto something.

gigolojoe wrote:

LainfordExpress wrote: But to me, it's really any car where performance, specifically handling, is the definitive feature of the vehicle. A vehicle that exists exclusively for the sake of being driven.

This! Two seats, motor, chassis. Drive me. Lots of cars with hard tops can be called sports cars. I consider my 80 vette to be a sports car, even with it's spaghetti noodle chassis. I didn't realize that when I bought it, what I did realize was...two seats...no trunk...and a big motor sitting between the frame rails. Now if i could just get the weight of this portly sucker down under 3k I think I'd be onto something.

Those cars are peculiar. The theme seems to be "Hey, let's shove everything which normally goes into a Chevelle into this much smaller package. So it's small, but not really lighter. Certainly harder to work on. The Convertibles had this brace which must weigh 100 lbs by itself between the rails. I honestly think the right choice is a new chassis from art morrison, schwartz (who I'd go with) or someone like that. That way you can jack it up and still open the doors.

scardeal wrote: sports car - a car that engages in motorsport

..or (IMHO) could engage in motorsport. That means just about anything, I suppose, that isn't a sportstruck, sportsvan, sportscrossover, yada-yada.

4cylndrfury wrote: mid/rear engined (stands alone as criteria)

Ah, the Smart car. Proof that a car with an all-aluminum mid-engine, RWD, sequential manual transmission, and a weight under 2000 lbs can somehow not be awesome.

A sports car is an automobile where isolation from the road has been given up to make it more fun to drive.

Any other rule allows either ludicrous examples or ludicrous counterexamples through. An Integra Type R, Fit, G20, CRX, or M-100 Elan is a sportscar; an old Thunderbird with the tonneau cover over the rear seats isn't. We can't restrict it to "rear wheel drive" or "two seats" or "open top". As for transmissions, can you really say that an old Ford van with a magic wand is a better sports car than an automatic Corvette or Miata? For that matter, is a kart with a centrifugal clutch or direct drive any less of a pure sporting machine than a shifter kart?

A sports car is any car that just the thought of the next corner brings a smile to your face. The bigger the smile the sportier the car.

Toyman01 wrote: A sports car is any car that just the thought of the next corner brings a smile to your face. The bigger the smile the more appropriately sporty the car.

Fixed that for you. A car that's fun on public back-roads would be dog-slow on a proper track, and a proper track car is either going to be totally boring on the street or make you piss blood for a week after a good run, maybe both.

My AE86 SR5 would not be considered very sporty compared to any other sporty/sports car, but it was the most fun car I've ever had on the street. You could push that thing at 10/10ths everywhere, feel like you were being a racecar driver, but never actually be speeding or doing anything illegal enough to attract anyone's attention. It was perfectly fast enough to be fun, and not a single horsepower more.

Those cars are peculiar. The theme seems to be "Hey, let's shove everything which normally goes into a Chevelle into this much smaller package. So it's small, but not really lighter. Certainly harder to work on. The Convertibles had this brace which must weigh 100 lbs by itself between the rails. I honestly think the right choice is a new chassis from art morrison, schwartz (who I'd go with) or someone like that. That way you can jack it up and still open the doors.

They do have character to say the least...and there's no way I'd buy a convertible. It is seriously the most cramped sbc I've ever worked on but I'm slowing giving myself more room. Already nixed the a/c, cruise control, evap can, washer res, and next up is the power steering.

Oh, and you can still open the doors when it's jacked up. It does flex a little but not enough to hurt anything. I'm sure some fresh body mounts would probably even fix that for me.

Otto Maddox wrote: In reply to Type Q: I am begging for attack here, but I did bring it up. In very general terms, a sports car is a two seat convertible and a GT is a 2+2 with a fixed roof. There are exceptions to both, lots of exceptions. But I'll go further out onto a limb and provide examples - a Miata is a sports car and a Porsche 928 is a GT.

It is easy to set out general rules. It is harder to explain the exceptions that are sports cars but that don't follow the rules.

Porsches are, to most people's way of thinking, sports cars despite the existence of rudimentary rear seats.

Camaros, OTOH, are not (IMHO) anywhere near being sports cars according to the traditional definition - too bloated. Let's use the old classification of pony cars for them and the Mustangs etc. even though they violate one of the original criteria of being reasonably light (more like Clydesdalkes than Shetlands these days).

Real hard to create any definition using weight, interior space, wheelbase etc. that someone else can't immediately refute by trotting out any number of examples that don't fit the rules but that most would consider sports cars.

Thus while this is a fun idea to toss around, as others have said, it really doesn't reach any conclusions and sometimes raises bent feelings, so on this Christmas day I elect not to rise to this particular bait. Ask me again when I am in a more bloody minded mood and we can have some fun with it.

In reply to tuna55:

how meny seat for $1,000. I have a little poop eco box as a dd, it a fun little car. I think of it as a sporty car...

A car designed and built with enthusiastic driving in mind.

Layout doesn't matter, doors don't matter, hell even transmission doesn't matter. As long as the manufacturer designed it with the intention to be driven at 9/10ths, it is a sports car IMO.

I would use words and sentences formed into a cohesive series of paragraphs.

BowtieBandit wrote: A car designed and built with enthusiastic driving in mind. Layout doesn't matter, doors don't matter, hell even transmission doesn't matter. As long as the manufacturer designed it with the intention to be driven at 9/10ths, it is a sports car IMO.

just to skew this, as with many of the other counter-points, what about a car that the owner has transformed(or does that = "manufacturer")... from something that was a good basic platform, into a "sports car"..... where the owner has gone through and upgraded, improved, modified, (pick your adjective) to maximize the sporting qualities/enjoyment factor