One of the most fun cars I've ever owned was a '61 Fiat 600D, and my longest owned at 10 years. It had a few mods and put out a sterling 32hp, and was what, 1200 pounds. The engine was designed by a Ferrari guy and would scream. You could flog the crap out of it and no one even knew you were speeding, and I used to work at getting a ticket. I wanted to frame it, but no such luck. Top speed was in the mid 50's, you could get a bit over 60 with proper drafting.
Keith Tanner said:Driving fast on the street is basically just a measure of how stupid you're willing to be. But this is a motorsports forum, so the track is an option to us :) I knew that would get called out. And I would still enjoy those ribs.
Nothing wrong with a car that makes you pay attention. We're going to start having to define "fun" soon. For some in this thread, it's about being able to destroy things without caring. For others, it's involvement. Or maybe it's the satisfaction of meeting a challenge. I don't enjoy driving composed slow cars on my local track much anymore because I just go on autopilot, there's nothing to do. Give me a car with some handling...quirks or a good power/weight ratio and it gets fun again until the car is too fast for the track.
And a slow car slow on the street can be fun, too. My big ol' Cadillac is in that group, it just wants to burble around and puts a big smile on my face when doing that. So "slow car fast" is a knee-jerk gearhead mantra, but it's just wrong.
What defines fun is going to fall under semantics as well; for some people that's a car they think is going to bite at any second, for others it's something you can beat on without a care. For most of us any car that's engaging is probably fun.
I think the smile factor is probably the least subjective measure of fun.
In reply to racerdave600 :
My 1385cc 65 Baja Bug was this exact scenario
Keith Tanner said:So "slow car fast" is a knee-jerk gearhead mantra, but it's just wrong.
Keith, please don't take this the wrong way, as I have a lot of respect for you and the huge contribution you have made to this forum and the car community, but you might want to update your website 
Hey, it may not be an accurate statement but it's memorable ;)
But yeah, I haven't actually updated that for five years or so.
For me -- visibility, something with a lot of glass. Also -- paid for always drives better than something with a payment book.
I love anonymity (it suits my driving habits,) so nothing too obnoxious.
A huge tell for a fun car is how quickly a car disappears around you when you first drive it. If you can jump in a car and immediately be comfortable exploring it's limits, it's probably going to be really fun once you get to know it.
Lastly and probably most importantly -- reliability. The excitement should come from the experience, not being paranoid about every little noise, hoping it's not going to start missing randomly (again,) or staring at the temp gauge at every redlight.
In reply to Tyler H (Forum Supporter) :
Anonymity because it suits your driving style. Ha. Yes, this 100%
For years, I was a “slow car fast” guy. I grew up in the 80’s, I pretty much had no choice. My first two cars were 80’s GM fwd V6’s with 215/60-14’s and drums on the rear. The first race car I drove was a 72 Corolla 1600 Deluxe. While working for a Suzuki dealership, my parts delivery car was a Swift 4 door, with 155/70-13’s. That was a fun car to drive.
And then last year, a friend of mine got me a gig as an instructor with a McLaren track day, and they let me drive a 720S Spider around Sebring at the end of the day. I called three or four people on my hour and a half drive home. I still had a smile on my face as I got into bed that night. The car was that good. I don’t know if I could live with one on the street, but for 20 mins on the track, the car made me feel like a god.
I have to agree with both Keith and rslifkin here.
Keith: And a slow car slow on the street can be fun, too. My big ol' Cadillac is in that group
rslifkin: When driving something with a large performance envelope on the street, part of the fun comes from knowing that in most situations, you can literally do whatever you want and you'll always back off due to thinking "wow, I'm being an irresponsible dipE36 M3" long before you find the car's limits and potentially get yourself into an ugly situation.
I think these both fall into my "driving experience" qualifications. I would drive a Lotus Esprit with an Iron Duke to its extremes just because, and I would also take a 750hp big block for a leisurely cruise downtown... also just because.
In the Lotus, it would be "let's see what it can do."
In the big block it would be "I know what it can do."
I'm currently planning and started building a 67 LeMans with 550 hp and (hopefully after I rob a small bank) a highly capable chassis. I will straight up drive that LeMans like a grandma downtown to a restuarant and toss the keys to a valet just because I can.
its an interesting theory but not practical. Within a 12 month span I went from 650 hp road monster to sub 100hp toy. I loved the beast but I couldnt enjoy the beast. Yes its fun having that back of the mind knowledge that you are prepped to annihilate at any moment, but then you start looking for things to annihilate, you start to drive like an a-hole and you are working on borrowed time. I miss the monster, space and budgets permitting I'd have kept it for when I need to unleash my inner shiny happy person. But on the daily I have so much more fun with the cars that need a driver, not a pilot.
It's all about Engagement. What that means is going to be a little different for everybody. It's why none of the answers are wrong. Some people like the feel of torque pushing them back into the seat, others like the feeling of cornering load.
For me, it's usually a combination of (sound+steering feel+felt cornering force+perceived speed) DIVIDED BY intent
Examples:
When I took my RX-7 on a trip from North Cackalacky to Vermont in '97, it was an absolute adventure. It was hundreds and hundreds of miles of driving with the windows down, sunroof open, good tunes, rotary noises, hearing the shift alarm on literally every up shift and attacking on and off ramps like they owed me money. Once I hit the Vermont mountain roads and started having to *really* focus on not sending myself off the side of one of those mountains or getting smushed by a methed up logging truck driver, the aforementioned combination of sound, steering feel, felt cornering force and perceived speed and actual DANGER combined was exhilarating in a way I can't completely communicate. It was the last road trip that I still had the youthful delusion of immortality, a sporty car, more time than money and nobody to worry about but myself. That remains one of my favorite road trips, ever.
Nowadays? That same trip in that car wouldn't be nearly as fun. I want to get there fast with minimal drama. Give me a car with enough power, good sound deadening and excellent road manners so I can bomb along at PERFECTLY LEGAL SPEEDS on the highway all day with minimal driver fatigue. The fun in that car is the getting to the destination (and maybe attacking the occasional on and off ramp) so I can spend as much time chasing trout up in the mountains and not need to take a whole-assed day for my 50 year old self to recover.
But if you handed me the keys to that same completely outclassed by modern standards RX-7 to drive around town on any given weekend? Yeah. That'd still be fun. So would the NA Miata or the E30 I used to own.
Likewise, the 4Runner I have is an absolute *blast* to drive on the Outer Banks or Crystal Coach beaches. It's unstoppable, and offering to pull out a stuck Wrangler while you have the wife and kids riding with you along with literally *all* your beach crap is giggle worthy. Would a Miata be fun there? berkeley no. But jouncing along on the beach, feeling the ruts in the sand hitting whoops at 15 MPH, but it feels like 120 MPH on the highway so everybody starts laughing as they bounce around on their way to a fun summer day's adventure is as satisfying as hitting an apex on an autocross course or doing a perfect heel-toe shift.
(sound+steering feel+felt cornering force+perceived speed) DIVIDED BY intent. Every time.
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