Today's Sports Cars compared to '90's Sports Cars

[Richie K]

After discussing the new S2000 in another thread, I wanted to ask....

Is there any Sports Cars out today that can compete with the Sports Cars of the '90's??

Is the demand for Sports Cars gone?? What can be bought nowadays to rival Z's, NSX's, Supra's etc at similar prices. That's to say £30-£50k ( not £100k GTR's ) and are they all little 1.6-2.0lt engines.

Discuss please...:thumbup1:

[Alic]

IMO nowadays its more 'look fast' but they mostly have sub 2litre engine barely making 200hp.

Examples like the Audi TT, as you say the s2000 etc.

 

Also the new nsx has nothing on the 90s one.

 

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[TheRealNips]

I thinks down to a change of buying habits. In the 80's and early 90's everyone was living in excess and blowing money on a 400BHP car wasnt a bad idea, however now customers seem to want economy, saving the planet, etc so therefore the demand for high horsepower cars has dropped. This can also be seen in the mid to late 90's models such as the Supra, they were designed to take 800BHP, but toyota backed out at the last minute and settled for 300BHP due to a mini economic crash (the dot.com bubble i think). I think its a shame, especially when nissan says theuir next Z car will be a crossover. I think car companies have lost "the Edge", they are playing safe too much and just trying to design one car that does/looks/drives everything...

[Guest dan300zx]

worth point out here that modern hot hatches piss on 90s hot hatches power wise. but I still love 90s hot hatches more. my good old 205gti 1.9. long gone now

so it would seen power and handling is much better in this class at least

[Alic]

I convinced my friend to get a crx for his first car, of course it will get destroyed by a 2015 civic but old JDM are just so much cooler.

[Guest dan300zx]

I convinced my friend to get a crx for his first car, of course it will get destroyed by a 2015 civic but old JDM are just so much cooler.

 

I agree the older cars just are cooler.

[Gaz 300]

Not much out there but I like the Toyota GT.

 

 

[dutchgold92]

In my opinion the only decent car out there at the moment is the 370Z, and even that is on its way out and doesn't really compare to the Z32. Sure, there's other nice cars like the GTR and NSX but they're not affordable to many people (which is unfortunately true for the 370Z too here, though if I lived elsewhere I might have one).

 

The saddest part is thinking about the future. What the **** is someone like me going to drive in ten years?

[coopd]

I agree, the world has changed alot in the last 20yrs. They used to design cars starting with a blank canvas, that's why they all looked so different and interesting. Nowadays, there are do many restrictions on how it can look down to safety etc. Most cars look pretty similar now.

 

I also agree with what TheRealNips said earlier... It was about power, now its about economy. Both these things are the right way to go to a point... I don't like it anymore than anyone on here but the days of crazy gas guzzling cars are dying. Even the way they advertise cars now is depressing... Most of you must have watched the top gear Peugeot special where they were looking at the old vs new adverts? The old 205 gti advert was exciting, nowadays all you get is a boring finance/ fuel and go advert... Most of the time the car is stationary now.

 

I'm only 31 but I seriously miss "the good old days!" :)

 

 

[Stephen]

I believe that laws have changed surrounding advertising of new cars, they aren't supposed to show speeding or dangerous driving. Hence the weird, surreal adverts that have popped up.

[Alic]

I believe that laws have changed surrounding advertising of new cars, they aren't supposed to show speeding or dangerous driving. Hence the weird, surreal adverts that have popped up.

That's why the 300zx dream advert was only shown once, because it promoted "street racing"

[Mondo]

I thinks down to a change of buying habits. In the 80's and early 90's everyone was living in excess and blowing money on a 400BHP car wasnt a bad idea, however now customers seem to want economy, saving the planet, etc so therefore the demand for high horsepower cars has dropped. This can also be seen in the mid to late 90's models such as the Supra, they were designed to take 800BHP, but toyota backed out at the last minute and settled for 300BHP due to a mini economic crash (the dot.com bubble i think). I think its a shame, especially when nissan says theuir next Z car will be a crossover. I think car companies have lost "the Edge", they are playing safe too much and just trying to design one car that does/looks/drives everything...

 

Wasn't the Supra's (and all the other Jap performance cars at the time) power limited by some agreement Japan had not to sell a car that had in excess of 300bhp...?

 

It seems to ring a bell.

[dutchgold92]

Wasn't the Supra's (and all the other Jap performance cars at the time) power limited by some agreement Japan had not to sell a car that had in excess of 300bhp...?

 

It seems to ring a bell.

 

Yes they all had that, but they didn't really follow it anyway. It was around 280BHP, which is why the JDM Z32TT was stated to be around the figure even though it was more like 300BHP.

[Stephen]

The autos really did have about 280hp ish, hence the smaller turbos and milder cams, to prolong the autobox life. Manuals with bigger turbos and normal cams produced a healthier 300hp. They had to strangle the vg30dett somewhat to get it to 300hp, little effects like the low boost level (the stock map can handle more than 9psi throws at it) restrictions in the exhaust etc. the rules were new and I guess they didn't realise for a few years they could overshoot a touch without recourse.

 

Incidentally the VG30 wasn't the first choice for the Z32 but the V8 they did have just wouldn't of allowed them to play the 280hp game.