"Capt. Rob" wrote in message
oups.com...

It's not a supercar at all. But it is probably the best handling car you
can buy for under $100K. The Exige I have on order is a sport
version--read: lighter and suspended more for the track. It will
probably
see as much track mileage as road time. I don't have time for an SCCA
campaign, but I can do the occasional track day.

Max


MAx, I think we have different definitions for Supercar. Handling to
me is the biggest element of what makes a car "great." Back in the day
my friends and I would laugh at straight line only metal like Grand
Nationals and Vettes.

First let me state categorically that I don't like Corvettes. Their FRP
bodies are a joke, and they rattle miserably after only a few road miles.
That said, it's obvious you haven't driven one recently. They are anything
but "straight-line only metal." They handle remarkably well, and it takes
very little suspension and frame work to prodify one for competitive SCCA
racing. Once set up properly they are a bitch to beat. Only the Dodge
Viper can compete in that price range. And of course with over 500 bhp, the
Corvette is anything but slow or sluggish. In a year or two the Corvette ZO6
will have over 600 bhp.

Either they couldn't handle or were very nervous
rides on any real twisty that wasn't perfectly smooth.

Since the early 90s, the Vettes have been superb handling vehicles. Are you
referring to the older models? Some early Vettes (Stingrays, etc.) weren't
terribly competent on winding pavement.

No matter what
power a Mustang had, that fixed rear would always be the achilles
heal.

Naught but a muscle car. Not great handlers without one hell of a lot of
suspension modification.

A car like my Speed6 would murder a lot of faster cars with it's
refinded handling and quarter miles under 14 seconds is plenty of
power for the twisty runs...more than needed perhaps.

The Mazdaspeed 6 is indeed a very competent automobile, both on the track
and on pavement, but I believe you've greatly overstated its abilties. It
is nowhere in the handling league with Vipers, Corvettes, and such. And my
forthcoming Exige will outhandle everything we've mentioned so far. The
demo Elise I drove--not a sport version, incidentally--simply blew me away.
I had to own one.

These days there
are many cars pulling stock numbers that used to pretty rare.

Very true.

So for
me: if the car handles great and it can do a 1/4 mile in 5 seconds,
that's pretty "super." If it can do 165 MPH then it's a done deal.

It's governed to do quite a bit less than that. Remove the governor and you
can kiss your warranty goodbye.

Now
there are cars that do 200 MPH and sub 4 second runs and quarters in
under 11 seconds. But they are usually not daily drivers. For example,
we could not use an STI as a daily driver with it's rally ready setup.

Doubtful if anyone could, but properly set up for Euro.rally, it would cost
more than all the cars we've mentioned so far, COMBINED.

In that regard I would agree that an M5 is fantastic....fast AND
liveable day to day.
The Elise is the best handling car off the shelf so even without crazy
power it's certainly deserving of a supercar ranking. You also have to
give it up to the Elise because of the Toyota powerplant will be Miata
reliable. Talk about having your cake and eating it too.

The Elise (roadster) and Exige (coupe) are not supercars. Handling may be
on par with supercars, but they lack the raw horsepower to be supercars. An
Exige with, say, 400 bhp, would indeed be a supercar. With the Toyota mill
they aren't slow, but they are far from supercar fast.

One thing we can agree on...it's a fantastic time to be in love with
cars. Even my buddies BMW 330XI (that he bought used for a small sum
of 20K) is an amazingly refined car with plenty of fast fun on tap. As
you can probably tell I'm an AWD convert, which is why I chose the
Mazdaspeed6. I also live in a hilly windy area that can get snowy, so
I'd had to show some practicallity!

AWD is nice, especially in crap weather. It even does well on the track, if
engineered properly. My BMW 330 Ci (coupe, not convertible) obviously
doesn't have it, but I think it's a fair trade to have RWD in a BMW as
opposed to AWD. I have an additional set of rims with winter
ultra-performance tires in addition to the M rims with ultra-performance
tires for summer use. Both get me around just fine, and I prefer the RWD
for twisty roads.

Supercars: Porsche GT3 or McLaren, Ferraris, Aston Martin Vantage, Saleen
S7, Ford GT, Dodge Viper, Corvette ZO6, stuff like that.

Max