> WAY off topic, but didn't the old CanAm racers all use American big blocks?
> Remember reading many an article detailing the utter brilliance of American
> blocks. Sure it's ancient history in racing time, but you can't knock
> 1500hp roadracing machines!
Dave Ewing
More on-topic now... Did anyone read Car magazine's
head-to-head comparison of the Porsche Carrera (996) and the Subaru
Impreza homologation?
Martin
Nigel Mansell RIP!
The lack of respect for American engineering troubles me a bit. To write it
all off as "a laugh" is a big mistake. Sure, we produce our share of bad
cars - but so do the Japanese, and so do the Europeans. Don't forget we're
responsible for the greatest engineering feat ever - putting a man on the
moon, so if it came down to it I'm sure the US could put together a car to
compete with anything else the world has to offer.
At least that's my 2-cents.
CHRIS
As long as you define "fast" as being "in a straight line" then you
may be correct, but stick a couple of corners in and all it would see
of a 2 litre Renault Clio Williams would be the tail lights
disappearing over the horizon.
You obviously have never seen the 1,000bhp Supras or 1,300bhp Skylines
that can be seen in Tokyo. If your car starts with huge power then if
only a slight modification is allowed it will always be faster. Still,
going quickly in a straight line is not a good definition of fast -
you can't go anywhere by driving your car in a straight line.
Toyota won Le Mans and Honda have dominated both F1 and CART.
Try doing that on the Tokyo-Yokohama expressway - your car wouldn't
even be considered worthy of their attention.
Each car is designed to appeal to it's market, and you can't compare
the power of a U.S. muscle car with a car designed to appeal to
Japanese youth and claim it to be better. When comparing like with
like I can guarantee you that while several U.S. cars are easily
superior to, say, the Skyline in outright acceleration (mainly due to
the Skyline's 280bhp government imposed limit), there is _nothing_
which compares to a Skyline on a point to point drive along normal
roads (that's roads with corners). That's tough for me to say since I
would like the European pedigree of Ferrari, Porsche etc to reign
supreme, but the Skyline is the most awesome car I've tried, with
immense confidence inspiring poise and grip. I've never been lucky
enough to try a Ferrari, but even fans of the Ferrari F355 who've
driven both say the Skyline is at least the equal in performance
(although it is massively inferior in the looks department!). :-)
Don't knock the "silly Japanese cars", they're a hell of a lot better
than you think. You don't dominate the World Rally Championship by
building gutless, poor-handling cars.
Cheers!
John
>The lack of respect for American engineering troubles me a bit. To write it
>all off as "a laugh" is a big mistake. Sure, we produce our share of bad
>cars - but so do the Japanese, and so do the Europeans. Don't forget we're
>responsible for the greatest engineering feat ever - putting a man on the
>moon,
so if it came down to it I'm sure the US could put together a car to
Perhaps, but why don't they?
Z.
> >Not meaning to troll.. but the problem is the rest of the world laughs
> quite
> >openly at American cars.
> The lack of respect for American engineering troubles me a bit. To write it
> all off as "a laugh" is a big mistake. Sure, we produce our share of bad
> cars - but so do the Japanese, and so do the Europeans. Don't forget we're
> responsible for the greatest engineering feat ever - putting a man on the
> moon, so if it came down to it I'm sure the US could put together a car to
> compete with anything else the world has to offer.
> At least that's my 2-cents.
I will never forget when I saw the kitchen appliances in my first
appartment
the first time. Wow, I thought I stepped into a time machine that took
me
back 20 years... ;^) ...and this was a brandnew kitchen!
It's just what the market needs and wants, I guess. Cars for the US
market only
need to be comfortable at low speeds, that's what I realize every time I
drive
my US built Nissan Sentra on German country roads... ;^)
l8er
ronny
--
Toys'R'Us '99: "So, would you like a hand gun with that action figure,
kiddo?"
|\ _,,,---,,_ I want to die like my Grandfather,
ZZZzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ in his sleep.
|,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' Not like the people in his car,
'---''(_/--' `-'\_) screaming their heads off!
>The lack of respect for American engineering troubles me a bit. To write it
>all off as "a laugh" is a big mistake. Sure, we produce our share of bad
>cars - but so do the Japanese, and so do the Europeans. Don't forget we're
>responsible for the greatest engineering feat ever - putting a man on the
>moon, so if it came down to it I'm sure the US could put together a car to
>compete with anything else the world has to offer.
>At least that's my 2-cents.
M
Japanese cars are seen as small and tinny by a sizable portion of the
U.S. market, U.S. cars are seen as powerful ill-handling hulks by
Europeans. Japanese seem to like U.S. cars, with their "macho" image.
Fact is that each car is matched to the market, and with U.S. roads
generally being long, wide and very straight a big powerful car that
can cruise effortlessly is ideal. Given the low speed limit the
high-speed handling is not an important issue either. European cars
drive on everything from tight twisty country or mountain roads in
U.K. or Switzerland up to massive 150mph+ autobahns in Germany - an
incredible range of road conditions. For that reason the handling is
paramount along with ride quality and stability, and while power is
important it cannot be achieved via huge engines due to the >$5 per
gallon fuel prices.
GT however represents racing those cars on a track, and in every test
I've seen the Viper and Corvette fall far short of the point-to-point
performance of Porsche, Nissan, Honda and the like. The reviewers
have, in other tests, enormously enjoyed these cars, but on European
roads and/or circuit racing they're just not designed to do that.
That's not to say the U.S. couldn't make a car which was capable of
that, but it wouldn't necessarily appeal to their market so the risk
of a flop is high. All countries make very good cars, but targetted
toward different markets and tastes - for that reason we laugh at each
others :-)
Cheers!
John
> >spent be a big deal. Take a trip down to your local drag strip and
> >check out what fast is. Or, just watch Le Mans next year and watch
> >Porsche win for the 17th time even in the face of Toyota and Nissan's
> >best efforts.
> Toyota won Le Mans and Honda have dominated both F1 and CART.
Matt K
Since when did GM or Ford make a good car???? GM said their nicest car is
the C5, but they copied the front from the 3rd gen RX-7 and the side from
the NSX. All Ford has is the Rustang, and oh please add some independent
rear suspension will they. This is the 90's. As for Dodge, I wouldn't even
say anything about their 3 ton cars.... Oh yeah the bad car that European
car maker made was the 99 911, bad thing is that they look like a boxster.
>>The lack of respect for American engineering troubles me a bit. To write
it
>>all off as "a laugh" is a big mistake. Sure, we produce our share of bad
>>cars - but so do the Japanese, and so do the Europeans.
>Japanese cars are seen as small and tinny by a sizable portion of the
>U.S. market, U.S. cars are seen as powerful ill-handling hulks by
>Europeans. Japanese seem to like U.S. cars, with their "macho" image.
>Fact is that each car is matched to the market, and with U.S. roads
>generally being long, wide and very straight a big powerful car that
>can cruise effortlessly is ideal. Given the low speed limit the
>high-speed handling is not an important issue either. European cars
>drive on everything from tight twisty country or mountain roads in
>U.K. or Switzerland up to massive 150mph+ autobahns in Germany - an
>incredible range of road conditions. For that reason the handling is
>paramount along with ride quality and stability, and while power is
>important it cannot be achieved via huge engines due to the >$5 per
>gallon fuel prices.
>GT however represents racing those cars on a track, and in every test
>I've seen the Viper and Corvette fall far short of the point-to-point
>performance of Porsche, Nissan, Honda and the like. The reviewers
>have, in other tests, enormously enjoyed these cars, but on European
>roads and/or circuit racing they're just not designed to do that.
>That's not to say the U.S. couldn't make a car which was capable of
>that, but it wouldn't necessarily appeal to their market so the risk
>of a flop is high. All countries make very good cars, but targetted
>toward different markets and tastes - for that reason we laugh at each
>others :-)
>Cheers!
>John
>> >spent be a big deal. Take a trip down to your local drag strip and
>> >check out what fast is. Or, just watch Le Mans next year and watch
>> >Porsche win for the 17th time even in the face of Toyota and Nissan's
>> >best efforts.
>> Toyota won Le Mans and Honda have dominated both F1 and CART.
>Err..toyota *led* Le Mans, broke down and Porsche won..Mazda won in '91
>:-)
Cheers!
John
>>Toyota won Le Mans and Honda have dominated both F1 and CART.
>Ford won Lemans and Ford has far more world championships than Honda.
Z.
Cheers!
John
