What defines a fast car in 2020?

2 questions here then?

What defines a fast car?

and what defines a sports car?

My driving heaven would be a twisty road and an original lotus elan. (Shame I’m 6’3”)
 
I think a sports car is a car designed and built purely for the enjoyment of driving.

This would make something like a Lotus Elise, Porsche Boxster or Mazda MX5 a sports car, whereas a BMW M3, Golf R or an Audi RS6 would not be - they are fast, performance orientated versions of conventional cars designed for more general use.

I wonder if it could be as simple as 'if its purpose built for driving enjoyment, its a sports car, if its based on a regular car, it's not'? Are there any examples which would fall outside of this definition?
 
[TW]Fox said:
I think a sports car is a car designed and built purely for the enjoyment of driving.

This would make something like a Lotus Elise, Porsche Boxster or Mazda MX5 a sports car, whereas a BMW M3, Golf R or an Audi RS6 would not be - they are fast, performance orientated versions of conventional cars designed for more general use.

I wonder if it could be as simple as 'if its purpose built for driving enjoyment, its a sports car, if its based on a regular car, it's not'? Are there any examples which would fall outside of this definition?
Click to expand...

It doesn’t feel so sporty when a BMW diesel passes you though :D
This is my point.
 
For me it is fairly simple...

Can I get into it, drive to Germany and sit for long periods at 140mph without it feeling like it will fall apart. Can I then accelerate to an indicated 200mph and sit there for a period again without feeling like it will throw me off the road.

Does it have brakes that can haul me down from those speeds really quickly and can I sit at 100mph alongside another car on an autobahn and then pull away from it like the opening titles of Cannonball Run.

Finally when I get the Nurburgring can I run laps in the high 7's and then drive it home without a pile of warning lights or brakes that make grinding noises knowing that when I come to use it next time it will start on the button and allow me to rinse and repeat.

For most other people it seems to be more about CarNow drag times and I think that is far to 1 dimensional, though I do enjoy watching a Walsall lad talking about cars that he's not stolen.
 
Housey said:
For me it is fairly simple...

Can I get into it, drive to Germany and sit for long periods at 140mph without it feeling like it will fall apart. Can I then accelerate to an indicated 200mph and sit there for a period again without feeling like it will throw me off the road.

Does it have brakes that can haul me down from those speeds really quickly and can I sit at 100mph alongside another car on an autobahn and then pull away from it like the opening titles of Cannonball Run.

Finally when I get the Nurburgring can I run laps in the high 7's and then drive it home without a pile of warning lights or brakes that make grinding noises knowing that when I come to use it next time it will start on the button and allow me to rinse and repeat.
Click to expand...

Then there’s the real world the rest of us live in.
(Does sound fun however).

The fact is you don’t need to do over 100mph to enjoy driving.

(interested to know what you drive btw)
 

This is my idea of driving, and yes I probably would make a nuisance of myself and yes I would probably loose my licence to.
 
It's also worth considering whether the sports car really is becoming obselete - without considering stuff that sits arguably more in the supercar bracket - thinking along the lines of Fox's definition above, there's plenty of stuff that fills the sports car space still, covering 'purebred sports' to 'just about'.

Lotus Elise
Lotus Evora
Mazda MX5
Toyota GT86
Toyota Supra
BMW Z4
Porsche Cayman/Boxster
Porsche 911
Alpine A110
Jaguar F Type
Ford Mustang
Audi TT
Alfa 4C
Mercedes SLC

Then you've got Caterhams, Morgans etc. if you're looking even more outside the normal boxes.
 
SkodaMart said:
Then there’s the real world the rest of us live in.
(Does sound fun however).

The fact is you don’t need to do over 100mph to enjoy driving.

(interested to know what you drive btw)
Click to expand...
The question I was responding to was what makes a fast car, not what makes a fun car. Fast isn't really much to do with fun. MX5 shows that.

In terms of what I drive loads of things. There is a thread about my current car, no hard to find :)
 
SkodaMart said:

This is my idea of driving, and yes I probably would make a nuisance of myself and yes I would probably loose my licence to.
Click to expand...

The biggest problem with these tiny sports cars is the roads are now full of ***** in SUVs who don't see you.

But videos like this give you a good perspective of what it's like. Not like a normal car. He is probably only doing 60 max, but it looks and feels like 200 and that is the important thing :D

Then there is the Morgan 3 wheeler for the truely suicidal:

 
Last edited:
My head was the same height as HGV axles in my Westfield. A sobering thought.
I do like Morgan’s though including the 3 wheeler.
Very pricey though
 
SkodaMart said:
My head was the same height as HGV axles in my Westfield. A sobering thought.
I do like Morgan’s though including the 3 wheeler.
Very pricey though
Click to expand...

They are going up in value though. Apparently old Morgans are one of the top things to invest in.

It's quite funny how a brand new one costs about 40k, but a used one with a few K on the clock is more than 40k lol.
 
Last edited:
Squidward said:
Hey, hope everyone is well. I have been pondering this question over dinner tonight. Given how fast cars have become, what metrics do people look for in cars and think "wow thats a fast car". It seems like 0 to 60 in 6 seconds or less was the metric for a long time but imo that is no longer relevant. Most cars on the road today are capable of running 0 to 60 in less than 4 seconds, and 0 to 100 in less than 10 seconds with ease.

I personally classify a car as "fast" if it meets the below criteria:
0 to 60mph in 2.9s or less
0 to 100 in 6.5s or less

Any thing slower than the above times I would class as "brisk" rather than fast.

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Really depends on the type of roads its being driven on. For example, if your going to hoon about the west coast of Scotland a lot of "fast cars" are not really going to be that fast or should I say much faster than something small and light. I've had great days out sticking to the back of R8's and 911's in my old MGTF because the road type suited a smaller car with sticky tires and low gearing... I've also had my backside handed to me on the same day by diesel vectras because on the main roads and dual carriageways because that suited them more.

"Fast Cars" i.e ones that concentrate on a number kinda bore me these days... a small engaging car and matched road on the otherhand... that's a dream day off stuff.
 
The obsession with 0-60 and drag races is baffling to me. It's very dependent on grip and gear ratios and doesn't really say much about driveability.

The marketing people know it and I wonder if cars are being set up to reach specific 0-60 times, to the detriment of actual real world performance.

You only need to look at the carwow YouTube channel - hot hatch drag races :confused: Surely you buy a hot hatch for the handling as much, if not more than, the outright straight-line speed.

It seems to be the replacement for selling cars based on the Nurburgring lap time.

If you wanted to measure speed, a rolling start give a much better measure.
 
Doesn’t the Nurburgring lap time give a good indication how a cars going to perform in the real world? (And not a billiard board smooth race track?)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom