Damn! I'd take that over the FD or the Ferrari Maranello

 

The FD could meet all the current saftey stds, it's major downfall was the lack of an OBD-II compatible computer and sales of only 500 units in 95 making it impossible to justify the multi-million dollar expense of OBD-II certification. Also many current SubCompacts still weigh well under 3k lbs and meet current safety std's. New cars get so heavy because the modern consumer expects a car that costs over $25k to have all the luxury features like power leather seats, killer stereo, AC that will freeze water when it is 100 deg outside, Cruise control, ABS, Sunroof, and also be as quiet as a church inside at 70+ mph. All those extras means ADDED WEIGHT

 

I don't know why these cars are so heavy either, but... a colleague of mine has one and I can tell you that he does not give a **** about how it's numbers match up against a FD, a GLH, or any Porsche for that matter. The relevant question is how it looks parked in between his two private jets.

It is simply a moving piece of art. As a car nut you are kidding yourself to say that if you had the means, you wouldn't stop by your friendly neighborhood Ferrari dealer and drive one home.

 

Hence the reason I brought up the GLH-S. Cars (and rotary engines) are emotional decisions, they are not about $$$ and numbers.

 

Yeah, practicality(safety or otherwise) has little to do with a sports car purchase.

I have to admit, the attraction to the FD is pure emotion for me. Makes my heart stir like little else. "First Kiss with my girl" kind of emotion.

Never mind that her breath stinks in the morning, or that I'm constantly having to buy her stuff to keep her happy, or the embaressing things she can sometimes do in public... I mean the FD of course...

 

Or the rx8 for that matter

 

i totally agree addict and damonb, when i got my fd, you couldnt get the huge grin off my face for about a week, for me it was always an fd or nothing.

Coulthard Fan i completely agree with you as well, if you have the money, there is no reason why you would choose a fd over a lambo, besides if you have the money you could buy both if you really wanted too.

 

what about the new porsche supercar (600 hp) that can do 200 mph. They brag about it being made of plastic CF composite for the frame and it still weighs around 3150. How did the Mazda engineering guys do it with all the 7's and even now the rx-8 is lighter, seats 4 and weighs less than the Porsche supercar.

Tim

 

If I had the money a 575M would be sitting in my garage... next to my FD.

 

Simple.
We can't do 200mph and we don't have 600hp stock

The Mclaren F1 DID do it though. Like 2400lbs and over 600hp. It only took a million bucks to get that configuration

 

There's a difference between having passive safety in a car and actively being a safe driver.

Alot of accidents can be avoided by significantly more defensive and aware driving on your part.

Yes it's misfortunate that a good portion of driver's out there aren't even paying attention or have a FOV of 15' in front of them; but this is something you've got to be trying to predict ahead of time and be ready to act when something does go wrong.

 

on this subject I was on my way to school one morning and this freaking guy driving an 18 wheeler starts changing into my lane like 200ft before the exit and I guess he didnt see my little *** car so I downed to 3rd gear and blew right in front of his ***...cant beleive people are so careless...guy in that 18 wheeler coulda hit me and not even known about it!

 

Ever been in an 18 wheeler, Vegas? Visibility, especially to low cars on the passenger side is difficult, at best.

 

Here are some articles about the RX-7 and how it performed:

Those stories did show up in their magazines:
"The new RX-7 R1 blitzed the Bang portion of Bang for the Buck III. [...] The RX-7's performance was like having an MIT grad student, as a prank, enroll in Calculus I at a junior college. For instance, in lateral acceleration, its advantage over second place equaled second place's advantage over 15th place. [...] Our editors' notes sound like a movie ad: "Spectacular... the best... fabulous in all areas", said one editor before coming down from an adrenaline high. "By far the best track car here, maybe of all time", said another. [...] The RX-7 didn't just win the numbers game, it humiliated the field [...] Its stats read like a sports car's wish list [...] It was also rated first in Fun Factor, with an almost perfect 99.57 score" - Motor Trend 9/92


"The RX-7 can do almost anything the best sports cars can do, but better--it accelerates quicker, stops shorter, corners harder, and is faster around a racetrack than almost anything this side of $50,000, and a whole lot of things on the far side of that. As one tester put it, "It sticks to the road like tar on a rocker panel." - Motor Trend 8/92


"The only cars that get around Sears Point International Raceway hill loop much faster have numbers on their doors. [...] The RX-7 may be a performance high-water mark for years to come. [...] The RX-7's performance is awe-inspiring: It's within 1 foot of being the shortest-stopping street car we've ever tested; [...] and grips the road harder than the best race cars of only a few years ago. [...] This is the best hardcore sports car in its price range, maybe in any price range. [...] The RX-7 redefines road manners for its class; the handling feels nimble and natural [...] No sports car in its price range delivers the same level of sensory gratification for the enthusiast driver." - Motor Trend 2/93 naming the Mazda RX-7 1993 Import Car of the Year


"Over the road and on the track, the RX-7 has few peers. During our March 1992 best-handling cars' track test, Danny Sullivan was quickest in the RX-7. lapping the streets of Willow Circuit in 1 minute 05.64 sec., clipping his own time in the second-quickest car, Porsche's 911 Turbo." - Road & Track 4/92.


RX-7 Shows Its Heels To Other Sports Cars - January 1992

The editors at Automobile Magazine were so impressed with the all-new 1993 RX-7 at the recent long-lead press preview that they asked Mazda if they could race one at the $100,000 Consulier Challange last month. When the dust cleared, the new RX-7's launch got a boost as the potent sports car showed its heels to some of the world's most exotic-and expensive-street machinery.

Consulier, a small south Florida car builder of race cars modified for street use, invited auto enthusiast publications to bring any stock production car of their choice to the historic Sebring (Florida) race track. The challenge: match or beat the lap time of the Consulier's prototype fiberglass race. Automibile editor David E. Davis, Jr. called MMA public relations, who arranged the loan of a pre-production RX-7 model for the event. Along with it came the services of Peter Farrell, the current international Motor Sports Association Firehawk Series driving champion, who had helped MMA organize the RX-7 long-lead press preview.

"At the long-lead I'd had a lot of chances to drive the RX-7, both on the road and the race track," said Farrell, a former rally racing champion his native New Zealand. "It was an impressive performer, and probably the best-handling car I've ever driven on the street."

"The new RX-7 is lighter, stronger and more powerful than the old one, which was no slouch around the track. It achieves true supercar performance. While I didn't think we could match the speed of a disguised racecar like the Consulier, I was confident that we'd do well in any match-up with a bonafide street car."

That they did. With Automobile technical editor Barry Winfield supervising and writers from Car and Driver, Motor Trend and AutoWeek looking on during the two-day event, the RX-7 bettered the times of a Porsche 911 Turbo, a new Lamborghini Diablo, an Acura NSX, and a host of "unofficial" entries, including a race-modified Corvette and a Ferrari F-40 - - cars that cost two to 10 times as much as the RX-7.

Winfield says he was impressed with the demonstration drive that Farrell gave him around the racetrack, and took a few laps himself to get the feeling of the RX-7's track performance. Farrell also gave demonstration rides to the other writers who attended. speed of a disguised racecar like the Consulier, I was confident that we'd do well in any match-up with a bonafide street car."

"Now they really have a sense of just how good this car really is," Farrell said. "It's so easy and undemanding a car to drive on the street that it may be hard at first to grasp just how incredible the car performs. But these writers are fully aware now." AutoWeek's coverage of the event ran in January on ESPN, while Winfield's story in Automobile and John Phillips' in Car and Driver are expected in March issues, just in time for the 1993 RX-7's appearance in Mazda dealer showrooms across the U.S.

Just like a Dodge GHL...

 

i agree. no matter how much you hook up your car its still what it is. however there are some people like me who's favorite car happens to be an FD. i wouldnt mind having a 911 turbo on the side but i'd still want my FD. if i really wanted an expensive car i would just have to give my grandmother a call. but no i'm paying $300 a month because i love this car. its not the fastest but its plenty fast enough and to me its the most beautiful car.

EDIT: and yes id rather be in freight truck in an accident

 

DamonB - I'm impressed that you knew about the GLHS. I used to own one!! That car was awesome! I also used to own a low 12 second 86 Shelby Charger, and I still own an 83.5 Shelby Charger (non-turbo, I use it for club racing). They only made a very limited number of those cars, and most people have never even heard of them, let alone know anything about them. I'm impressed!!

 

It's like the Conquest. Those interesting lost and forgotton 80s cars....

I would have hated to be some guy in the 80s with his supercharged M3 getting smacked by an.................omni

 

Even if I had 100,000,000 dollars, I would STILL have my FD. True, I would ALSO have a few other toys

Brian

 

Yeah. It's kind of weird because those cars were part of what spawned a big revival of muscle and sports cars. They also are part of what started the whole "turbocharged 4-cyl ecomony car" craze that is going on today with the young people.

Those cars were a bunch of fun, and rediculously cheap.

 

a bit off topic, but as long as we are talking stock cars, you cant go past new 1000+(stock)hp bugatti, with its stupid W16 engine and quad turbo not bad for a megre $1.13 million

 

Exactly.

The Maranello uses aluminum extensively in the FRAME, suspension components and body panels, yet is still grossly overweight for the money. If it was a four seater I could accept the extra weight, but for a true 2 seater?

Mazda did it with plastic (like radiator end caps, ast bottle, solenoids, interior trim components and a hundred other items) that drive us all crazy when they break. But they DID it - 12 YEARS AGO.

 

Let me know what your 600hp RX-8 weighs with an engine, trans, diff and brakes that can handle that kind of hp.

High HP cars have wieght were low HP don't.

Jeff

 

If someone wants to trade my fd for a maranello> id do it in a heart beat> then I"d sell it and buy seven fd"s> one for every day of the week

 

How has nobody pointed this out yet....? The top speed of an FD is definitely not 155mph lol... I pulled more than 155 on the stock yokahamas VS the marenello's little cousin, the 360, and by no means was that the top end. Stable as could be btw. The steering was a little touchy, but what car isn't at 155? Unless you're pullin a drag coefficient that's really high, or you're pullin 1.5Gs on the skidpad, 155 is not a speed that's super stable. Not don't flame me because mclaren's do 240, or lambos do 215, 155 is still not a speed that a mclaren or lambo would like to get into an accident at... There are reasons that formula cars can brake from 150 to 60 in about 1.5 seconds, cars don't handle too well at a buck 50

 

Deep - you are not completely correct. The top speed of a *stock* FD is drag limited and somewhere between 155 and 160 (depending on who did the testing, and the conditions during the test). After that speed, the car does not have the power to go any faster.

However, as the car gets modified, power level increases, and that top speed is inheriently increased. Iif you can do more than 160 with a STOCK FD, then you must have the worlds most amazing stock rx-7 and you should call up guinness book of records.

Ron (the guy who started this thread) was talking about STOCK numbers. Not modified ones.