RE: Sports Sedan

["Glenn Wasserman" <glennwa@domain.elided>]

To me a sport sedan is any car with 4 doors (or more) that can be used
like a sports car - as both a tool for learning and as a diversion, for
enjoying driving.

To me, a sport car is a tool. It's for carving a turn - picking an apex,
setting the car by hitting the braking point, and taking the corner as
best I can. A sport sedan (to me) needs to allow me to do that.

The feeling I get when I approach an offramp in my 164Q very much like
what I get when approach one in my Spider. I'm thinking about DRIVING.

As a point of comparison, I test drove a Maxima - very powerful sedan
with big shiny wheels. NOT a sports sedan. I found the handling so poor
on that car I was shocked (particularly after all the marketing about "4
door sports car"). Definitely not a sports sedan.

So to me a sport sedan is a sedan that shifts the balances and
compromises toward driving enjoyment from an enthusiasts' or racer's
perspective. The emphasis should be on handling, feel, and sound.

And of course under that definition, the 164 qualifies.

-----Original Message-----
From: C M Smith [mailto:cmsmith@domain.elided]
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 3:20 PM
To: alfa@domain.elided
Subject: Sports Sedan


There is no definition of a sports sedan. BMW is supposed to have
"invented" the category with the 2002 (or its predecessor the 1600).
After
making horrible little cars and a few bigger and less horrible ones, BMW

finally hit on the right balance between size and performance.

I can't help feeling that any car much over 3,000 lbs curb weight (or
kerb
weight for the Brits) can possibly qualify as a sports anything. My SAAB

9000 turbos are around 3,100 lbs before I get in (and I ain't admitting
what that does to the weight) and they are pretty peppy. The 86 will
easily
turn an 8 second 0-60 mph and the 97 Aero can get into the high 6's if
you
can stop the front tires smoking into oblivion. A box stock 91 164L 5
spd
has trouble getting down to 8 seconds. The S could but only by reducing
the
final drive ratio by 10%, sacrificing its top end. Any of these cars
would
run circles (ponderously) any 2002 or 320.

If one allows for modern crash regulations adding inexorably to the
weight
of even sports sedans I guess a 3,100 lb car could be classed as a
sports
sedan, but 3,500 lbs? Or, god forbid, 3,700 lbs which is what those
porky
German cars weigh, the new M3 and the A4. Come on, where's the sport? If

one breaks too far above a reasonable weight why not include the Bentley

Turbo R. This frighteningly quick and fast car handles extremely well,
goes
very fast and accelerates very quickly. But it's HUGE man, and FAT
weighing
in at nearly 6,000 lbs. It drives like a rocket powered living room (or
smoking room in a gentlemen's club more like) nowhere near what seekers
of
"sport" are looking for.

Nope, there are very very few sports sedans left in North America. North

America doesn't build any. The VW is the only European entry i can think

of. The Subaru WRX, or even the lesser models, and the Mazda MP3
certainly
qualify.

Mercedes? Give me a break. I know Mercedes has just released a toy car,
three door hatch, to "capture" its youth market but it ain't  a sedan
let
alone a sports sedan in my books, and the rest are way too heavy.

So, in the fine tradition of this digest let us compare our own
definitions
of what a sports sedan is (remember how much fun it was defining a
sports
car) and list our candidates.

Enjoy



Michael Smith
Calgary, Alberta,Canada
91 Alfa 164L
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