Comparison Tests
Wait a minute, who called this meeting? Who are these guys? We’ve got a couple of four-passenger cars, one of ’em with more than two doors. A couple of two-seaters, one with a targa top. There’s also turbocharging, natural aspiration, and an engine with no pistons at all. Besides prices in the low- to mid-$30,000s, what’s the common thread?
Sport. As in “sports coupes cum sports cars.” Granted, that’s an elastic category, but regardless of their differences, all have a little race car baked in. More than a little, usually. They also share a visual swagger. Some may cease being useful when the occupant count exceeds two, but they’re all loaded with style and bad-boy lovability, plus a touch of luxury. These cars make you good-looking—or at least make you feel that you’re good-looking, which is almost the same thing.
Body styles aside, attitude and agility color all the players in this foursome. To what degree—that’s what we went to Southern California to find out.
The starting point was the Mazda RX-8, the defending champ from the last shootout featuring cars of this type [“Four of a Kind,” June 2007] and the one before that as well [“Rotary Revival,” April 2003.] The world’s only rotary-engined production car also hummed its way to three 10Best Car awards (’04, ’05, and ’06) and fortifies its appeal for 2009 with a new R3 sport package designed to put an even finer edge on its gunfighter reflexes.
The 135i seems at a glance to be the least compatible member of this troupe, a formal coupe with only tenuous claim to the title “sports car.” But it has 300 horsepower under its hood, we haven’t found other suitable showdown opponents, and besides, it’s a BMW.
The two other challengers are easier to categorize. Both wear the sports-car mantle comfortably, as two-seaters that are updates on earlier designs. Nissan’s 370Z represents an extensive makeover: updated chassis, new dimensions, new sheetmetal, and new engine. The Pontiac Solstice GXP has acquired a roof, fulfilling the promise of the coupe concept that debuted seven years ago.
We’d hoped to bring an updated Mustang GT, but Ford wasn’t eager to enter its pony in this derby, so we’ll try to herd one into a later starting gate.
After five days of tire abuse, g-load brownouts, and decreasing apexes, we emerged with these rankings:
