Comparison Tests
Any dolt can John Hancock the paperwork for a convertible and call him- or herself a sports-car driver, but we know the real deal when he or she slides up alongside, shaded by a fixed roof. Welded-on tops don't let the wind in to rustle your follicles, but they do offer generally stiffer structures, cleaner aerodynamics, lower weight, and more handsome lines compared with their hanky-headed rivals. They're also quieter and more usable as everyday traffic trolleys, and they hold more hockey sticks than you never thought you'd ever have to cram into your sports car.
Examples fetching less than $40,000 used to be as thick on the ground as thistle weed. Remember the Mazda RX-7, the Mitsubishi 3000GT, the Toyota Supra? How about the Volkswagen Corrado and Subaru SVX? All of them flat-lined from the effects of rising prices, soaring insurance costs, and lack of interest from peak earners.
Nevertheless, Nissan recently cracked the bottle across the new 350Z and sent it sliding into this lonely lagoon of the market. The Mazda RX-8 and the Chrysler Crossfire will join it next year, but in the meantime the 350Z coupe (a convertible is coming in 2003) is the only brand-new, wide-track, big-engine tintop to talk about. With what does one compare a Z if one can't wait for the RX-8 or Crossfire? The new Ford Mustang Mach 1, of course. And an Audi TT and a Honda S2000 with an aluminum hardtop fixed to its body. Here's what these machines have in common: not a bunch.
Consider the Audi TT coupe, a four-wheeled sculpture of such a novel and intriguing shape that when it debuted in 1999 it sent every designer in the industry scurrying for tracing paper. The TT is all about aesthetics, an advertisement of your advanced taste that stands apart from other household artwork only because it requires a routine oil change.
A TT crosses the block cheaper than this top-of-the-test $36,395 example, which is a 1.8T Quattro with 180 horsepower and five gears to flog it with, but only as a front-driver. Turn your nose up on options such as the xenon headlamps and 17-inch wheels of the $1600 Premium package, or the $1200 Bose audio system, and the base Quattro will make you the object of imitation for only $33,595.
Whereas the TT is all about looking fine in a new way, the Mustang Mach 1 is all about kicking butt the old-fashioned way. Ford has brought back the 305-hp DOHC 32-valve SVT Cobra V-8 from 1995 as a one-year $28,995 special edition to keep interest at a boil until the all-new Lincoln LS-based Mustang arrives in 2004.
The Mach 1 has a shamelessly archaic twist: a semi-legitimate shaker air scoop that sprouts like a Maya ziggurat through the hood. We say semi-legit because the shaker only supplies a portion of the induction volume through a tube so winding it needs arrows to show the air where to go. A larger throttle body, heavy-breathing cams, and Brembo brakes also adorn the package. The sole option brightens the Mustang's iron-pot interior with chrome accents and costs $295.
Honda's S2000 is about economy. At 2896 pounds, including its 44-pound detachable aluminum hardtop, the S2000 is the lightest in the test by 377 pounds. At 120 horsepower per liter, its four-cylinder cyclone makes every other engine except the TT's turbo-assisted four look like a Mississippi steamship boiler. And its base price of $33,060, not including the $2995 hardtop, is the second lowest in the group. In a nation obsessed by its productivity rate, the S2000 is a model citizen.
Against these three different personas stands the Z, a hefty but highly potent touring coupe that tries to please everybody. It has styling that takes a view forward, a V-6 with big displacement, and a forest of aluminum links and control arms to take it where you aim it. This $33,788 Touring model with a six-speed manual throws in leather buckets, a Bose audio system with a six-disc changer, 18-inch wheels, and a digital tire-pressure monitor. A $30,969 Performance model gets you the same performance hardware without the leather seats and stereo. If you're in the market for a tintop, such frills may already seem superfluous.
