The Best "Reasonable" Roadster (formerly "Affordable")

  • Thread starter Thread starter YSSMAN
  • 200 comments
  • 30,959 views

What is the Best Roadster Available on the Road Today?

  • Pontiac Solstice (GXP)

    Votes: 4 4.4%

  • Saturn Sky (Red Line)

    Votes: 7 7.8%

  • Opel GT (VXR?)

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • BMW Z4 (M-Roadster)

    Votes: 7 7.8%

  • Porsche Boxster (Boxster-S)

    Votes: 5 5.6%

  • Mazda MX-5

    Votes: 23 25.6%

  • Honda S2000

    Votes: 21 23.3%

  • Caterham Seven SV

    Votes: 5 5.6%

  • Lotus Elise (Elise Sport)

    Votes: 11 12.2%

  • TVR Tamora

    Votes: 2 2.2%

  • Shelby CSX 8000 (Cobra 289 street-spec)

    Votes: 2 2.2%

  • Wiesmann Roadster

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • OTHER

    Votes: 1 1.1%
  • Total voters
    90
on roadsters, why does the sky weigh 2950lbs? the miata weighs at least 2700lbs too. what happened to 2500lbs? or lighter? lotus did it. the Elise weighs about 2200, I believe. even Honda Civics tip the scales at nearly 3000lbs nowadays. why? what happened to light cars? clearly they can still be made (proven by Lotus) and conform to safety standards, so why are all these roadsters so damned heavy?
You've got multi-billion dollar companys starting off making a roadster, aiming for, small, compact, light, agile, exceptional handling, quick, fun-to-drive cars. 2950lbs??? not light. 170hp??? not quick when tugging that ass.

Imagine the hoop-lah if they (anybody) made a sports-car weighing just 2500lbs. now imagine it has just (I do mean just) 300hp? FR, it's a crazy, valley shredding, Nurburgring defying thought/dream I had.
Now imagine it's 30K.
 
LeadSlead#2
on roadsters, why does the sky weigh 2950lbs? the miata weighs at least 2700lbs too. what happened to 2500lbs? or lighter? lotus did it. the Elise weighs about 2200, I believe. even Honda Civics tip the scales at nearly 3000lbs nowadays. why? what happened to light cars? clearly they can still be made (proven by Lotus) and conform to safety standards, so why are all these roadsters so damned heavy?
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The Elise and Exige are able to conform to safety standards because they have gotten a waiver on the design of the bumper. It, quite technically, doesn't meet safety standards.
There is also a car that meets you criteria. It was even already posted. The Morgan Aero 8 weighs 2502 lbs and has 325 BHP.
 
LeadSlead#2
on roadsters, why does the sky weigh 2950lbs? the miata weighs at least 2700lbs too. what happened to 2500lbs? or lighter? lotus did it. the Elise weighs about 2200, I believe. even Honda Civics tip the scales at nearly 3000lbs nowadays. why? what happened to light cars? clearly they can still be made (proven by Lotus) and conform to safety standards, so why are all these roadsters so damned heavy?
You've got multi-billion dollar companys starting off making a roadster, aiming for, small, compact, light, agile, exceptional handling, quick, fun-to-drive cars. 2950lbs??? not light. 170hp??? not quick when tugging that ass.

Imagine the hoop-lah if they (anybody) made a sports-car weighing just 2500lbs. now imagine it has just (I do mean just) 300hp? FR, it's a crazy, valley shredding, Nurburgring defying thought/dream I had.
Now imagine it's 30K.
Click to expand...

Civics and most "sporty" cars have many, many more "luxuries" than the Elise. These "luxuries" include things that are as simple and basic as some sound-deadening, backseats and cargo space, comfortable seats, larger windows and more visibility...designing a car to accomodate these features and others causes it to be larger and heavier.
 
...Luxury, safety, features all add weight to the cars we drive today. The only reason why performance has not suffered is because the engines are putting out more power while consuming less fuel and running at a greater level of efficency. If I remember correctly, I belive the MX5 only gained a bit over 100LBS on the Miata, with with the new engine, the added weight means nothing.
 
YSSMAN
...Luxury, safety, features all add weight to the cars we drive today. The only reason why performance has not suffered is because the engines are putting out more power while consuming less fuel and running at a greater level of efficency. If I remember correctly, I belive the MX5 only gained a bit over 100LBS on the Miata, with with the new engine, the added weight means nothing.
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*ahem* Extra engine power won't help a car get around a corner... ;)

Of course, 100lbs isn't a whole lot to pull around a corner when you've got modern suspension and tire technology on your side...but there are plenty of performance-orientated cars that have gained quite a bit more than 100lbs over the years... :indiff:
 
YSSMAN
...Luxury, safety, features all add weight to the cars we drive today. The only reason why performance has not suffered is because the engines are putting out more power while consuming less fuel and running at a greater level of efficency. If I remember correctly, I believe the MX5 only gained a bit over 100LBS on the Miata, with with the new engine, the added weight means nothing.
Click to expand...

If you're after luxury, then a sports car probably isn't what you should be spending your money on. If you want creature comforts and open top motoring - get yourself a 3-series or A4 drop-top.


As far as handling & driver feedback goes:

Original MX-5/Miata/Eunos > 2nd Gen MX-5 > Current 'new' MX-5

A sportscar's raison d'être is great handling and driver involvement - anything else is superfluous.
 
TheCracker
If you're after luxury, then a sports car probably isn't what you should be spending your money on. If you want creature comforts and open top motoring - get yourself a 3-series or A4 drop-top.


As far as handling & driver feedback goes:

Original MX-5/Miata/Eunos > 2nd Gen MX-5 > Current 'new' MX-5

A sportscar's raison d'être is great handling and driver involvement - anything else is superfluous.
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So power is really a meaningless extra?

my point is that If I want a light, fast, excellent handling little car, I'm SOL. Although the Morgan aero 8 sounds nice, I don't think they're avail. in the U.S.
Even if I counted the Elise as fast enough, that's 50K.

What's a guy to do?
 
LeadSlead#2
So power is really a meaningless extra?

my point is that If I want a light, fast, excellent handling little car, I'm SOL. Although the Morgan aero 8 sounds nice, I don't think they're avail. in the U.S.
Even if I counted the Elise as fast enough, that's 50K.

What's a guy to do?
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Powers fine, but if a car has it's handling designed and optimized for x amount of bhp then x+40bhp isn't neccessarly going to be a better car is it?

I suppose if you live in the US cheep, light sportscars are thin on the ground. In Europe, and especially the UK an Elise is much more 'affordable' than it seems to be over the other side of the pond. We also have many more cheep (under £20k) lightweight (under 1000kgs) small volume sportscars to choose from.
 
...The best cheap, light sports cars available in the US that can actually perform decently well can generally be summed up between the Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky, and Mazda MX-5. All three perform similarly, have almost the same interior spacing, have around 170HP on tap, and have several levels of models to choose from.

They sell the Aero 8 in the US, the only problem is that it can retail for as much as $100K by the time it gets to you, and with the Elise, not only is it expensive, but extremely hard to get ahold of as well, as I belive they have sold out the past two years they have been offered.
 
LeadSlead#2
So power is really a meaningless extra?
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By the classic definition of a "sportscar," yes. For example, the Austin-Healey Sprite was a sportscar back in its day. :sly:
 
Wolfe2x7
By the classic definition of a "sportscar," yes. For example, the Austin-Healey Sprite was a sportscar back in its day. :sly:
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but who defined sportscar?

Musclecar is self-explanatory
luxery
family - all self-explanatory

but sportscar....
 
No one -- the true definition of "sportscar" remains questionable to this very day, but to enthusiasts back then, power certainly wasn't a requirement -- handling and driving pleasure were.
 
Wolfe2x7
No one -- the true definition of "sportscar" remains questionable to this very day, but to enthusiasts back then, power certainly wasn't a requirement -- handling and driving pleasure were.
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I think the fact that companies like Mazda, and Lotus to an extent, can still sell as many small, simple and cheep 'sportscars' as they can make proves that there is still a market for cars that have 'handling and driving pleasure' as their principle selling points.

The original MX-5 had only a modest amount of power yet revitalised an almost extinct market segment.
 
...So when will Austin-Healey and Triumph see a return to the market? It seems strange that someone hasent done a small revitalization of the brands, as they are two cornerstones in the sportscar market.
 
Caterham.

You just can't go faster for the money.
 
YSSMAN
...So when will Austin-Healey and Triumph see a return to the market? It seems strange that someone hasent done a small revitalization of the brands, as they are two cornerstones in the sportscar market.
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When BMW get's off their ass and builds one, of course. :sly:
 
IMO, I'd want to see Triumph come back more than anything. The TR-5 and TR-6 are still some of my favorite cars, no matter how "slow" they may have been. But financing a company from the ground up would be so outrageously expensive, and yet so much fun to do. I think the best part would be selecting the various parts to put in the car, as there are so many to choose from.

...Might be a fun idea to entertain here at home, makes me want to go buy a kit car right now...
 
2002 Mazda MX-5 (Miata Roadster) 2005 and below are the best. newer miatas are ok but the drive of the 2001-2005 are best.
 
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Bringing back a thread from 2006, are we?
 

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