I think the BMW M3 GTR from NFS: Most Wanted (the first one) is probably the one that holds the most nostalgia for me as far as ‘hero’ cars go

It’s all the exact same arguments against banning specific firearms. Criminals were already criminals and don’t care, the objects being banned aren’t the ones being used in the crimes, the government doesn’t understand the capabilities of what they are banning, etc etc.

The premise was to use an MX-5 cup car. They already have:

The vast majority of all-seasons are M+S rated, it’s a trivial rating to get for a typical ‘true all-season’ pattern. The laws in Quebec, BC, etc basically only disallow full summer tires. (And really ought to be updated to requiring 3PMSF).

The 3-peak mountain snowflake rating (3PMSF) is a substantially better…

A ‘74 Spitfire also uses your knees as crumple zones. It’s a massive feat of engineering that they were able to make a car so small and light with current safety standards. The original Mini also had incredible room inside for its size because it had zero safety whatsoever, that’s not a car that is possible to make…

Becomes more prophetic every day...

No ability to lock the diffs + extremely rigid air suspension when raised to full height means no traction. Shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone except Tesla’s marketing department.

I had an old CM450E with that gauge! Always thought that was a genius move, no real need for a tach

In terms of practicality, honestly probably the mid 2000s VAG clusters. For me specifically the B7 RS4. Perfect combination of nice clear analog gauges for the important things, and a digital screen in the middle for everything else.

Sure, except:
- It doesn’t actually have SH-AWD in the rear differential like any of the other cars, it’s only the front electric motors that do torque vectoring
- It’s a bit of a stretch to call a $150,000+ vehicle a ‘sports car’

I’ve always found the way Honda/Acura presents SH-AWD to be a weird business proposition. They’ve got an AWD system with a very cool rear differential capable of doing proper torque vectoring like an old Evo or a Focus RS....and they put it in crossovers and sedans where nobody will really appreciate it and they…

It literally burns oil as part of normal operation. oil needs to be injected into the combustion chamber to lubricate the apex seals.

While I agree with you that Subaru should do that, what you described is a GR Corolla competitor rather than GR Yaris, unless they manage to cut several hundred pounds out of the WRX and shorten it into a 2 door.

Well that’s exactly what I needed. Even more reasons to be sad we don’t get it in Canada. Thanks Toyota.

And no, the Corolla is not an acceptable substitute. It’s cool enough, but 2 extra doors and 500 extra pounds do not an equivalent car make.

Supra is probably the correct choice here, unless you want to occasionally cram extra humans in the car. Then it’s probably a used 911 of some form, or a pony car.

I’m really loving the trend in recent years of enthusiast cars having strong demand for manual transmissions. I think the people who buy fast cars for bragging rights etc have mostly moved onto electric vehicles, so the people still buying M2s are proportionally more enthusiasts who care about the experience.

You can’t compare the Evo to the WRX. You have to compare it to the STi only. Looking at it that way, 195 vs 118 on Autotrader is pretty comparable.

Mitsubishi never really made a proper lower tech, upgradeable and tunable car at the WRX price point (arguably the ralliart in the X generation was, but too little too…

I’m sure they could make a higher power FA, yeah. I think that’s less an emissions question and more a ‘the accountants don’t think it’s worth it for the number of STIs they would sell’ question.

The STI still had the old EJ series - it’ll be substantially worse in terms of emissions than the new wrx motor given that it was around 30+ years ago.

Could they make a higher power version of the new FA engines and make a new STI? Maybe. But they don’t want to.

It’s absolutely not an STI with a WRX motor. The whole heart of the STI was the advanced drivetrain - unless they’ve snuck the DCCD back into this car without us noticing it’s still just a fancy WRX.