For these of you scoring alongside at dwelling, you could have learn my column within the earlier difficulty the place I extolled the virtues of sports activities and sporty automobiles from the late Nineteen Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties. It was an period that gave us timeless icons just like the Miata and never-to-be-seen once more gems just like the CRX and MR2. Ahh, these had been the days.
However earlier than we begin giving one another excessive fives in a blissed-out, nostalgia-fueled haze, let’s come again all the way down to actuality a bit of bit. Sure, the automobiles of my late youth and early maturity had been cool, and memorable, however they’re additionally 30 years outdated. All the things, every part appears higher when considered by means of the delicate lens of nostalgia, and these automobiles aren’t any totally different.
Sure, my 1991 Toyota MR2 Turbo is fast, and with some work it may be a really excellent-handling automotive, however a brand new, bone-stock Mazda Miata will just about destroy it.
Outdated automobiles are cool, and in some circumstances we’ll by no means see something like them once more, however don’t let that distract us from the truth that automobiles in the present day are nearly universally superb. In truth, they’re so universally superb that we’ve change into uninterested in issues that will have blown our minds within the not-too-distant previous.
Think about, for a second, time-traveling again to your highschool parking zone in 1986 with a 300-horsepower 2020 Toyota Camry and busting off a number of 5-and-a-half-second zero-to-60 passes to the delight of the huddled lots. These two nerds who knew concerning the AMG Hammer would construct a statue of you on the spot.
This realization was pushed dwelling for me earlier this night as I used to be loading this week’s check automotive–a brand new Hyundai Veloster N–onto our trailer for transport to the Florida Worldwide Rally & Motorsports Park for observe testing tomorrow. My pre-track inspection was the identical because it all the time is with our press loaners: Test the tires, examine the oil, examine the brake fluid.
In reality, press automobiles solely journey to the observe by trailer out of courtesy to the producers—and since we normally have numerous video and check gear to haul over as effectively, so it’s simply simpler to maintain that stuff within the truck. However these automobiles that present up from our media fleet service are principally track-ready. Heck, we even took a Prius to The FIRM lately, and it wasn’t the slowest automotive there.
Positive, some people will say that “automobiles in the present day don’t have any soul.” However have you ever pushed a Veloster N? Have you ever pushed a Civic Type R? Have you ever pushed an 86, or BRZ, or M4, or Camaro 1LE, or MX-5, or GTI, or, or, or…?
“Vehicles are getting heavier,” others will gripe. “Absolutely you have to admit that is unhealthy for causes too quite a few to element on this temporary grievance.”
Okay, yeah, perhaps they’re. However on the identical time, they’re getting safer and quicker round race tracks. I’d additionally level out that the Camaro misplaced a pair hundred kilos from the fifth technology to the sixth, so the creep of mass is clearly not inevitable as automobiles incorporate lighter supplies and extra high-tech building.
High quality can be enhancing throughout the board. Newer automobiles are staying on the highway longer and with much less upkeep than ever. Heck, I wager you’ve even owned a automotive or two that you just purchased new within the final decade that was nonetheless working the identical spark plugs once you bought it. Are you able to say the identical about your E30?
Look, I’m positive I’ll get the inevitable terse e-mail about this column, so that is the place I say that I’m not going to be parting with my MR2 or regretting promoting my ’90 CRX any time quickly. However I’d even be remiss if I didn’t level out what a golden age of efficiency we’re dwelling in. To single-mindedly pine for the “good outdated days” is to disregard that the 650-horsepower Camaro ZL1 is the least highly effective of the present crop of top-model pony automobiles within the U.S. That’s psychological.
I additionally notice that lots of in the present day’s top-line and even middle-of-the-road sporty automobiles are priced at a premium many people can’t moderately afford. A Civic Kind R at north of $40K is numerous scratch, I’ll admit. However in the present day’s new automobiles gained’t be new perpetually, and automobiles are lasting longer and longer with each technology. Thirty years from now, nostalgia for in the present day goes to be sweeter than ever.
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