The answer is that as things look right now, the future of accessible automotive performance in America is likely to mirror what the current state of accessible automotive performance is in Europe - hot hatches.
You heard it here first; I, Tsume, cede that if you want to get your performance kicks in the future it's very likely to be manning the tiller of a revvy little overhead cam hatchback.
I think it's crap. This is why.
Look at anyone who's trying to sell pocket-rocket type cars today; the words they use are ideas like "nimble" and "eager" and "effervescent". Basically, a hot hatch lives for a place like this:
See that? You don't need a 400 hp V8 to really enjoy that road at all, do you. A Chrysler 300 SRT-8 would look like a bison in wellies compared to the lithe ballerina a WRX or a Focus RS presents carving down that ribbon of asphalt.
Now, check this out:
This is where I live. In fact, between the Rockies and the Appalachian mountains, this is how almost all the roads look. This is the sort of place where a guy's got to drive for an hour at 80 mph to get to the nearest building more than three stories tall. All of a sudden those cheerful advertising words like take on a different meaning - what was nimble, eager and effervescent on the European-style b-roads is darty, fussy and droning when exposed to the long-haul freeways of middle America.
What you want here is a big, loafy V8, muttering along quietly at cruise and then kicking down with explosive torque to pass the poor sod who's trying to scoop his fillings off the floor of his Fiesta because Top Gear told him it was a good car.
So what's the point?
There's different things for different habitats - people who live in flyover country and want a performance car shouldn't have to just accept that they'll be forced into buying something that makes no sense for driving where they live. Just as American cars make no sense in Europe, out here European cars are about as sensible as a pet squid.
We need our big, cheap V8 touring cars. They're what makes sense out here.
As much as you or I dislike the idea, American cars are in fact going to start becoming more European, to fall in line with our increasingly European gas prices. Like it or not, the days of $1/gallon, $2/gallon or even $3/gallon gas are over forever. It's supposed to hit $5/gallon average this summer, and has been well over $4/gallon in some parts of the country for some time now.
ReplyDeleteThe simple fact is people are not going to want to put $80 worth of gas a week into their car, and even though the big V8s have gotten less thirsty over the years, it makes a big difference when that $80 tank can stretch to two weeks instead of just one. Not only that but the ever-ratcheting CAFE standards are forcing automakers to build cars with smaller engines that get better mileage. How many rear wheel drive American sedans are left? Three--the Dodge Charger, Chrysler 300 and Cadillac CTS. That's it.(The Chevy Caprice PPV does not count since it technically is not available to the general public) While the Didge and Chrysler are relatively inexpensive, the Caddy is going to run you 40 grand if you want any options on it at all. And if these fuel economy standards keep going up, I wouldn't expect them to stick around long.
Even the RWD coupes we have coming are looking to downsize. Both the Camaro and Mustang are looking to shrink in their next platform redesigns, and four and six cylinder powerplants will be offered. They'll likely still have V8s, but only in the top trim level, and likely at a price out of reach of the average consumer.
I don't see any of this changing, unless the price of oil miraculously drops to $40/bbl tomorrow.
I agree with this, even if driving fuel-hungry cars will be affordable as a hobby, the apparent constant rise in fuel prices and stagnant economies will dictate what people will use as their daily drives instead of what they would like best. :-/ And having driven compact cars on long trips, I can attest to the fact that they can be pretty annoying due to being noisy and not really meant for highway speeds.
ReplyDeleteBut to be Devil's advocate, you don't *need* that V8 or even V6/straight-6 for long-distance driving along straight roads, you can simply drop a small engine in there and it will do a tolerable job. Of course there is always a "sweet spot" after which making the engine thriftier will offset the better fuel economy due to it being pushed harder, but it's not like you can't do it.
Even Mercedes is already offering <3L turbocharged diesel engines for their large high-end cars like the S-Class, to make them more economic and to polish their image. So if you don't want physically smaller and less lofty cars, that's likely the route there, assuming we don't figure out to suddenly make fuel less expensive in some manner.
Well, that's not the only route to go, lads.
ReplyDeleteThink about it this way:
The Pontiac G8 (or Holden Commodore) was available in the US with a 370hp 6L V8 and a manual transmission - it got 30 MPG (freeway)
The Impala SS was available through 2009 with a 5.3L, 300 HP V8 - it got 30 MPG (freeway)
The Corvette with the LS3 and a 6 speed manual will knock down 30 mpg (freeway)
Imagine what they could do with, say, the 4.8L V8 out of the 1500 series trucks re-kitted for direct injection.
The problem isn't fuel economy at all, though, it's all political rubbish. People are still buying full-sized trucks for daily drivers, $5 a gallon gas be damned. The real problem is that the domestics won't sell a cheap V8 sedan because they're afraid of what it'd do to them politically, with all the ecomentalists.
I kinda agree with both sides of the issue. On the one hand, there needs to be a big, affordable v-8 car available for the American market. Most of the roads the average American will drive on are ruler straight. That being said, I happen to have one of the best mountain roads practically in the back yard. I'm a hot hatch enthusiast, but the market needs V-8 Tourers to be the Yin to the hot hatch Yang.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a compromise is in order. Think you could slot an LS1 into a Mazda3?
Sorry, Tsume, I don't readily believe that you can get 30 MPG out of any of those three on a consistent basis - because all quoted figures I can find, call for roughly 25 MPG highway and because I know my own BMW M5 (6-speed manual) doesn't get any better than 25 MPG (or 9.5l/100km) on a straight highway no matter what. :-/ For example EPA quotes 26 MPG for the Corvette (with manual) and roughly 24 MPG for the Impala SS, it seems.
ReplyDeleteAnd 25MPG highway doesn't cut it, paradoxically in the US you have more reason to shoot for 40-60 MPG due to the distances, and that seems to be a hard goal for a V8 (not so much for a V6 car, the 2010 Impala SS with 3.6L V6 supposedly gets 30 MPG on highway).
But yeah, people can and will buy what they want, IMO what happens is that they will likely simply drive less or pour more of their disposable cash to fuel, both of which do rob the said money it from other pursuits. Bit like what happened during the housing boom when you could have people in a large house with no money for furniture or electricity because of the mortgage.
Sabre;
DeleteThe EPA (which is about as apolitical as moveon.org or mediamatters) went back and re-rated those cars lower than they actually do, and a bunch of hybrids higher than they actually do. There was a big to-do about that with the Civic Hybrid, which in reality never gets more than 42ish mpg, way lower than the EPA rating. It's part of a social engineering thing - Can't have V8s doing better than 4 pots on gas mileage, because they do make more carbon regardless.
Anecdotally, there's a lot of Corvette and Camaro 6 speed guys who have data with their cars doing 30+ on the freeway. A lot of this is due to the T-56 and following TR-6060 6 speed's .50:1 overdrive and the LS engine's ability to loaf happily at 1200 RPM @ 70.