Well, if you keep it cheap, you have to worry about every idiot with some money buying the car, upgrading it, blowing it up, and trying to claim it under warranty.

This is happening with the WRX. A lot of people are modding it and destroying the tranny. After they remove everything, they try to get it replaced under warranty. This costs A LOT of money. Now you know why a lot of the factory turbo cars slowly disappeared.

 

Remember the Toyota 2000Gt? I think it is a 1967 and rare! Pretty cool looking car though!

 

I see, what about a blower? Would that be any better?

 

Our own country turned against us. How many people remember the
the Ford Escort cosworth all wheel drive? never made it
here. With a few mods it was well over 400hp.

 

The Ford Probe was a joke, glad they killed it.

 

Hell everybody turned against us....none of the WRC production cars evermade it to America.....Lancer Evo GSR-6, Corrola WRC, Subie WRC STi Type R RZ, and of course Ford Escort Cosworth MKV.....Oh why will I never understand.

 

Most would have to be modified heavily to be legal to sell in the US, plus the certification costs - a lot to spend for a limited market. We luck out with the WRX and Evo because they are close enough to our already certified versions.

 

Huh? what do you mean. They could sell them as performance versions of thier base models, like escort then escort "xtreme" or some crap like that. and with toyota just sell them as TRD Corrolas heck they are still more practical that a MR2 and just as fast. Are automotive "Brains" are stupid as anything. They don't seem to understand how to make them sell. One way maybe sponser WRC events in the United states and heavly advertise them, if they can sell people to NASCAR I'm sure the general public would latch on maybe Generation Z or what ever will get a clue, the lucky blokes in Europe will be driving Ford Focus Cosworth tuned vehicles soon what do we get focus "SVT" yeah...

 

What I mean is that many of the offshore performance models, while called Escort or Corolla or whatever, actually have no parts in common with what we get with the same name as well as no crash bumpers and structure, completely different engines, gas tank location, etc. etc. Making a unique vehicle legal to sell here, sponsoring events and advertising cost big bucks - for a limited market. The bean counters won't accept that when they can sell "tuned" versions of our existing cars at decent profit margins. Note, the WRX is a vehicle already sold here with only trim and a turbo- not too much change. On the other hand, unique performance versions have tended to flop - Cosworth Vega, Corolla GTS, 323 GTX, for example.

 

I don't know why; I loved the Corrola GTS(AE86)

 

I agree - I'd love to find a decent one, or a decent 323 GTX, but I couldn't afford either at the time!

 

I concur.

But sports cars arent't dead. They can't just sell the same cars forever. Besides, look at all the new/returning ones:

GTO
Supra (2004?)
Skyline GT-R (R35)
Sentra SE-R
Civic Si
RX-8 (debatable as to sports-ness)
Camaro (returns in 2004)
350Z
WRX (and STi)
Evo VII
GT40
RSX
etc, etc.

Not to mention Vettes and Mustangs, which will never die.

 

whoa! skylines are availible now. the civic will never be
a sports car, EVER! A 8000 rpm limit does not make a sports car.
The RX8 is a four door sports car. and the camaro will not make a
return a year after it's demise. the pick up truck is the "thing"
for chevrolet now.

 

that's three words

I wonder who will be able to afford the GT40, and if you were going to spend that much money would you really want it to be on a Ford? I thought the Camaro/Firebird would never die, but look what happened. Of course the GTO is coming in for Pontiac to soften the blow of losing the Firebird. But what about Chevy, they aren't gonna turn around and just bring back the Camaro soon (maybe years down the road), but they need to come up with something because Ford just gained most of the American muscle market. The Sentra SE-R seems to basically be the Spec V now. And finally, I agree that the Civic will never be a "sports car". The Si may be quick, but it's still a Civic which was designed as a simple car for the average commuter.

 

I hope to god Camaros never come back. My last car was a 92 Camaro and cost me $10,000 in maintenance costs in 6 years.

(3 engines, 2 distributors, 6 starters, Heater Core, drive axle, frame litterally snapped off the lower control arm while driving, etc, etc, etc..)

 

Doubtful. All you'd have to do would be to change pulley(s) to get 50% or more boost than whatever the OE level might be.

Norm

 

Chevys replacement for the camaro will be the ssr pickup.

 

The death of all the early-mid 90s sports cars in the USDM is due to rising prices and falling demand. The death of all the Japanese sports cars IN Japan is now due to the new emission laws. None of the turbo motors are in compliance to the new laws, and would need to be ditched for emission friendly counterparts, largely the reason most new sport cars coming out from Japan are destined for high output 6 cylinder or higher displacing V8 NA motors. As for Nissan, they have their own financial problem and thats the main reason for using the same platform and engine for so many cars.

As a plus though, because of Japan's new strict emission requirements, emissions won't be one of the reasons for not bringing a specific car to the USDM. Which is one of the reasons for giving us a KA powered 240sx instead of an SR20 powered Silvia. The next Supra will probably be a high output 6 or a larger displacing 8, next RX7 if Mazda chooses to stick with rotary, quite possibly an NA 3 rotor. Even the aftermarket companies are complying to emission regulations, they are beginning to design blowers instead of turbos, because of the large amount of pollutants turbo engines put out when cold.

 

Whats with all the civic bashing, a Civic Type R holds its own against an Integra Type R quite well, on both the drag strip and circuit. Many of us on here praise the Integra Type R for what it is, and the Civic Type R is marginally slower in a straight line, and handles just a little bit worse. Is there some imaginary threshold between the Civic Type R and Integra Type R that differentiates sports car from a non sports car? In some GT racing, FWD Integras and Civics run with RWD BMWs and keep up with them and occasionally lose or beat them. Maybe I'm just not understanding your definition of 'Sports Car.' And I'm not trying to flame, I don't personally own a civic, but I do know a little bit about what the smaller displacing Hondas are capable of.

 

It's not the performance per se that defines a sports car, nor is it entirely the cornering capability, nor is it the origin of the component parts. It's a harder-to-define element of the car's character. Perhaps it's where "minimalist fun" is the dominant criteria and where convenience and luxury features are unnecessary. Point being that the discontinued cars had either lost this definition of sports car character long before they were discontinued or never really had it.

Traditionally, the term "sports car" was limited to small roadsters - early Porsche 911's, Corvettes, and even the 1st gen 240Z were strictly GT cars. Mustangs and the F-bodies were at best "sporty cars". All of these were considered too big or too luxurious or too "closed-in". Take a ride in a Lotus 7 (either an original or a replica) and you'll begin to understand.

Norm

 

TransAm
Z28

As well.

 

I swear I heard the Camero is coming back in 2004 (not that I care).

And the GT-R will most likely be available here, since we already have the Skyline, all the grunt work of switching to left hand drive is done. Plus Nissan has sworn in the past that the GT-R will see western shores (not to mention the left hand drive GT-R prototype).

As for American Rally - Subaru, Mitsubishi and Hyundai already promote in SCCA.

Because that type of marketing has been proven to work in the US. GM=Chevy=Pontiac=Geo=Buick=Cadillac=GMC=Hummer=Old smobile=Saab=Saturn, Ford=Mercury=Lincoln(=Jag=Volvo=Mazda=Aston=LandRo ver), Dodge=Chrysler=Jeep. And that's not even a complete list, just off the top of my head.

 

Those aren't even the same and can't be compared to Maxima06071's samples. Those in your list actually have different model cars (95%) sold under different brands.

However, in the case of Honda/Acura, Nissan/Infiniti, Toyota/Lexus most cars sold under the luxury brand was originally sold under the "non-premium" brand.

 

that's the reason, u on the money Magellan!
also it had to do with american law/economic issue, i heard those cars would bring the sales of corvettes and camaroes down, so the japanesse manifacturers were faced with strickter laws therefore they couldnt import them no more.
most of those cars you mentioned are still being made in japan(rx-7 had 95,96 and i think until present models)