What
Cars are Considered Sports Cars?
by SolveYourProblem.com
Ask
anyone what a sports car is and they will probably invent an
answer. Ask a dozen different people the same question and
they will probably provide a dozen different answers. There
are a variety of ways to define what constitutes an actual
sports car. With no standardized definition available within
the industry, the term “sports car” is without certain meaning.
Originally, it was easy to differentiate between a sports
car and a regular production automobile. If a regular person
could buy it, it wasn’t a sports car. Sports cars were toys
for the extremely rich and automobile-obsessed. They are also
used primarily in situations that represented a radical departure
from conventional driving. Road races, rallies and other competitions
were the home of the sports car as manufacturers and designers
went head to head, testing their newest technological advances
and inventive ideas.
These sports cars were almost always designed for a single
driver and no additional passengers. Occasionally a “co-pilots”
seat might have been added. The notion of a backseat made little
sense considering the purposes for which the cars were being
used. They tended to be extremely small and exceptionally faster
than most regularly produced cars.
This historical moment gave birth to a notion of the sports
car that survives today among many automotive enthusiasts.
These traditionalists will consider a car a sports car only
if it is a two-seater and designed for racing.
This perspective was antiquated somewhat by the post-war experience
in the United States and elsewhere. Cars based upon the test
car technologies began to make their way into the garages of
the public. With a more mainstream audience, some changes were
made to the traditional sports car, including the frequent
addition of a small back seat.
As time passed, sports cars slowly grew and the technologies
pioneered by sports cars found their way into vehicles, which
were not undersized or built for racing.
In the 1960s, John Delorean decided to drop a large V8 into
a Pontiac Tempest. His new invention, the GTO, ushered in the
muscle car era. Purists might argue the American muscle cars
were not sports cars, but simply cars making use of sports
car refinements. The distinction however, began to become lost
in regular conversation and “sports car” began to refer to
any fast or high-performance vehicle.
The line becomes increasingly blurred with every year. Traditional
sports cars are becoming increasingly rare as automakers recognize
a need to maintain some level of functionality if they are
to entice buyers. The innovations spurred by traditional sports
cars are being adopted into vehicles of every size and shape.
While traditional racing style sports cars are maintained in
many product lines and though some boutique manufacturers still
focus their efforts on small high-speed cars, it is impossible
to ignore the “crossover” appeal of many traditional sports
car features.
Some may say there are sports cars, sporty cars and sporting
cars and that they are all different things. To the average
person, however, they blend into one.
Which
cars are sports cars? Today, it’s hard to tell. You
can be a hardliner and say only the racing-based two-seaters
qualify, or you can be liberal in your interpretation and proclaim
all high-performance vehicles sports cars. Either way, you’d
probably be right.
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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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