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AKADriver · 12-04-2002, 11:06 AM

I don't think it's any coincidence that one of my friends went from a Dodge Dart Swinger V8 to a Neon R/T.  Same car, 30 years apart.  The 'sport compact' and 'musclecar' concepts are remarkably similar...  big engine + little cheap car = fast.  Carroll Shelby understood it, and it took the marketplace a decade to catch up with him.  It bothers me that the popular biographies of Ol' Shel completely skip the Dodge days.  The GLH-S, Daytona Turbo Z, etc. are important missing links between the end of the musclecar and the rise of the sport compact.

The pony car comparison with the 240SX/Silvia is dead on, too.  Again looking back at history, remember that early Celica?  The first gen Celica looked exactly like a slightly shrunken 'stang.  During the mid-'70s Toyota actually built a better Mustang than Ford did.  You want something REALLY scary, compare the specs of a S13 Silvia/180SX and a Fox Body Mustang 5.0.  Exactly the same weight, power, dimensions.  The only thing keeping our cars from being true pony cars is the lack of a V8 option (but hey, in the mid '80s the fastest Mustang had an intercooled turbo four cylinder...)

12-04-2002, 11:06 AM	#16
AKADriver Post Whore! Join Date: May 2002 Location: Springfield, VA Age: 43 Posts: 3,517 Trader Rating: (1)	I don't think it's any coincidence that one of my friends went from a Dodge Dart Swinger V8 to a Neon R/T.  Same car, 30 years apart.  The 'sport compact' and 'musclecar' concepts are remarkably similar...  big engine + little cheap car = fast.  Carroll Shelby understood it, and it took the marketplace a decade to catch up with him.  It bothers me that the popular biographies of Ol' Shel completely skip the Dodge days.  The GLH-S, Daytona Turbo Z, etc. are important missing links between the end of the musclecar and the rise of the sport compact. The pony car comparison with the 240SX/Silvia is dead on, too.  Again looking back at history, remember that early Celica?  The first gen Celica looked exactly like a slightly shrunken 'stang.  During the mid-'70s Toyota actually built a better Mustang than Ford did.  You want something REALLY scary, compare the specs of a S13 Silvia/180SX and a Fox Body Mustang 5.0.  Exactly the same weight, power, dimensions.  The only thing keeping our cars from being true pony cars is the lack of a V8 option (but hey, in the mid '80s the fastest Mustang had an intercooled turbo four cylinder...)