[Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the December 2014 issue of Grassroots Motorsports.]
When Grassroots Motorsports came on the scene more than 30 years ago–back when it was called Auto-X magazine–the sports car world was facing sorry times. Famed brands like MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey had long left our shores, while Alfa Romeo’s Spider was still …
1. Road Course Skills
We know the Miata ushered in today’s golden age of sports cars. But what exactly is a sports car?
That simple question is a surefire way to start a lively discussion among enthusiasts. Passions will flair, expletives will be traded, and friendships may be taxed as opinions come to bear on this touchy issue.
The term itself implies that these cars will participate in some sort of sport. Since sports generally include a competitive element, a sports car could be defined as a vehicle suitable for some type of competition.
No arguments so far.
At this point, muscle car owners are feeling like part of the club. Drag racing is competition, right? Not so fast.
Here’s our first stumbling block: Subjectively, competition as it relates to sports cars should include left- and right-hand turns, with a few straights thrown in to let the brakes cool down.
Europeans invented the term in the context of Grand Prix racing on grand circuits–road racing, in other words. Sports cars were automobiles that could compete against one another, at some level, on road courses similar to those used by the ultimate racing cars of the day all over post-WWI Europe.
An enthusiast market was born, and cars began to emerge that were lighter, faster, sometimes quite basic, and available to the everyman. Then, after WWII ended, American soldiers returning from the war brought with them an appreciation for the sports cars they’d seen in Europe. The bug soon caught on in America.
All of this was before some Detroit ad men had a three-martini lunch and claimed the original Thunderbird as a “sports car.” Dilution of the concept began on our shores, let it be said.
So, a sports car began as a type of car somehow suitable for road racing–with or without modification–in stock form. This definition works well for the 1949 MG TC which, compared to the heavy sedans of the day, was a relatively athletic vehicle that out-cornered almost everything else on the road. It…
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