Quote:
Originally Posted by DAEMANO
The idea behind minimally modified to be competitive in motorsports suggests that a purpose designed chassis requires fewer changes to actually work well in a competition. Your Coronet as lovely and fast as it is in RT form was not specifically designed with motorsports in mind whatsoever. Same goes with he WRX. True, initially roadsters fit these design goals best since why does a race car need a roof? Answer is that races occasionally take place in the rain (and also drivers like all over protection in a crash.) The definition of Sportcar grew to include coupes and reflect this reality.
I get that this definition doesn't fit everyone's concept. It is imperfect, and I as much stated that (as well as a few other points you still felt the need to attempt to argue for some reason.) Undoubtedly trying to define anything subjective will have holes. The idea is to be as true as possible to the concept. Motorsports car. Sportscar. That is the root of the term. The definition I prefer was conceived by a man who had a deep understanding motorsports, the automobile industry, car culture and language who was in the biz longer than most of us have lived. Not just "some guy who wrote a book." That kind of minimization attempt suggests you got kinda mad or something. Look man, you were disagree with on the internet. Your tone is your prerogative. But come on.
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OK I dug a little deeper.
The book was written in 1963. At that point in time I would say his vision of sports cars aligned pretty much with what mine is. Yes some would have been fixed roof but overall he was talking small, light, two seaters not "any" car as the definition states.
It was not until a couple of years after the book was released that things got turned upside down for that definition. The late 60 produced several new classifications of cars that would technically meet his definition but would not be accepted as sports cars. The Mustang, Camaro, and Dart gave use the "Pony" car class. The large coups such as the R/T, Impala SS and Galaxy 428s became factory produced race cars and introduced the "Muscle" car category. Cars such as the Celica, 240Z, and even the much maligned Corvair brought the GT cars into a class in their own right.
By the 1963 definition any of these cars could have been called a "sports" car as they were all production vehicles but I doubt these were what he had in mind when he termed the definition.
This all reflects my frequent comment that the definition has changed many times over the years and there is no "right" answer.