Quote:
Originally Posted by Marrk
Is "bland" the word you're looking for? 
I hate FI. Can't they get 240 hp out of a 2-liter NA engine? Okay, 225 hp?
I could live without the "humpy" fenders, but what I'd like is a better view from the cockpit. Maybe that's just me.  |
I wouldn't go so far as to call the new GR86 images 'bland', but to my old-guy eyes which are used to all the fun, personality-filled sports cars of the 60's, it's less curvaceous and distinctive than the current BRZ/86. Maybe 'toned down' or 'more restrained' ' is about as far as I'd go, but I don't think it's 'bland'. Just not as pretty. And life is too short to not drive a pretty car.
I personally like the 'humpy' front fenders, though I prefer to think of them as voluptuous and alluring. I think it's one of the best design elements that gives the BRZ/86 the most personality. Some of the famous coke-bottle shaped sports cars of the 50's/60's were supposedly inspired by the look of a supine woman's body, lying on her side. While now in today's hyper-woke culture it's not allowed to say such things, there's no denying the timeless beauty of a woman's body, and I certainly don't mind a car's design reminding me of it. I don't find the front fenders interfering with my forward visibility at all. At my height (6'0") I can just see the tops of them, enough to remind me they're there, but in no way blocking any part of my view. Just like in my old Opel GT's, Karmann-Ghia (slow but gorgeous), and (I dare say) probably more subtle and less pronounced than in the Porsche Cayman, and I can't recall people complaining about the forward view out of that car.
I'm completely with you on preferring N/A engines over turbo (again, probably because my automotive formative years were forged in the cars of the 1960's). To me there's nothing like the immediacy and linear responsiveness of a good naturally aspirated engine. N/A engines just have more personality than turbo motors. To me, most turbo motors are more or less the same. Nothing happening down low before the turbo kicks in, then a slingshot catapult explosion around 2500 rpm, and then it's all over by 5000 rpm. My WRX has a turbo and yes, it has much more 'power' than the BRZ, but I still feel most fondly about some of the legendary N/A engines.... Honda S2000... Coyote V8.... small-block GM V8.... any 50's/60's N/A Alfa.... Companies use turbos instead of N/A engineering because, as was said, it's a cheaper way to get power, as well as cheating on fuel mileage tests.
I'd still gladly take a GR86
IF it came with a turbo motor. But since that's almost certainly not going to happen, I'll be happily keeping my current car, sensuous front fenders and all.