[perryair]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

Nope. Fast between stop lights does not make a sports car. A Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT does 0-60 in 4.9 seconds, but that doesn't make it a sports car. Slapping parts on a commuter to make it fast or improve handling does not make it a sports car.

A sports car is purpose designed from the ground up for handling performance and driving experience. That means if it's a sports car, there is no "economy" version that it's based on. There was no commuter version of the MGB or Trimph Spitfire. There was no commuter version of the S2000 or Miata. These were designed as sports cars from the very first drawings.

There's a market for fast cars based on commuters and economy cars, and some of them are pretty good automobiles. But that doesn't make them sports cars. An STI is an Impreza, which is a family car, not a sports car. An Evo is a Lancer, which is a commuter, not a sports car. I can build out an old Chevy S10 to rival any of them in handling, but doing so wouldn't make it a sports car.

Is there an economy commuter version of the BRZ? Nope. It was designed from the ground up to be a sports car.

Is there an economy commuter version of the Focus? You bet. Therefore, not a sports car.

They're not even remotely in the same class.

I get what you're saying and yes in the classical definition of it, are. but given that we have the twins, Miata, a few Porsches and some exotic supercars and.. what more exactly?

having an elitist take on it might enhance street cred but in the real world, most people that buy the brz would consider plenty of cars that are sporting, including plenty of hot hatches and other non traditional sports cars. hell, I'd rather own a manual foST than an automatic brz but different strokes for different folks.