Look, the reality of things is that just like politics or anything else, the hardcore folks from too far to one side or another cause all of the polarity and all of the problems.
Are there lots of very good American performance cars? for sure.
Are there lots of very good foreign performance cars? for sure.
There are more or less two ways of getting performance, and neither is right or wrong, there are tradeoffs, and what is right for the user. There are also classes within 'performance' vehicles, which can be split by engine size, power output or whatever you want.
Anyone that wants to put a riced out civic or acura or similar up against a MT late model Z28 is an idiot... just plain stupid...
But then again, when someone has their nascar 'inspired' dual exhaust monte carlo, and tries to face off against a real souped up, turbocharged asian car, guess who is stupid then?
Sure, a lot of power can be made from tiny little honda engines... great. Id have to say that it is almost genius that so much power can be squeezed out of something designed for 100 hp... as opposed to a big v8 or similar. At the same time, lets face the realities of it. That big v8 car can be used in any situation, driven easily, driven hard, and do well all the time. That little 100 hp souped up engine is going to be a pain to drive in most normal situations... I think we can all guess which of the two vehicles is more suited for a track car, and which is more suited for both uses. My brother has a relatively fast, powerful 320 hp mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4. Its pretty hiogh performance, it is fast, and it does everything well... but it does have 3L in order to make some real usable power when not driving it to make 14psi and excessive power in day to day driving (=poor mpg).
Personal preference is a big deal... And as much as I hate the rice rocket look, with the vtec, type r and similar vinyls that ricers cut from sheet in their garage with a razor and stick on, its their choice. Anyone that is stupid enough to believe that they have something special is just plain an idiot, and anyone that would have anything to do with setting something like this up (unless there IS the dyno and track results to prove it) is also an idiot.
Of course there are the V8 rednecks and similar who have to rev their engines at every red light and peel out every chance they can... but even when down south, I see a lot less of them, and more and more ricers all the time.
The ricers really bring this upon themselves, because of the impression they give in their vehicle look, their driving skill, their safety in driving on a normal highway or in traffic, the realities of their cars' inherent inability to perform as they claim, etc.
I believe we call them posers... those who claim theyre special, have a souped up car, talk big, act big, but when push comes to shove cant back it. It doesnt matter if you have a civic with stickers, an auto trans porsche (I know a guy who became a laughing stock because he bought an AT prosche), etc. If you have a 650 hp rice rocket that will hold together for more than 5000 miles, good for you... your style might not be to my taste, but you did omething right... alas, most are just posers, NOT having anything fast or powerful.
Not that just because you have an American V8 'performance car', youre immediately driving under 6 seconds 0-60, fast quarter miles, good handling, etc. Most people with older Mustang GTs and whatnot dont really have very fast cars... some drive like they do, but in the big scheme of things, while faster than their mother's sedan by quite a bit, theyre not exactly in the highest ranks of speed and ability either. At least most of them dont show off in an entirely obnoxious way.
AMaybe a good thing to do is look at how the europeans are doing things. In reality, there is a lot of real engineering knowhow, and the europeans do know how to make high performance cars really well. well, whats the trend? AWD, RWD... like the US performance cars, and bigger engines, like the US performance cars. Their daily drivers are dinky engine entities, aliong the lines of the hondas and whatnot, but when they want performance, they add a few high tech tricks to what has been the american mainstay setup... RWD and a big engine.
In the end, if you cant back up your claims, youre an idiot... period. There are a LOT more ricer idiots than there are v8 engine idiots. At least in my part of the world, which is where a huge portion of the population is anyway. Idiots are idiots, and by any other name are still the same... doesnt matter what car type they drive. Avoid them at all costs, they will do nothing but make you angry and compromise your safety.
JMH
