The Cheap Sports Car

With the arrival of the Toyota, Subaru, Scion, GT86, BRZ, FR-S triplets, there has been, great hype and fanfare, a new era of the "cheap sports car" had come. Entry level sports cars, that were financially attainable by everyone. As a long time enthusiast this was a very strange notion to me, because it never really occurred to me that they ever went away. Mazda has had it's MX-5 for years, only until recently had Honda discontinued it's Type R line in 2010 with the fearsome Civic Type R, while they still soldier on with the Si badge in America. And hot hatches seem as popular as ever in their home continent of Europe.

The new sports car messiah... apparently... 

How then, did the neo 86 turn out to be such a big deal? Supposedly, the key was that it was rear-wheel drive, bringing the sort of purity of concept that died with axing of the Nissan Silvia (or 200SX as it was known to markets outside of it's native Japan). Front wheel drive cars understeer and are boring. Rear wheel drive cars are tail happy and exciting. If you are the sort that believes these notions whole heartedly, you should find your way into the driver seat of any well-sorted hot hatch that has existed through the years. Even something as old as the Peugeot 205GTi has had the infamy of being able to spit ham-fisted drivers through hedges, pointing in the direction it isn't going, just like any well (or indeed, poorly) engineered rear wheel drive coupe. The hot hatch you see, has always been targeted at the enthusiast that just doesn't have the finances to splurge on something too extravagant. It is probably the simplest of sports car adages. Take one small car, and add an otherwise oversized engine. This is after all the driving idea behind such monsters as the AC Cobra and Dodge Viper. As an automotive category they have never gone away.

 A rare shot of a 205GTi pointing in the right direction 

But if you subscribe to the idea that front wheel drive cars just don't count, there has been another cheap rear wheel drive sports coupe that has been available right under our noses, OK, it was only available in America, and it came from the most unlikely of places. A marque whose original chairman has been quoted as saying, "I may not know how to build cars well, but I know how to build them quickly".  Hyundai did itself a great disservice by not engineering it's Genesis sports coupe for right hand drive markets. From all accounts, it was simple and honest fun, even if it was always singled out for lacking in polish, but what can you expect from a marque with so little sports car experience under it's belt? The 2 litre turbo was both torquey and adequately powerful for it's day, especially for a car of it's understated proportions, and it's chassis had more thought put into it than the average four wheeled conveyance. American automotive magazines even saw fit to pit the V6 version against Camaros, Mustangs (in V6 guise, obviously) and arguably more upmarket 370Z. Granted it did not conquer all those tests, but it deserves praise for even being considered to do battle with those legendary names. It deserved to be popular for the money they asked.

From the people that brought you the... Excel... hmm...

So why then did the neo 86 create such a big fuss? Because people expected it to be good. A giant of the Japanese automotive industry was throwing it's weight into the ring again, and engineering a sports car for the masses, how could it fail? I'd love this to be the part of the post where I told you the GT86 turned out to be horrible, but it didn't. It was very well received by automotive journalists, but it, like many other cars didn't escape without it's criticisms. The tyres were too skinny for going in any direction but sideways, the engine was notable for the fact that it could recreate the feel of turbo lag without actually having a turbo, and the fact that it was cheap, meant that all the money spent on engineering a communicative sporting chassis, came from the budget that would have been meant for interior quality, needless to say, inside the GT86, utilitarian hard plastics abound. Something had to give. 

But really, all the excitement boiled down to bragging rights. It is no great secret that the automotive enthusiast is a competitive breed. And naturally, some believe rear wheel drive cars are better, because the vast majority of high power front wheel drive cars all degrade into understeer when pushed hard, or rampant torque steer when overpowered. But really, this is an antiquated notion, a notion that's days were numbered in the early 2000's with the literally misguided Alfa Romeo 147GTA with it's massive (at the time) 250hp or the similarly powered 230hp Saab 9-3 Viggen who would straighten a corner if you so much as looked at the accelerator pedal. Fast forward 10 years, and with the benefit of Revoknuckle, Hiperstrut et. al. 250hp is considered par for course in the hot hatch world, with anything less struggling to keep up with the competition, Renault Megane Sport, 265hp, Vauxhall Astra VXR, 276hp, and only the current Ford Focus ST lagging at 252hp, the new ceiling having been found by Ford with their last Focus RS 500, it had 350hp...

I can do sideways, me

But bringing us back down to earth, those cars are in a completely different performance bracket let alone price range compared to the neo 86. It's natural competitors are more the Clio 200's and Fiesta ST's of this day and age, so what the neo 86 does then, is bring some well needed diversity back into the automotive scene. The 86 does indeed fill a void that has since been left empty in the automotive world, it just wasn't THAT big a void.