Hey, Lupinsea...
 

Have y'all talked Dodge Demon yet?

I read an article while waiting in line at Walgreens. It said that since the Solstice failed to be a Miatakiller, it's time for this thing, which will be a Miatakiller! Until the next article? ;)

Howdy howdy howdy!

We sorta went over the Dodge Demon a bit from a LeftLane News post a while a go. Sweet looking little car with great potential, especially if they come out wtih an SRT4 version (2600 lb. w/ 300 hp turbocharged 4 cyl). Bwa ha ha ha . . . Dodge did some good stuff with the Neon ACR program a while back. A buddy of mine had one and the handling was surprisingly good on that car. So, maybe they could get the handling dialed in on the Demon. That'd be nice, semi-cheap, high-hp, good handling roadster.

A refresh for others:

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.au...on_000_450.jpg
Dodge Demon


I, of course, am wondering what the hell is taking Mazda so long to come out with their Mazdaspeed Miata?! Pontiac has their 260 hp turbocharged Soltice GXP verson. Where's the MS MX-5? Grrr . . . My thinking is that Mazda needs to make them NOW so that I can get a cheap used verson in a number of years. :D

Unfortunately, while Mazda made a lot of upgrades to the Miata over all (the stiffer chassis and new z-folding top deisgn being my key areas) it sounds like the handling isn't as good as either NA or NB models. However, a basic spring / shock upgrade is said to cure this without too much fuss.

Sweet! How'd I miss that thread???

But for me, the Miata experience was never about hp, and I think that's where the attempted 'Miata killers' fall short. It's about handling uber alles, and reliability, and fun - and the ability to dial up the hp easily if you want to, but no need to do so to tap into the fun.

The concept car is already bigger and heavier than the Miata...

Yeah, but young men today are HP obsessed, they don't get the "fun" of small displacement engines coupled to a close ratio gearbox - witness the MZ4 and the call for the upcoming M3's V8 being placed in future versions of the Mz4.

It's stupid.

Ed

Wha. . . but, wait. Y'all are getting me all wrong.

I just want it all, great handling, great power, reliability, and a good price. I think the Miata can easily deliver that. It's already doing 3 our of the 4 and a bump in power to make it at least as straight fast as some mini-vans would be nice.

I dug the Miata thing: the light, high revving, nimble roadster (actually, I miss it a lot :( ) but it would be nice having all that and some scoot, too. That's one of the big things that I've found addictive about the ZHP is its accerlation. It would be hard to step back from that now, though, not impossible. And in a car as light as the Mita I don't think it would take much. Sure, tossing on a supercharger or turbo is possible but it'd be nice to get this from the factory.

Heck, thanks to FM, it's not just possible - it's easy and reliable. :)

I still just don't dig on Massive Power in cars. After bikes, they're all slow, so I don't really care if one is slower than another. Also, I like to wring cars out; when they're too powerful (a line that I set somewhere in the range of most here's 'I won't buy something that underpowered'), wringing them out past first gear is just pointless. And nobody ever does wring them out! I left a Viper way behind on an onramp over the weekend in my piddly little 1.6, and thought, why bother?

It's a heck of a lot more fun to dust people in an 'underpowered' car, anyway...

It's stupid, or you don't understand?

I actually do understand. I see the appeal.

But it's stupid. :)

wrong