[Jim T]

I saved all of the RTs and CDs from the formative years of my automotive youth (my teenage years in the early 80's). Pulled some out of the attic to peruse.

Some amazing things. First, its amazing how many times I read those things word for word, cover to cover when I was a teen. Because even though I haven't seen them in 15 years, I still have them practically memorized. Scary.

What was also scary was the performance at the time. The Ferrari Mondial did 0-60 in 9.4 seconds. The 308's 0-60 was described as "scintillating" at 7.6! Unless you counted cars not officially imported into the US (Ferrari Boxer, etc.), and maybe one or two $100K plus superexotics (Countach), the 911 SC really stood in a class of its own at around 6.5.

Although SCs and Carreras are pretty common now and offer good, but not tremendous, acceleration by modern car standards, they really were at the top of the pecking order at the time, and standouts as far as performance.

It was also scary because the general prognosis for sports cars was bleak at the time. The consensus seemed to be that it was as good as we were going to get with the internal combustion engine and smog controls, as far as performance.

Now, I read in WSJ that by the 2005 model year, there will be 20 cars/trucks available in the US offering 500 hp or more. That would have been unthinkable in 1981.

A $60,000 Ferrari that did 60 in 9.4, yikes! Bad time, indeed.