How far we've come . . .

[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.

[bell]

one of the reasons i'm also into my turbo dodge is that way back in the mid eighties these little cars were turning 0-60 times in the sc range, after a little tweaking you could easily get sub 6 second 0-60 times
this exerpt is from an article which i have the link below which also has dyno results (not my car though).
the fact that you could have this using all factory parts for REAL cheap nowadays makes it VERY INTERESTING.

"Twelve second cars. Yeah, your uncle Herbert's got a 454 Chevy that once ran twelves, after he towed his killer race car to the track and bolted on a set of 11-inch slicks. He only had $10,000 in the motor, too. Your buddy down the block had a Buick Grand National that ran in the twelves, but he bought head gaskets by the case and kept spare transmissions in his glove compartment. He finally got so many speeding tickets that he had to sell the car to pay 'em off. Some Mustwangs can run 12s, too, if you push 'em off a cliff and time 'em just before the first bounce.
Now then, virtually everyone reading this magazine has, or knows someone who has, a Mopar that runs twelves. It's not that hard, really. Even with a 318. Consider this, though: when was the last time you saw a diminutive little 135 cubic inch econobox 4-door run sub-thirteens, get 28-plus MPG, corner at .9Gs and stop on a dime and give you six cents change? Still not impressed? Suppose we told you this car had a stock bottom end, stock compression and was built using factory parts exclusively? This is virtually the automotive equivalent of having your cherry cheesecake and eating it, too."

http://www.lucasviking.com/shelby/articles/mtsissu4/mtsissu4.htm

[VincentVega]

Technology is a wonderful thing! Just think how the 911 was basically the same from 74-89 and it makes it even worse for the competition.