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Originally Posted by RANDY P
Remember, after 50+ years of technology you better damn well hope you beat some musclecar. Also as mentioned tires have come a long long way. I'll be willing to bet some of the 60 GM stuff will easily crack 11's with modern rubber and a good driver.
You can talk all you want about modern exotics but back then musclecars were bread and butter affordable. Nowadays, if want to spend 6 figures BUYING something that might catch what some hillbilly built in a garage with a Summit catalog, go for it. It doesn't mean or prove a damn thing- except you had to buy it.
Muscle ain't dead, it just became extremely prohibitive (READ Barrett Jackson, collectors) to get the real stuff.
Muscle is just cooler than a ****ing EV- I don't care if it's 0-60 quicker. Sorry.
rjp
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A microwave cooks a steak faster than a charcoal grill, but I would still rather have a grilled steak any day of the week.
The young punks will never understand how good it feels to build something out of nothing, trial and error tuning to get it right, the enjoyment of having actual friends show up for a engine swap and (instead of their “Gamer” friends on line)what it’s like to get grease under your fingernails and how good it feels, taking the test drive at 1am, when it all comes together. I pointed out 20 years ago that shops were going away for actual technicians to nothing but “Installers”, when I went with a friend to pick up his 930 from a shop in Georgia, after 8 months and they did more damage, when the owner was bragging about it HP he was getting out of modern cars ( which was basically just plugging in a laptop and “Reflashing”, to real skill when someone else created software and anyone who can read and follow simple instructions could do.
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Muscle and even sports cars died with the advent of electronics. Accelerating fast, cornering fast, going fast all felt more visceral when you controlled or influenced them by mechanical means. Adjusting a dip switch or flashing an eprom doesn’t give the same satisfaction as re-jetting a carb or changing rear end gears. It feels more removed, like you’re waving magic wand at the car rather than getting down in there where things actually happen.
I’m not saying waving the magic wand isn’t more effective, it’s just not as much fun.
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Not often that I agree with you, but you are dead on about this. When the car does all the work, it takes the fun out. When I had my 964 C4, that benefited from the recall (and Brumos said it you want to upgrade the engine, labor is covered by the recall, and you will be credited for the stock parts) and it was much faster than when I test drove the 964 C4 when it was introduced. A friend called me on a Tuesday and asked me what I was doing tomorrow, I said working, then she said we have Roebling Road tomorrow, no cost and with you, it will only be 5 of us. I was, dang, my track car is not ready, as we were doing a few upgrades. She said bring your street car, only 5 cars on track at the most and hard to beat the price. So I took Patty, so she could work on her tan while I was playing on the track. Being on street tires (17” Cup IIs) and being use of Hoosiers , at first I was taking it easy. But you know how it gets, friends play, a few had their race cars, and I just wanted to see to what extent I could keep up, not really expecting much. Well, we are ripping down the front straight, and the 964 was doing way better than I expected, next thing I know, I’m going faster than my old track car could, and then I see that I’m not only going much faster, but am much deeper going into turn one. I figured I would end up going off, but the AWD, flat out pulled my ass through the turn, so I kept pushing harder. Every time, the C4, pulled me through. After a few laps, it got boring to me, you see, if the car is doing the work, essentially correcting your mistakes, well, if there’s no punishment for your mistakes, then there’s no reward for you and if the car is doing the work. That’s why early 930s and 911s are so much fun, because the risk/reward factor. To drive a early 930 or 911 fast around the track, you truly have to learn and work hard to do so. To me, that’s much more rewarding.
In the local PCA, there was a clown, who leased a RS America when they came out, he had Brumos trick it out, suspension and more. Problem was, he couldn’t drive it for crap, with what should have been a car that would be one of the fastest, he was at the bottom. When the 996 C4Ss came out, he leased one of those, PMS, and all the other tech, all the sudden, he was in the top of the pack, he never improved as a driver (that was clear at DEs) so it was the car driving him. I have always believed, without Risk, there can be no real Reward, which is why I got bored with the 964 (and damn, I regret that I let that go, but used the money in a business. You sir, have have the purest form of Porsche, a 356 Speedster and with that, you gain the most reward for driving it well, even though most modern cars are much, much faster. But a pure driving car is much more rewarding. Funny, a good friend of mine, who raced IMSA in the glorious era, and we know there were basically 2 types of racers then, those who bought a seat to race, and those who got those guys on the pole.My friend is the latter, pushing 80,still a great driver. Owned and raced some of the fastest Porsche’s on the track back then (and owned every year Speedster as well as a few very special Porsches, wanted to drive my Cayenne Turbo, says that is it faster than the full race Porsches he raced (from factory RSRs up) . He still owns and drives some very fast cars, so it isn’t like he his comparing it to say his tube chassis IMSA 911 or his old 906 or factory 924 GTR.
When a car has no soul, it becomes an appliance like a microwave oven.