this list

Its funny they think the Delorean is a sports car. Really its a Citation bodied in heavy stainless.

At least the writer admits the 914 IS a Porsche!

Score one for us.

Ya, an american journalist used to driving vettes. I'm ok with that. Their loss is our gain.

I had a Delorean back then. Fun car, and a chick MAGNET. The writer says he wants one anyway and the magazine he quotes is from 1973...

But......Its YELLOW!!!! It can't be slow!!!!

Yeah, but John is , the article is from last May

All those cars are desirable...

I would take any one of them!

The knock on the car is that it was slow. Most of us have fixed that by now.

Yeah, keep the articles slamming 914s coming.

Its all good to me.

Is a sportscar only defined by the HP or max. Speed ??

I thing a sportscar is a sportscar when it's going trough curves like
no other. A 914 do so and if you put a six, you are on the top.

I also like motorbike riding and it is same, i don't need 180 HP in a
bike to reach a max. speed of 300km, but i want a bike wich eats
curves.

First clue is they are making it relative to 1/4 mile times. That's not a major factor for defining a good sports car from the 70's. A true Sports Car back then and still today is one designed for cornering and road handling and historically a car that the driver can drive at speed using high RPM's through the gears over a long distance course. Realatively speaking the other most common Sports Cars from the 60's & '70's one could aford to buy were MG's, Triumphs, Datson Roadsters & Z, Alpha's, BMW's, Etc. Doubt that any of these had stagering 1/4 mile times or were Mid Engine cars. Also, a good 1/4 mile time back then would be 15 seconds for factory stock Muscle cars?

The are comparing 1/4 mile times! WTF Sports cars are measured by their handling not 1/4 mile or top speed. These guys are idiots! This story reminds ma of article in one of the car magazines that compared a modern minivan to a antique Porsche 356. The minivan out performed the 356. The question is which would you rather drive?
There is an old saying that many people don't get: it's more fund to drive a slow car fast than fast car slow.

That was Grassroots Motorsports. There was also an XKE, and the Honda minivan beat both in an autocross, badly. Good article, Grassroots is on the same page as you, and the point of the article wasn't to slam vintage cars. Cars these days have improved, something that's obvious, but as Grassroots concluded, it isn't the numbers, it's the experience. Exactly what you said.

But more. I'd also point out that excepting a few concours cars these days very few well-tended 914's are still bone stock and doing 18 second quarter miles. Means the list is not even talking about your car today, so it's really irrelevant. Get upset if you want, but only because you like getting upset. I personally like to be cast as an underdog and upsetting the favorite. And if you're the underdog and lose... so what? What big-buck hot-rod sports car guy is going to go brag to his friends that he beat a little old 914? You can't lose, and if you're sober about the whole thing you do what Grassroots and our friends here suggest, just enjoy the journey.

And even more. If your car is slow and you want it to be faster, then MAKE IT FASTER. There are lots of recipes, and it makes that underdog thing a LOT of fun.

you beat me to it!

I think that's the difference between "speed" and "velocity"--you feel speed (like in a teener), but measure velocity . . . . maybe why the 914 feels faster?

1/4 mile? Why? Too dumb to figure out how to turn a corner? What's the point. My brother and his partner bought a top fuel dragster and hired Tom Hoover. Now that's a 1/4 mile car. These cars were not made for 1/4 mile metrics. It seems lately, most of them were made to keep jackstands from floating off into space on their own...

Not the only measure, but one. Fast is still good, Rob. There isn't a racer born who wants to go slower, and there are straights between all those corners. Corners, good. Corners AND straights, better.

Hope the straights are not too long.

Speak for yourself, they don't bother me.

.

Exept on the "Autobahn" we don't have such as long straights in germany.
It's a small country with many curves.

They aren't defined by either.

Sportscar = 2 seats, that's all.

Check out any properly organized car show. Visit and watch the mustang guys get pissed when you tell them they can't put their car in the sportscar division.

Can't say the article offends me in the least. In fact it's quite a cool list to be on. Slow maybe, but also desirable. I thought we looked quite good up there alongside the Ferrari and the Mazda having something special other than pure speed.
So in stock form, thanks to emmissions regs, they can't pull the skin off a rice pudding but we all know what they do to corners.

I like all of those cars. We all know speed is a very relative term. Each vehicle we all start out thinking is fast, after awhile we are looking for a little more. I know from experience I am better off starting out with a little slower and working up in or on any vehicle.

I'm with ya on that one.

Meh...the 1970's was such a different era than today. It's like comparing an Atari to a Nintendo to a Wii or Play Station... all are fun but the technology is so different. Who cares how fast they are..the question is are they fun? Anyone ever drive an original Mini? Total blast with around 1000cc's (one liter). I remember when 0-60 under 8.5 seconds was FAAASSSTTTT. Now I have a Honda that will do that.

Wasn't the DeLorean powered by a Renault engine or no?

Sorta... The engine in the DeLorean is a 2.8 liter V6 called the PRV (a joint venture designed by Peugeot, Renault and Volvo) and used in alot of Volvos in the '70s and early '80s.

My 914 sits next my 1983 DeLorean that I have owned since 1999. It's a great, and very unique car. It's not fast, but mine's a 5-speed and because it's nicely geared - it's fun to drive. And the PRV engine, while not powerful, is very reliable - I have had zero problems with it.

Chris
(auto_cran)

Meh we are only number 9 its all good

Any of them would be welcome in my garage.

Well it is clear, that the journalist of the article does not organized his fact research. He mixes cars from different times and purposes. So I would not worry about an article that has no scientific facts too it than just being MB filling the web

YEAH!!! Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about! Slow on the straights? Only because you wanna be!

.

"Regardless of its lack of oomph, these little mid-engined ‘70s Porsches look like nothing else on the road, they're affordable, and they'll keep you entertained on a twisting road, just so long as there isn't too steep an incline"


Nice !!!!