that burst of speed at 19 seconds :yum:

its pretty boss....


see what I did there...

Now if they can make the interior a bit nicer and not throw in all that cheap plastic I'd seriously consider buying a Mustang.

the new 5.0 had decent interior

I sat in it and was turned off. The retro look didn't help either.

i'll take 2 :D

I'll still wait for the next round of sports cars to see how Thayer are going to combine mpg with mph.

I'm with you on that. The mustang is too heavy, the 370Z is underpowered, the C6 has a junk interior, and the camaro is a whale.

All the parent companies of the above products save Nissan (I don't think anyway) have outright said the above (and we know those people don't admit to flaws or shortcomings easily, no pun or joke intended, that's just their culture). I am very excited to see what '13-'15 is going to bring to market just like you are. I think we are going to see a shake-up.

Ford might start having the #1 position in power (well, behind the 700bhp Viper that is heavily rumored to be on the way, and with good source).

GM might start trumping interiors (Audi is their bench-mark).

Ford does damn well with SRA and a bit of a piggy. If they slap in IRS and drop weight, I think it will take the mustang fully out of the muscle-car camp and put it squarely in the sports-car camp, no-matter what the 'vette fans, porscheophiles, or roadster guys what to say about it.

something I can co-sign to. :tup:

I think they are doing it with fleet averages. There is no way (right now) to give the customer what they want in a sports car economically (918 Spyder anyone? Sorry, I'm a bit poor for that...).

Cars like the Leaf and Volt are what will make it work. Then I think in the NEXT go-around we might start seeing more integration within one platform (ie hybrid powerplants, etc.)

Personally, I would not want a hybrid powerplant in my sports car. Electric motors and their components suck on the big end (highway), and they add weight. The GT-R already does 0-60 in under 3 seconds with a gas engine and nearly 4K # curb weight. I'm not worried about the "instant torque" of electric.

I'm with you on that. With the next gen Mustang dropping a minimum of 250 lbs (meaning a maximum curb weight of 3,350 lbs) and most likely gaining IRS I think it's going to be a knockout. Even more so than the current 5.0s.

The question is whether or not they get the suspension right. I'd rather have a good SRA over a mediocre IRS. Contrary to all the car rag hype IRS isn't the magic "end all, be all" that they claim. The current generation of Mustangs proves that.

I feel like GM will do the C7 right. They have to. I'm excited to see how it turns out.

The next generation Viper... I really want to see how that one works out.

The next generation Z... I fear NISSAN won't do what's necessary to make it competitive again and it will die off yet again. It's hard to justify when the 370 only sells 10k units a year (when the project was approved on the prediction of 30k a year).

I Nissan wants to sell 30k a year in Zs then they need a 4 cyl turbo like the Juke that can sell around $24k with options. Right now $30k to $40k is GT and SS prices and I don't think those are selling 30k a year without their V6s.

I disagree with the concept of a 4-cyl turbo Z. They are 6-cylinder cars, they are meant to continue that way. The problem as I see it is that they already have a 6-cyl performance car that they want people to "ooh" and "ahh" over in the GTR, so I feel they're sandbagging the Z's performance in lieu of their "budget supercar". Clearly they can make a 400-and-change-hp v6 engine, so why won't they put it in their rwd sports car?

And obviously, I'm happy with the Z experience regardless of the competition. I might be alone in that (seems that way on this site), but find me a twisty road, and I'm in heaven with this car.

I was only talking about bulk sales not performance. I agree that Nissan is keeping the Z out of "GTR" territory. So the only territory left is lower end and that lower price would also increase sales. Although a Z V6TT would increase sales it won't get them to 30k.

If they did make a 4 cly Z I wouldn't have gotten it. I still would have gotten the V6. Same if I went with the camaro or mustang; I would have gotten the GT or SS.

Well, yeah, if you want the Z to be a volume car, then you would have to make it more economical. I agree. You'd have to make it more practical for it to sell.

But that's if you want to go that direction. As far as Nissan goes, Altimas and Versas sell like hotcakes. That's their go-to for volume sales. But I think if they stuffed a warrantied TT V6 in the Z, making it come closer to GTR performance, it could compete with the Americans, and its sales in the performance category could pick up and maybe preclude them from killing it for another extended period of time. I don't know for sure, that's just my gut.