Quote:
Originally Posted by autocross
I don’t want to be that guy, but why can’t you stance a camaro? I find sports cars look good with a little stance!!
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I'm going to push back a little here. "Stance" seems to have become code for "conforming to a appearance conventions selected by others for appearance sake alone". No matter if it's completely contrary to what you'd do purely for performance, it's what you gotta do or else you're gonna be the outsider looking in. But that rules out creativity and gets in the way of actually making things function better, so it's pretty much the antithesis of a sports car in my book. When I see that term used to describe something in the 'Pro-Touring' world, the first thought to cross my mind is "good grief, another wanna-be <facepalm>".
I suspect that the 'handling' side of your perspective is closer to the English perspective of 50 - 60 years ago, where the roads were mostly not straight and where nimbleness as a car characteristic was prized. Most US domestic enthusiasts tend to see this from the other direction, where nimbleness traditionally wasn't given much value (and certainly not when compared with the appeal of big engine displacements/big power/roaring exhausts/screeching tires). It's still an uphill battle.
FWIW I'd pick the smooth wail of a free-revving V6 over all of those sounds associated with a turbocharger every single time. Even, I think, over the mildly choppy rumble of a crossplane V8, now that that sound has become the hallmark of lifted pickups. Over a proper flat-plane crank V8, probably not - but you should realize that 'proper' excludes the current GT350's Voodoo unless maybe you're running it with true 4 into 1 headers.
In case you're wondering, I actually did live through the muscle car era (possibly all of it so far). I knew a couple of sports car race drivers back in the mid-1960's, so I think it might be more a mindset thing than generational to pick lightness and balance over bulk and brute power.
Norm