[alfa] Re: Japanese auto

[George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Japanese make good cars, no doubt about it, they are reliable, well 
screwed together, long lasting and the sporty ones also handle well and 
some even go real fast. During the "Japanese Supercar" era of the 
1980's and early '90's cars like the Mitsubishi 3000, The Toyota Supra, 
the Nissan 300 XZ twin-turbo gave Ferrari/Porsche-like performance for 
less than $40K and were a great bargain. On the other hand. I've never 
driven a Japanese car that satisfied the way a British sports car or a 
German sports car, and especially an Italian sports car satisfies. I 
think it has a lot to do with them being cars designed by engineers who 
take the train to work. I.E., the numbers are certainly there alright, 
but where's the "soul"?

George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0'S'


On Thursday, October 2, 2003, at 02:46 PM, alfa-digest wrote:


> Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 10:12:50 -0800 (GMT-08:00)
> From: Steven Luftman <sluftman@domain.elided>
> Subject: [alfa] Re: Japanese auto
>
> - -----Original Message-----
>
> I apologise for the off-topicness here, but I do get tired of the 
> Japanese
> constantly being referred to as copyists. There have been many fine 
> Japanese
> cars and enthusiasts are better off for them. Think of the outlandish 
> Yamaha
> OX99-11, Jiotto Caspita, 1989 300ZX, the Datsun 240Z, the Toyota 
> 2000GT, the
> Mazda AZ1, Honda Beat, Suzuki Cappuccino (sic) - all cars enthusiasts 
> can get
> excited about. I have a particular fondness for the wild "kei cars" -
> designed
> to fit in strict size limitations as imposed by the Japanese 
> government, the
> more exciting versions feature 660cc turbocharged 4- or 5-valve per 
> cylinder
> engines, feature all-wheel drive and are smaller than the original 
> Mini.
>
> Ciao
> - -------
> Well put Joe.
>
> let's stop bashing, enthusiast and their cars come from all countries.
> Steve
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