Nice writeup, Phil. I've been wanting to check those out myself. Nissan
could build something like that, if they wanted to, but it doesn't seem
like they're interested. IMO, Mazda is the only Japanese car maker
who's consistently building interesting, fun to drive cars. Every once in a
while Honda and Toyota will offer something like the MR2, Celica Spyder or
the S2000. I too have a friend who's owned the Honda and Subaru stores in
Killeen (Ft. Hood) for years and he says the Honda dealers have been
bombarding Honda Corporate with requests for a gas CR-V Si since before the
hybrid was released.
We see the NISMO and TRD names here, but in the US Mazda is the biggest
supporter at grassroots levels. I seem to recall that many of the old
timers with Datsun (Nissan USA) Motorsports ended up at Mazda. Anyway,
maybe I need to see if I can get a "family & friends" deal on the
Scion/Subie.
Ron
On Sat, Dec 8, 2012 at 8:04 PM, Hall, Phillip B. (MSFC-ES11) <
phillip.b.hall@nasa.gov> wrote:
> So... Took the Highlander in for a recall to the dealership that a friend
> is
> an owner of. Joe had a new Scion FR-S on the lot and ask if I wanted to
> take
> it for a drive. At first I said no. You see, I have been driving sports
> cars
> (like my 67 Datsun 2000 Solex) for 30 years and newer sports cars just
> don't
> do a lot for me. Driven a bunch of them,,, and this FR-S is an automatic...
>
> So, he asked again.. My daughter and I really like the looks of the car and
> the seats are wonderful. Ok - we head out with the car. Joe has me head to
> the
> local hills with lots of corners. I keep the car in manual mode and use the
> paddle shifters.
>
> It has a Subaru motor (Boxer) at 200 HP so power was good. It is a very
> happy
> reving motor to 7000 RPM. I found shifting at 6000 was perfect. With the
> auto
> in manual mode and shifting with the paddles was, well, nice. I was
> expecting
> a major lag (like the Tundra) but not so - and hard/fast down shifts coming
> fast into corners was flat out fun! It 'blipped' and dropped down a gear,
> then
> back into the throttle - haha.. good times.
>
> Hard in the corners the car just felt right! Pushing to the limit, the rear
> end set down and really grabbed. Most new sports cars have a too high of
> CG in
> the rear and lift slightly in corners which gives you that bit of mmmm...
> With
> all of us in the car I did not push over the limit - another day. Usually
> when
> I drive this kind of car, all I can focus on was what it needs - bigger
> bars -
> better tires,,,,but, dang, this thing did it all very well.
>
> I can't believe how much I enjoyed this car! It was a hoot to push through
> the
> corners!! It was so solid/tight and just felt great! More over, it is
> amazing
> that I actually liked the transmission! An automatic sports car is
> worthless -
> except for this one..
>
> Ok - now to convince my wife I really need one of these... ha...
>
> Now how come Nissan could not have built this....
>
> Thumbs up and high five the crowd!
>
> Phil/SEROC
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