My Review

Affordable Sports Car Review

When someone says sports car a lot of things run through my mind. There are lots of different manufacturers of them. But what comes to my mind is an affordable one. The Honda Civic Si Sedan is what I think of for an affordable one. When thinking sports cars people rule out sedans. I did until I drove this car. The Honda Civic Si Sedan is an affordable sports car that has  a good pairing of components, good exterior styling, and good interior styling.

A good affordable sports car must have an engine that is capable of a good amount of horsepower. The Honda Civic only has two liter straight four, but it has one hundred and ninety-seven horsepower. As a baseline I will compare it to a 1979 Datsun 280ZX also known as the “Japanese Corvette.” The Datsun came equipped with a 2.8 liter straight six engine. The engine pushes out one hundred and eighty horsepower. When you punch the gas, it is a must, that the car pushes you back into your seat. Which both of these cars are very capable of doing. To be a good sports car the engine must be paired with a good transmission. What I mean when I say good transmission I mean a manual transmission. Both the Honda and the Datsun have five speed manual transmissions. The reverse gear is in the far right bottom corner of the gear box. A good transmission is key so that horsepower can get to the rear wheels. How close the car sits to the ground is important also. The Honda and the Datsun both sit close to the ground so I am unable to tell exactly how close they sit. A good sports car must have a low drag coefficient to keep the wind resistance down. The Honda Civic’s drag coefficient is 0.31. The Datsun’s drag coefficient is 0.385. These wind resistance’s are about average for a sports car. The weight of the car also controls how well the car can perform. The balance of light weight metal, such as aluminum, and carbon fiber is key to keep the weight low. The weight of a stock Honda is two thousand nine hundred and forty-five pounds. The weight of a stock 280ZX was two thousand eight hundred and twenty-four pounds. The weight of the car is kept lower for faster acceleration. The way the medal and carbon fiber are used gives the body of the car a unique style.

Styling of a car also determines wether it is just another car or a sports car. If a car does not have good styling it is cannot be claimed to be a sports car. The Honda sits low to the ground, has a rear spoiler, and has fender flares. This gives the Civic an aggressive stance. The Datsun has a closed hood scoop, sits even lower than the Honda, and has the same fender flares. The headlight shape and the brightness is also brought into question when determining a sports car. The Honda’s headlights set even with the front of the car and wrap around the side. The lights on the Si are Xenon lights. This means that the lights are brighter, due to the lights burning at a brightness of about fifty five hundred Kelvin. The Datsun has circular headlights that are set back into the body of the car. The headlights are about average brightness. Engine placement is also important to keep in mind. The placement of the engine determines balance of the car. Both the Honda and the Datsun’s engines are placed in front. The Civic’s weight distribution is sixty forty with brings the front end down to keep the drag down. The Datsun had a fifty fifty split for the distribution. The car must have good rubber and rims. Size does matter when talking about sports tires. The Honda has two hundred and fifteen width tires that are also low profile tires at the same time. The 280ZX has a one hundred and ninety-five width tire with a higher profile. It is also important for the car to be recognizable to anyone that is a car fan. If the car is not very recognizable then it would just blend in with all the other cars. I would not call a car a sports car if I could not tell what it is. The styling must also continue into the interior.

Interior styling is also key for a sports car. No sports car should be like exactly like the next. This is why there are options for every car that is built. Both the Honda and the Datsun a buyer was able to choice colors, for the interior and exterior. They could choose to delete the sunroof in the Honda or choose to have T-Tops on the Datsun. The Honda came stock with a spoiler but on the Datsun it was an option that the buyer could choose. Another option that both cars have was the use of side graphs. There are too many options combinations that are possible for both cars to list all of them. Another interior option that is a must for a sports car is to have a killer stock sound system. The Honda came stock with a seven speaker three hundred and fifty watt audio system. This is what I would consider a killer system. The Datsun came stock with a cassette tape player with four speakers. This was decent for the time but not up to today’s standards. A good sports car must have comfortable seats for all the passengers. The Honda has bucket seats that grab the driver and the passengers to hold them in-place. The Datsun has bucket seats also but they do not grab they are just seats. So I would say that the Datsun is lacking in the sense of seating. The stitching in the seats must be a different color then the material of the seats. The Honda has swaid and mesh fabric seats, with red stitching to contracts. The Datsun has fabric seats with stitching to match. So once again the Datsun is lacking on interior styling. To be a good sports car it must come equipped with a tack-o-meter. Both of the cars have this installed. The tack-o-meter is important for manual transmission cars, so the driver can know when to shift. So the interior styling of both cars are very different but they are both sports cars none the less.

To even be considered a sports car it must have all of the things that I pointed out. A good sports car has all of these things and more. Both the Honda and the Datsun originated in Japan. The Honda was built in Brazil. The Datsun was built in Japan. I would rate the Honda a nine out of ten. Although the Datsun is an older sports car it was a car before its time.These sports cars would be considered an affordable sports car. A good sports car must have an engine paired with a manual transmission, has a crisp exterior styling to it, and all the interior options possible.