RE: Scirocco: piece of s%#! or masterpiece?

["Mark Burnham" <msb@avdb.com>]

> Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2000 22:07:18 PDT
> From: "Joe Doty" <rocco2nr@hotmail.com>
> Subject: Scirocco: piece of s%#! or masterpiece?
> 
> I was just wondering what opinions you folks had on the general 
> engineering 
> and build quality of Sciroccos (mainly the last ones, since the 
> last of cars 
> tends to be the better).  From what I have seen so far they seemed to be 
> designed fairly well, just different in many aspects from American and 
> Japanese cars.  Of course, the higher price for parts kinda sucks :(
> 
> Thanks
> Joe

I have to respectfully disagree with you that cars get better as
the model continues to be 'upgraded'.  Especially 'sports' cars.
They do generally get more powerful, but the initial concept of 
the design is often lost.  I'm NOT saying this is true with the 
Scirocco, but if you look at the "evolution" of VW cars in the 
watercooled era, they did generally get faster, in a straight 
line, but they also got _way_ heavier.  And weight is bad.  The 
heavier the car, the less 'willing' it is to go around corners.
And the suspension has to be stiffened to handle the increased
weight, so the ride can suffer.  There are many examples of this: 
240Z, MR2 etc.  The original 240Z was great.  Then it got heavier 
and SLOWER until they put a turbo in it.  Then it was faster,
but didn't handle for shit. (Well, they never handled that well
to begin with.)  There is a small movement now to make lighter cars -
the Lotus Elise is the epitome of this.  Very light, small engine, 
but it's QUICK, and handles (so I've heard) extremely well.  The 
NEW MR2 is also quite light, and is supposed to be one of the
best handling cars in the world right now.  The problem is that
Americans in particular, don't LIKE light cars.  The 3rd generation
RX-7 was one of the most capable cars ever.  And the automotive
press had been clamoring for such a design for years.  But when
it came out, they said, "Oh, it's not _comfortable_ enough.  Buy
a 300ZX."  Wankers!  So Mazda discontinued the model.

My Mk1 is somewhat primitive compared to many newer cars.  But
I can honestly say that it is the best handling, and most fun car 
(except for maybe an X1/9) that I've ever driven.

Just my opinion,

- Mark Burnham 


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