I feel a sports car needs to be a convertible which I know will upset MGB GT owners and other GT's but to me the convertible feel adds to the sports car experience.
Well precisely. I can't actually see a problem here. GT cars are not Sports Cars, they are Grand Touring cars. Otherwise they wouldn't be called GTs, would they? One's not 'better' or 'worse' than the other, they are just different. There's nothing wrong with having a convertible GT either, but that doesn't make it a sports car.
Sports cars are stripped, lightweight, form follows function cars where anything that doesn't contribute to performance doesn't really deserve to be there. GT cars recognise that some creature comforts are desirable if one wants to be able to get from Calais to Cannes in a day's driving.
Seems we have a bit of a parallel discussion going on here..
I think the guys at Leyland perhaps got it right with the MGB, when they decided the "B" with the tin top was a GT...?
As has been suggested and I also tend to agree that a true sports car should be an open top vehicle... I grew up at a time when GT was associated with long high speed drives in relative comfort, thinking tin top Aston Martin`s of the sixties, Jensen interceptors and the like.. At least when Ford started attaching the GT badge to their sixties Cortina`s the more sporting variant carried the Lotus name which associated it with race track performance.
As with much else evolution plays it`s part and in time the GT badge became ever more associated with on-track performance..? if I might use Porsche as an example, their GT product tends to be a stripped down version of their already high performing S product line, which has more power and perhaps a tad less comfort that the base Carrera product, and the name Carrera as many already know was derived from a famous pan American race, so yes the nomenclature seems to have become all rather too confused with the passage of time..?
As an example from circa 2003, while stuck in a traffic queue in Naples in the early afternoon sun, having already covered a few hundred miles since the start of that day, apparently a day when Italians were fainting in the street due to heat exhaustion, in the hottest summer they had endured in many a year.... We two white skinned Scots were stuck in stationary traffic in a hot +8 with heat from the engine up front, hot gearbox against one thigh and a hot exhaust close to the other thigh, and melting quietly.... I remember thinking at the time if only I was driving a Porsche with an electric deploying hood and could flick a couple of switches to raise the hood and bring on the air con.... But then the sports car that my +8 most definitely is, seems likely to have created far more memories of adventure, than might have been the case if we had taken on our occasional Southern European trips in a true GT with air con and many the comforts of home, all be it with horse power and grip on the road enough to put my old +8 to shame..?
However consider if you will.... That evolution has played it`s part where even the Trad owners and buyers wanted more power and comforts, so much so that even with bolt on suspension modifications to more emulate modern expectations, along with wider bodies and more comfortable seating, was not enough in time, thus the Aero came into being as did the CX generation which allowed for more, and yet more refinement to match increasing expectations... As to where might it go from there...?
I`m just so very pleased that I could enjoy that which I did and while I could, though for some time now the ageing process seems to determine that my Morgan has been made use of less and less, with the arrival of the 991, it is mostly gathering dust even though it sits there ready to go at a moments notice... Hmm..?
It will be interesting to read that which Peter cares to share relative to his continued use of his Morgan when he also has the option to use either his lovely +8 or his about to be delivered Boxter...Hmm..?
Back on to the original purpose of the thread, I have been toyingwith the idea of passing on my old +8 to someone who might make more use of it thus I am begining to wonder what my +8 could be worth at auction...?
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