My old R32 Golf.
This question was posted on the GolfR Subreddit and I couldn’t help but respond:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Golf_R/comments/1bx53wd/a_person_said_his_brz_is_a_real_sports_car_and_my/
Those who think the Golf is the better sports car because it’s faster in a straight line surely wouldn’t agree that a Tesla is a sports car? The hatchback was designed to load your groceries in the boot easier, the “hot hatch” is a grocery getter modified with sporty performance and handling.
I’ve owned a lot of hot/hotted up hatches; ED/EG Civics, a Jazz/Fit with a K20 engine swap, an ABT Supercharged R32 Golf, a track modified MKV GTI and a lot of other track modified cars too (EVO 6.5 TME/8, R32 GT-R, S2000 etc.) as awesome as these cars were no car taught me how to drive better on the circuit than an MX5/Miata (I’ve had 2).
The very first time I was out on the race track and a friend handed me the keys to his brand new BRZ I knew what the car was all about. Stock for stock it’s a lot more fun to drive on the limit on the track than an MX5. Much more predictable and those “crappy” Prius tyres really make the chassis show off what it can do on corner entry and exit. Before you know it you’re truly controlling the car with the rear wheels, scrubbing speed with oversteer vs understeer etc.
Many years later Toyota invited me out to the track to test drive their 86 race car (used in the Toyota 86 Racing Series) and IMHO the stock BRZ was WAY more fun (playful) than the race car most likely because the race car had sticky race rubber and I wasn’t able to push it as hard as I could the stock car.