What's the Best Convertible of All Time?

Forbes ^ | Michael Frank

[wtc911]

I had a '61 MGA during the winter of '70-71. Great car, felt like a WW2 British fighter....but....starting it in the dead of winter was tough...turn the key...wait for the glow light to reach a "cherry red hue" then press the clown's nose starter. If that didn't do it wait five minutes then try again. If after three attempts it was still no go then go to the boot and get the crank....yes, it had a crank...it also had "side curtains" instead of windows. I bought mine in October without them. Had to wait until February for delivery from UK....one cold winter with no side windows...but, when you're young...

[Pagey]

I vote for my dad's 1975 Burgundy/Red Buick LeSabre which was "The Cruise Mobile" in High School and still drives "FINE". Mmmm Hmmmmm

[Palmetto]

Subaru will beat 5.3sec to 60mph????

Typical 0-60 for the S2000 is about 5.8 sec. Typical for the WRX is 5.6 sec.

Again, I'm talking bone stock here.

[Palmetto]

Thanks.

Very nice.

[aShepard]

A 302 bored and stroked to a 347, SVO heads, 355 rearend from a stock 273. Dyno test was 505 HP at 5700

As I said, my Honda S2000 gets 240 horsepower out of 2.0 liters - 1.2 horses per cc - unheard of in a naturally aspirated engine.

Your monster gets 505 horses out of a 5.69 liter engine - .89 horses per cc.

I'll have to check out the torque specs, and get back at you.

[billbears]

Again as another poster stated the cc/hp ratio is not as important as the hp/lb per car. Your car weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 2500-2600 lbs right? With 240 hp. Vs a 3200 lb car(it was originally around 3400 but like I said I've done a modification or so) with 505 hp. You do the math.

The only way I would be able to get even close to your ratio is adding a charger. Do you really want someone driving down the road next to you with say 650+ hp? And with some of the new chargers ATI is putting out even that number is quite low

[billbears]

And the torque according to Honda tops out at 151 ft/lbs at 7500 RPM

[Palmetto]

151 ft/lbs at 7500 RPM

Blech. More suitable for a sewing machine.

Of all the car mags, Motor Trend typically has the fastest 0-60 times, usually because they don't have qualms about abusing the cars. To get the S2000 to 60 in 5.8 sec., they admitted to launching at 8000 rpm.

To emphasize the importance of a flat torque curve, MT gave the result of launching and shifting 5500 rpm. The result?

0-60 in a Geo Metro-esque 11 sec.