“No way, bloke. The 911 might be German and expensive; but it can be raced in a pinch and is a true sports car”, says the Londoner as he walks out of the rural Northamptonshire pub and gets into his used Porsche Boxster. The conversation inside continues. “Ach, he’s crazy. The 911’s bloated. I want something tidy, something with character, like the modern equivalent to an old Triumph.” A youngster then pipes up: “What about the MX-5, no?Good reliability and pretty small, ya must admit.” Immediately shot down by the group’s elder, an automotive know-it-all adds his two cents. “There’s nothing – I say nothing – like the feel provided by the enigmatic but capable Jaguar E-Type. I’m a lover of the new XKR but yearn for natural aspiration, none of this supercharged stuff.” Finally, the party’s outsider, the fellow who lived in Boston while in uni, suggests the impossible: “There really isn’t anything wrong with those American sports cars, ya know. I drove a Mustang once. They called it a Shelby something’er’other. A stonkin’ fast ride around the block it’ll give you.”
Anybody do the math to see if the Camaro could top the Mustang for all of 2009 even with fewer months on sale?