Geez, guys, just talkin' smack here, no need for swearing and suchlike. I bet your cruise nights get violent! Didn't you see my p.s.? "Smack talkin' all IN GOOD FUN"...
Look, I know that most 70's Mopars handle like a hippo on iceskates, and I bet Subaru makes a 1400hp AWD Forester, but here is the central issue...
"COOLNESS".
Coolness is that intangible quality which a 'Cuda has in spades; and which all Subarus will forever search in vain, regardless of twin-turbos, ground effects, and AWD. Look, if performance was ALL that mattered, I'd drive a Lotus Elise. But that little guy has a Toyota engine and looks like the free toy you get in a Happy Meal, so you have a zero-percent chance of looking "cool" while driving it, no matter how well it handles. My Mopars, even with 35 years of suspension technology improvements and fresh engines, still drive terribly compared to ANY modern car, and I'm SURE there's a bright blue WRX in town that can show me his taillights in under eleven seconds. But while that kid is hunched over his steering wheel frantically rowing through his short power band five or six times in a row, I'll just put my foot in that 440/727 and probably give him a good run, and I'll have one arm out the window, one finger on the wheel, my girl riding shotgun, stereo blasting, AC on stun, and be sippin' a milkshake while it all goes down.
I'll probably still have the window-tray from the drive-in restaurant clipped on! Coooooool.
True story: I'm at a cruise night in New Orleans years ago. There's all makes and years, from streetrods to '90's Mustangs. A dude driving a yellow Viper with yellow wheels is rolling solo, no bros and no babe, and jackin' his loud pedal while putt-putting around the lot. He even has a cheesy gold nugget ring and matching watch, and what looks like bad hair plugs. Just as he gets to the road, some punk (not me) yells out, "You look GAY!". To which he replied, at the top of his lungs, without a moment's hesitation,
"I DON'T CARE!"
And did a huge fishtailing smoky burnout.
Perfect response! I loved that guy! Now, a yellow Viper with yellow wheels, Mopar or not, is a very foolish-looking ride, and it's hard to excuse the QVC gold-nugget watch and ring unless you're a porno producer, but at least this dude had the right attitude. He was going to extract enjoyment from his investment (of money, not time), and he didn't care if it looked like a Speedo bathing suit on him. That's fine. He took all the gas out of that kid's insult with three words (and one foot). I still smile when I think of the look on the kid's face!
But at no point would he (or anyone) have suggested that the yellow-on-yellow Viper was "cool", like a streetrod that was built by the owner, his son, and grandson, or an old Mopar that the broke-ass driver is slowly restoring all by himself. And that's the point. The Viper guy didn't do anything except buy the car. Maybe he had the rims powdercoated, but he didn't DO anything to the car, so all he could do at the cruise night was lap the parking lot twice and leave. He had nothing to talk about and nobody to talk about it with.
All he had was money to buy a Viper. Probably too busy earning that money to waste time wrenching. But he was enjoying his Viper nonetheless.
The enjoyment (and coolness) that a Cuda provides is not just from the driving experience (we all know it can fall short in the handling area), but from the knowledge, sweat, and time that is required to get one built and keep one in top shape.
An NSX won't offer this experience, at least not for thirty years, when you'll be scouring junkyards looking for upper control arms. Or will you? How many enthusiasts will be junkyard scrounging in thirty years to keep an NSX running? What will you do with yours when it starts to get shaggy? Will you lovingly give it a ground-up restoration? Is it THAT good? If you drove it into the ground, would you rebuild it by hand just to be able to enjoy it? Will you be on eBay looking for obscure engine parts to make your NSX restoration "correct"?
I have to say that I have my doubts...
Enjoy the NSX! Be the guy in the yellow Viper who doesn't care what anyone thinks. But when you run out of room in the garage, sell the NSX. Keep the Cuda.
It's cooler.
:coffee:
BTW: Please tell me your Cuda is quicker than the NSX at the strip....
