I mean is that much more of an accomplishment if it’s the only petrol sports car still sold in most the world?
If its the only gas sports car still sold in the world, which is a claim I doubt, then the fact that the only gas sports car is also the highest selling sports car seems too coincidental to ignore. The sound and feeling is just an incomparable experience to anything else, and one that people who look to buy sports cars want.
Pretty sure the corvette is sold pretty much everywhere the mustang is and it’s a sports car. There are non-American sports cars like the Supra that are sold in all the same places as well. So yeah, I agree with you that OPs premise misses the mark.
That said, the mustang is just okay as sports cars go. The steering is still terrible, and the weight to horsepower to grip (due to the under sized tires for the weight to horsepower) is unacceptable in my opinion.
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I would argue the first mustang that’s a sports car is the Dark Horse. The base model is just a two door coup. The 2024 Dark Horse starts at $58k, the 2024 C8 Corvette starts at $69k (nice).
Both can get a lot more expensive with options after that. The top end Corvette crossing $150k and the top end (not yet available I don’t think) Mustang crossing $300k.
Nothing against people who love mustangs, I think the Coyote engine is one of the best sounding V8s on the market. But I still pull away from them without much effort (unless it’s a GT500) with my 2014 C7 Z51 that I paid less for (used) than they did. Plus as someone with a close friend who has a 2023 GT (the Dark Horse replaced it this year) I get way more attention in my car than he does in his.
Side note: I love it when children get excited about my car. Just yesterday at the grocery store this mother and her three children walked up to me as I was going in and her ~9 year old son and two daughters wanted to know what kind of car I drove and chatted me up for a few minutes. We ended up leaving the store at the same time and I revved the engine as they walked by and the excitement on the kids faces kept me smiling until bed time!
Car ‘enthusiasts’ are basically the only ones that care about the noise the engine makes, so the cars that cater to that market are probably the last ones that will convert to electric. And that’s fine, you really want to prioritise the people that commute every day as opposed to the people that only take it out on Sundays and don’t want to put too much mileage on their cars.
I think this is because of luxury taxes and how hard Ford works to keep their cost down relative to porsche’s and BMWs in markets like Australia. They really do look so cool compared to a little hatchback and since you don’t have to pay 50% extra they’re accessible.
That being said, F body foreva
Toyota 86/GT also exists, but sells far less globally.
That, supra, Nissan z, Corvette are also available, although probably sold in less countries.
