Quattros vs Pony Cars

[William Elliott <William.Elliott@mail.mei.com>]

This Quattro vs Mustang/Camaro discussion is pretty interesting.   What's the 
best "bang for the buck"?  Any time the question comes up, the Pony car will 
always win on paper.  The weight vs the area under the torque curve vs cost is 
very telling.  As a Pony car fan (just sold a Mustang GT convert before I 
bought my UrQ), I'll tell you that I love torque.  It's easy and cheap to make 
Mustangs and Camaros even faster than the already speedy factory versions. As 
to the 85mph speedo as mandated by the safety nazi's, you learn to calculate 
speed from the tach....

Pony cars are a blast to drive and I think all enthusiasts should own one at 
least once.  They demand a lot of skill to drive quickly as they tend to "bite" 
the inattentive driver.  In the hands of a great driver, these cars are 
something to contend with.  Not only drag racing, but overall handling as 
well.  Just don't push it if the road's damp, even if you are a great driver.  
Beware of gravel.  Park it if there's over a 20% chance of snow.  

The great thing about the Quattro is being able to put ALL the power down ALL 
the time. Just because the Pony car wins on paper doesn't mean it wins in the 
real world.  And for confidence and stability, I'll take a Quattro at 130 over 
a Mustang at 100 anytime....

In summary, never underestimate the enthusiast in a Pony car. On the other 
hand, no one claims that most Pony car drivers are enthusiasts... or even good 
drivers.  Most of them drive slushboxes and never push the loud petal down more 
than a few mm's,  releasing no more HP than your average econobox.  And that's 
a good thing.

Bill Elliott
Lake Mills, WI