In commenting on the list of cars teens want, I got to thinking about the state of entry level sports cars in North America. There isn’t a single, market grabbing entry level sports car, aka pocket rocket, available in North America today. Honda enthusiasts may disagree, but the civic hasn’t been a pocket rocket since the SI circa 1989 & even then it wasn’t really all that special until it was built up.
The Garage definition of a Pocket Rocket is a small, affordable car which is fun to drive.
Arguably, the original pocket rocket was the Mini. Small, affordable and fun to drive. Built for more than forty years, with a motorsports history that has been matched by very few other cars, the Mini has developed an incredible following of enthusiasts.
In the late seventies, Volkswagen introduced the Rabbit. A cheap, affordable little car that was fun to drive. In 1982, VW upped the ante with the Rabbit GTI. A little more horsepower that a regular Rabbit, with a beefed up suspension & sportier interior made for a car that youthful enthusiasts clamoured for. The chassis responded very well to simple, common upgrades like tires and springs. There was incredible aftermarket support for the GTI that supplied real performance improvements that were often a simple bolt on. Even a hot cam was only a couple of hours work for the home tinkerer. It was always fun seeing the reaction on spectators faces at a local autocross when a GTI lifted the inside rear wheel six inches off the ground. Later in the Eighties, the GTI started to gradually move upscale, with size and price that moved upwards accordingly. The grassroots GTI was forgotten by VW.
In 1989, Suzuki introduced the Swift GTi. A 1900 pound, 2 door hatch that had just a tick over 100 horsepower. A taught suspension, coupled with fat tires & 4 wheel disc brakes made for a little car that was an absolute blast to drive. With a reworking of the stock ECM, the 1300 cc engine would spin to over 10,000 rpm. Yes, you read right, 10,000 rpm! Best of all, it was cheap. In Canada, you could pick up a loaded GTi (no a/c of course) for under $13,000. Unfortunately, the Swift’s reputation was overshadowed by it’s anemic cousins, the 3 cylinder Chevy Sprint & Pontiac Firefly. In 1990, Suzuki was sued by VW & forced to drop the i and the car became the Swift GT part way through the 1990 model year. Had the Swift been marketed by Honda or Toyota there is no question it would have sold much better. As it was, the car was produced until 1994 and was never replaced in the Suzuki model line up.
As far as I can see, the Swift Gt was the last true pocket rocket sold in North America. The GTI is still available, but at a starting point of almost $30,000 it is hardly affordable. Toyota had the right idea with the echo/Yaris, but the car was downright slow. You could hop it up with the available TRD bits, but to do the full job would almost double the price of the car. The Dodge SRT-4 comes close, but it’s not very friendly to the backyard mechanic. The current Mini, while very cool is hardly inexpensive or easy to work on. In Europe, all sorts of small, sporty and affordable beasties are available & the aftermarket is there to support all of them.
It’s time for some car manufacturer to build a real Pocket Rocket that we can buy here.
8 comments ↓
The GTI could almost be considered a pocket rocket. From what I’ve seen its the closest GTI to the original yet, much improved over the clumsy porker generations since 1985. I have yet to drive one, so my opinion could drastically change, but they are damn comfy on the inside and it certainly feels like everything is just where it should be, which is one of the reasons VW Rabbits are only a notch below my Elise on my personal “Best cars to just drive” list.
I do see your point though, the companies have certainly sold out in a way although I’m positive that it has helped them in the long run. We, as enthusiasts, hate these cars that leave you longer for a more direct experience but unfortunately we’re the vast minority. They are in it for money not to please a group of people that, at best, makes up 10% of today’s drivers.
i’d consider a miata in this category. frankly they rule imho. i wish spec miata racing was as big here in oz as it is there in usa with scca. we have a few running in marqee sports, but not as a full blown class on its own. pity.
btw, heaps of nice incar videos too at http://www.specmiatavideos.com, check out “i was seventh” and “long jump”
If Lotus was a bigger company and economies of scale could be applied, something based on the Elise platform could be pretty cheap to produce. It’s made mostly of inexpensive aluminum extrustions. BTW, the engine bay of the Elise was allegedly designed to accept every known FWD drivetrain in production at the time of design. The Elise comes w/ a 1.8L Toyota mill. Imagine it w/ a supercharged Northstar V8.
Dodge’s press kit for the Caliber SRT explicitly calls it a “pocket rocket”, and w/ 300 HP, serious suspension and brake upgrades, a 6 speed and 0-60 in
I can say, without a doubt, that a supercharged Northstar tucked in the back of my Elise would be way too much. The car is honestly great with the stock power and I imagine “at its limit” with the 250-300hp turbo kits that are popping up for it. In stock form it is very easy to control and seems to always have the right bit of power for each curve. The only place it somewhat falls flat (and only does so if you’ve driven a 12 second or faster car) is on a really long straightaway. Still though, having owned two G60 Rabbits (a daily driver that ran 14.0 flat & a track only drag car that ran 12.5’s) the car is an awesome and very correct transition for me. It’s performance is right in between my two old cars and only improves on the experience in just about every aspect.
The only feeling the Elise fails to give me is that “sickening amount of torque, wheelspin, power” feeling that was brought on with my drag car when I’d lay onto the nitrous in 4th gear. The tires would completely break loose and start spinning but the car would just keep pulling harder and harder. That was a cool feeling. The Elise is about as fast but the power curve is so smooth (slight bump at 6200 rpms though) that you kinda miss out on that “rush”.
The US has more pocket rockets out today than it ever has in the past. This is the golden age of US pocket rockets! Options include:
- new VW GTI. Best GTI since the Mk2. About $22K.
- Mini Cooper S. Loads of fun. $22K
- Acura RSX. Great car. About $22K
- WRX. AWD fun. 230 BHP. About $25K
- Civic Si. About $22K
The WRX and Mini Cooper S have a deep aftermarket if you want to add stuff, and Civic will as well (don’t know about Acura or GTI).
I would also add that the original Mini was not a pocket rocket at all, neither was the Golf Mk1. They were small cars, and handled well, but had no oomph.
I fear you’ve forgotten a whole slew of Chrysler vehicles available well into the 90s with turbocharged fours… and the OC pcoket rocket (original chryco) the Omni GLH (goes like heck) and GLHS (goes like heck some more). IIRC, those were right around 2200 pounds, with VERY tight suspensions, 120HP in the former and ~140 with much more torque in the latter. Then you’ve got all the Turbo 1s (2.5 nonintercooled, 140hp with great freaky gobs of torque) that found their way into 2300-2400 pound Shadows, the Plymouth Duster (sundance with a 3.0 liter V6)…
… The Escort GT from Ford was right up there too with the GTI, if a wee bit slower and sloppier. GM even got in the game a bit, there were turbocharged Sunbirds, the 2.8L Cavalier Z24, etc. You might arguably include the Ford EXP turbo, though it was a two seater.
It goes back further than that. Ford Capris, the Cosworth Vega, Plymouth had the Colt, which was fairly quick, and later the Sapporo and Dodge’s Challenger, which were rebadged turbocharged mitsubishi coupes… Could you include the mustang 2.3 turbo, since it was inexpensive and really only differs from teh econoboxes by a few hundred pounds and rear wheel drive?
Cheap, high-revving four cylinder performance never went away, it just got forgotten.
[...] In response to my post asking where the pocket rockets have gone, Boston Listed a handful of cars currently for sale that fit the bill of Pocket Rocket. What struck me as odd was the prices he qouted for these cars, so I thought it might be fitting to do some cross border shopping. Often, vehicle pricing varies greatly from North of the border to South of the border. What may be an affordable car in the United States may not be such a great deal up here in The Great White North. [...]
[...] Related Where are the pocket rockets? [...]
Leave a Comment