Feature: Ten years: ten fine rides

December 22, 2009

2004 Mazda3. Click image to enlarge

2004 Mazda3

Life is not all about high-performance, luxury dream-cars. Some of us have to get back and forth to work on a daily basis, and only occasionally get the chance to savour a nice car on a twisty stretch of lightly-travelled road. But in 2004, Mazda launched its Protégé successor that made the commute fun, and the wide-open road a joy. For compact cars, the bar got raised several notches, because not only was the Mazda3 a really stylish vehicle, it was a fabulous driving machine. Based on a platform shared by the contemporaneous European Ford Focus and the Volvo S40, the Mazda3 felt like it was carved out of a solid block of aluminum, which gave it the characteristics of being both nimble and premium-quality rigid. Gone was the notion that compact cars had to be flimsy, tinny and underpowered, and very quickly Mazda had a real winner on its hands. In Canada, it was AJAC’s Car of the Year, and for many journalists for many years, it was their standard recommendation to people considering a new small car. There’s an all-new one for 2010. Keep your eye on this year’s Car of the Year awards…

2005 Ford Mustang

2005 Ford Mustang. Click image to enlarge

This was the year the Mustang got itself back on track, both literally and metaphorically. With all due respect to our Grant Yoxon’s pretty 1990 Fox-bodied coupe, for 2005 Ford dusted off an iconic Mustang shape, and modernized it in such a way that Steve McQueen would have sighed with delight. There was no better performance bang-for-the-buck car in 2005 than the $32,995 Mustang GT Coupe. Its 4.6-litre V8 generated 300-horsepower and 320 pound-feet of torque, and it wore the largest brake rotors ever fitted to a production Mustang, enabling the car to stop as authoritatively as it went. Ford even hired racedriver Alex Tagliani to demonstrate the Mustang’s (and his…) chops at Mont Tremblant to prove the point (then again, pro drivers can make most things go fast…). It wasn’t long after the new Mustang that Camaro/Challenger joined the modern muscle car movement. Nostaliga; excess; out-of-step…I guess so. Enjoy them while you can.

2004 Honda S2000

2004 Honda S2000. Click image to enlarge

It lasted for the decade before Honda finally pulled the plug on this gem of a vehicle. It is a sports car in the traditional sense: a two-seat roadster; front-engine, rear-drive, top-down, high-performance motoring almost at its purest. Autos’s CarTalkCanada editor James Bergeron owns a 2001 model, and our Modern Classics contributor Jeff Burry has a 2003. If I could get my hands on one, we surely could start a club. Although it’s true that real power is not available in the S2000 until the engine spins past 6,000 r.p.m., the fact is, this doesn’t make it impractical as an everyday driver. On the contrary, it’ll zip around in the lower regions of its electronic tachometer when required, and won’t complain at all. But hit the gas and the rev counter will instantly make 8,000 r.p.m. through any of the six gears you’re driver enough to engage. The cockpit is snug, but not cramped; there’s a power convertible top, air conditioning even. But the best part is opening the hood to expose the exquisitely presented Honda 2.0 (or 2.2) litre engine. In its day, this engine generated the most naturally aspirated horsepower per litre in a production car.

2009 Nissan GT-R

2004 Honda S2000. Click image to enlarge

The 350Z was going to be my Nissan of choice, ‘cos it just didn’t disappoint, right? And for the money… Well, anyway, if you’re talking memorable experiences, the GT-R has to rank right up there in the stratosphere of motoring madness. If you haven’t driven one, I could perhaps compare it to riding a wild bull; the power and g-forces that this car generates under acceleration are just plain stupid. Driving it around town, the transmission bucks and clanks, the all-wheel drive system lurches, the throttle seems to operate in only two modes: off and gone. It has seats, wheels, a trunk; it looks like a regular car, and the casual observer would be forgiven for thinking you could just get in, start it up and commute. Hey, it has a V6, for crying out loud. But not so. In fact, it is truly barely drivable. Really, it drives you. If you ever do get your hands on one, you will never forget the experience.

2005 smart fortwo

2005 Smart Fortwo Cabrio. Click image to enlarge

You have no idea what driving a smart was like six months before it was officially launched in Canada. Don’t forget, we got it even before the U.S., and the sight of a smart on the road back then was absolutely astonishing to many motorists (“Where’s the other half of your car? Ha ha”). For a photo shoot, I remember simply parking one, moving away, and watching it attract crowds of people. Children loved it; everybody wanted to sit in it, look at it, touch it, find the engine (is THAT the engine?!!). Say what you will about the smart, its appearance in North America in the middle of the decade was a prelude to the decision by manufacturers that our market might finally be ready for genuine subcompacts. You know, the type of vehicles that have been common in Europe and Asia for years. In the meantime, before the novelty wore off, driving a smart in 2005 got you more attention than any supercar on the road. It could have been from Mars.

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