Cars - Sport compact

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	Cars - Sport compact

Sport compact cars are typically front-engine, front wheel drive (FF) compacts or subcompacts driven by a naturally aspirated 4-cylinder engine. Typical sport compacts include the Acura Integra, Honda Civic,Mazda MX-3, Toyota Celica, and more recently, the Chevrolet Cobalt.

The design philosophy of a sport compact sharply contrasts with those of 'true' sports cars. Sports cars are designed with a performance-oriented philosophy, often compromising cargo space, seating, gas mileage, driveability, and reliability. A sport compact is usually designed with a practical design philosophy and profit in mind. This philosophy has led to several compromises when it comes to performance, such as front wheel drive, conservative engine design, and platform sharing. Electronic control units are also programmed for optimal gas mileage.

Performance-oriented sport compacts focus on improving handling and increasing engine efficiency, rather than increasing engine size or conversion to rear-wheel drive. For example, the Celica GT-S and RSX Type-S are both sport compacts that produce 100 hp/ L of displacement, and have handling superior to their stock trims. However, these models are expensive compared to sports cars of similar performance.

Classification & debate

The exact definition of a sport compact remains a subject of debate. Many believe that any 4-cylinder compact car with 130 hp or more falls into this category, so a RWD car such as the Nissan 240SX would be a sport compact. High performance versions of compact cars, such as the Subaru WRX STi or the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution often make proper categorization ambiguous. Many see the addition of forced induction as the delineation, as that the increased power provided by forced induction can make a 4 cylinder engine produce more power than most six cylinder engines.

Some would venture so far as to place any performance-oriented car with less than 8 cylinders in this category. However, this categorization is very broad, as cars such as the Toyota Supra, Acura NSX, Lotus Elise, and the Nissan Skyline would then fall into the same category as the Honda Civic and Nissan Sentra. This is probably based on the design philosophy of domestic automakers, as they usually produce sports cars driven by eight cylinder engines, reserving six cylinder engines for less competitive models.

Despite this, often contains articles on the Toyota Supra, Nissan 350Z, Honda S2000, Lotus Elise, and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution in addition with other sport compacts.

Tuning

It has become fairly popular to modify or customize a sport compact, commonly referred to as tuning. This has given rise to the term "tuner" for the owners of modified sport compacts, and, by extension, their automobiles. There is a large market for bolt-on performance enhancing equipment that fits small cars of this type. This market also includes a lot of equipment that is cosmetic (something that changes the appearance of the vehicle).

Many self-described "tuners" spend more money on spoilers, ground effects, neon lighting, poorly-designed exhausts, loud sound systems, large wheels with low-profile tires and other style/image products than they do on performance enhancing modifications, effectively turning their cars into rice burners. In many cases, these modifications severely hinder the performance of the car either by increasing curb weight or counteracting original design decisions. For example, a large rear spoiler on a FWD car will reduce traction, and larger wheels require more force to move.

This practice is looked down upon by car enthusiasts of all varieties, who often refer to such characters as 'rice boys'. The rapid explosion of ineffective (and disruptive, in the case of buzzing exhausts and rattling subs) modifications has led to a backlash of sorts against all of those who modify their sport compacts. Much to the distress to those participating in the Import Scene, this has led to the term tuner becoming a pejorative in many circles. Many tuners pour thousands of dollars into engine tuning and performance tuning, and are offended when lumped into the same category as rice boys. Many tuners modify their sport compacts to outrun sports cars with double or in some cases, triple the displacment of their engines.

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Cars - Sport compact

Classification & debate

Tuning

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