US will most likely get a watered down fwd version of a turbo corolla.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a3...onfirmed-2022/
Like said chances are better KIA or Hyundai will develop/produce something for US consumption.

 

GR Yaris in the states and I'm ready to part with money. Turbo Corolla, not so much.

 

depends how they put it together... before you knew anything about the GR Yaris you would have said "not so much" about a turbo Yaris too

 

Probably because Americans can't help but take any and all performance cars, try to make eleventy billion horsepower, then drag race it. For some reason, we just can't leave **** alone and drive the cars how they were intended. Rally car? DRAG RACE IT. GT350? DRAG RACE IT. GTR? FD? CTR? DRAG RACE IT! Yeeee haaaw.
Then the cars break and get a bad rep. Tons of warranty work... blah blah. No surprise all the manufacturers are declining to send cars here.

 

Right..... In the back of my mind I wonder if US is partly responsible for the demise of Mitsubishi due to excessive warranty claims. On the other hand you have Dodge continually building 60's style dinosaur age zillion HP vehicles and still keepin afloat.

 

To be fair you have to look at the environment most people are driving in. The US is mostly long straight stretches of road. The only real opportunity for fun that presents its self most of the time is straight line acceleration. I think drag racing is also a lot more approachable for the regular person than other forms of motorsports.

 

Designed to be driven how Americans drive them. 10-11sec passes on a fat tire. Easy peasy. Smart play on their part. Cars that are built to handle just don't do as well. Not even the gt350 survived.

Not sure it's different anywhere else, though.
​​​​​​I guess some countries do rally, some do GT...F1...we do drag racing. Boo. I think the main appeal is that it takes no effort to floor the gas pedal and go straight. Everyone can do it.
I literally only know about four people that care about anything else. I know we're all a rare breed
It's a shame. I wish manufactures were able to cater to us a bit more.

 

Well the gt350 is still a mustang (and variants: GT 500, Bullit, Mach 1, etc.) and it is the car Ford decided to keep in production. The reason the GT 350 didn't last was the stupid mark up the stealerships were asking. Won't be long and electric cars will be producing insane performance levels over our revered petrol cars. Formula one racing will never be the same without the sounds.

 

I'm totally fine with a slower, ICE over a boring electric. I grew up with cars that made amazing sounds. It's too late for me. I'll leave it for the newer generation.
Plus, how impressive is it to just add different motors and batteries to go faster? It's not.

 

Funny cuz I grew up racing slot cars. Guess what we did to go faster. Changed motors, brushes and tires.
I am totally with you though on the sounds of racing and smell of race fuels.

 

In 1978 I bought a Trans Am. Under the front was a 1 1/4 inch sway bar. GM said they made it that thickness because it was the thickest metal they could bend. That car was neutral steer - how dare they. After that all I wanted was handling cars. The TA set a high bar. I believe this desire saved my life on at least two occasions. As long as a car has decent power to pass I couldn't care less about having more power.

BTW, I spent the day working on a Subaru. This gave me time to reflect on what it takes to be a Subaru. It was designed by space aliens and reverse engineered by Russians.

 

There are plenty of nuances to EV to keep it just as interesting as ICE. I mean just look at the audiophile scene and that's small potatoes compared to moving a vehicle. There will be tons of mods for all the Tim Taylors of the world to grunt about.

 

If we were doing word association you'd say Corolla and I'd say airport.

 

The ONLY thing I liked about my Subaru was changing the timing belt. That was an amazing experience.

We'll agree to disagree. I've driven a fair share of EVs and there is nothing I like about them other than a quiet freeway ride. For that reason, I'd daily drive one but never have one as my toy. I just can't muster up enough interest.
Oh. Not having to really maintain anything is another point in the "DD" column.

 

thats roll racing... drag racing actually does take some skill if its a stick, especially on street tires... but most cars at the drag strip are autos, so back to no skill