10 Ways Sports Cars Have Evolved

Image via Complex Original

Get in the average sports car from the ’60s, and, yes, you will find a pair of leather seats. But you won’t find luxury gadgets, or comfortable suspension, or much noise and vibration reduction, or anything that would help you relax on a long drive. The line between grand tourers and sports cars used to be much more defined.

A manual was originally the only choice for a car’s transmission, but the automatic quickly gained market share once it was introduced to the public. Autos were sluggish, though, so auto gearboxes were a luxury item for big sedans that rich folks drove slowly, while sports cars still had three pedals.

The turning point was in 1989, when Ferrari put a paddle-shifted, semi-automatic gearbox in its F1 car. In 1990, most of the grid was paddle-shifted, and today it’s harder to find a sports car with three pedals than one with two paddles. Some companies like Lamborghini have even stopped making manual models simply because the computers are guaranteed to provide a quicker experience. 

Yeah, the ’60s were way better when it came to pure power than the dreaded malaise era that followed, but in recent years things have gotten gloriously out of hand. Most dedicated sports cars have more than 400 horses now, and we’re even in a world that’s crazy enough to have several 1,000-plus hp options, and a freaking 707 hp production sedan. All hail Hellcat! 

Rear-wheel drive used to be the only choice for sports cars. Hot hatches have proven that FWD can be fun, but no front driver can ever behave like a real sports car. It’s hard to get all that previously mentioned power to the ground with only two small patches of tire contact. Doubling the amount of traction by spinning all of the wheels can really help with that, and that’s why we’re seeing more and more AWD sports cars today. That and it's giving people a semi-false sense of added security. 

Today, any ham-fisted moron with money can get his paws on a massively powerful sports machine. Lucky for those people, the cars are much easier to keep in line. Today’s computing technology, combined with stability and traction control, means that you have to do something genuinely stupid to crash most modern cars. Before all those electronic aids were commonplace, mistakes were punished with slides, which roll right into objects, and that hurt.

“There’s no replacement for displacement,” says any given Midwesterner with a moustache. Once upon a time, when massive amounts of chrome were cool and people other than Guy Fieri wore flame-patterned button-downs, this was true. The kids these days are getting huge amounts of horsepower with turbos and superchargers. We will agree, however, that naturally aspirated engines are more fun, because nobody likes turbo lag.

Beyond that, we’re also seeing a variety of technologies like cylinder deactivation and automated stop/start that help today’s fast cars get more miles per gallon than Moustachey McMidwest’s GTO could ever dream of.

Right now, through use of exotic new materials, cars are returning in one way to how they once were. Fifty years ago, cars weighed nothing by today’s standards, given that their regulations still allowed for things like A-Pillars that were roughly the thickness of an infant’s wrists. Then the regulations hit, and things got bigger—much bigger—and with size comes weight.

Today, through use of aluminum, carbon fiber, and other modern materials, cars are finally getting lighter once more. The future is bright, people.

Like we said earlier, the divide between grand tourers and sports cars used to be wider. Cars that could kick ass on a track were almost exclusively tiny and impractical. Today, you can get a comfy 2+2 with a decent trunk that kills it on the track and can still handle the school run.

The only limitations of a car’s exterior used to be the shape of the chassis and the relative lunacy of the designer. Often, there wasn’t even a design team—just one guy with no oversight and a sketchbook. There were some pretty crazy cars in the past century.

Today, the wind pushing against the front of the car at speed has about as much power over the final design as the chief exterior designer.

One of the most dramatic changes (from a driver’s vantage point) in sports cars is the adjustability. If you want rock-hard suspension for the track and softer suspension for real life, you don’t have to buy two cars anymore. If you want as much torque as possible all the time on the back roads and a smooth progression in town, you don't have to buy two cars any more. If you want twitchy, instant response from your steering at your local autocross event and an easy-to-find-and-hold center for road trips, you don’t have to buy two cars any more. You just have to push a button, and that’s pretty cool.