The luxury - sports continuum

[caesar]

As car design has progressed, how much of the driving experience has been gained? And how much has been lost due to luxury? My father's 5 series BMW is definitely not the ultimate driving machine BMW claims it is. It is more of an ultimate luxury machine. No, it's not as bad as Lexus, which has the feel of a nearly-dead man getting his morphine drip. But it's not as raw as my cousin's 8 year old M5.

A friend of mine who loves vintage stuff brought over 1968 Mercury Cougar to my house. That car has a BIGASS V8 engine and exudes that James Dean cool, but it is a bear to drive. After cruising around for a while, we hopped into my Audi A7. The Audi also has the cool, modern looks, and is fast, and handles very well for a sedan. In a nutshell, the Audi had everything that the Mercury had, but was better, smoother, and more civilized. And it didn't have any of the "bad" that the Cougar has. But is the raw feel of the Cougar all bad?

Personally, I like my car to communicate with me, but I am not a race car driver, so I don't mind some refinement and a somewhat more forgiving ride. Where do you guys sit on the luxury - sports continuum?

 

[JackD201]

I used to drive an E46 M3 with a 6 speed manual transmission. I just loved the scream of its 8,500 redline. Extremely balanced and communicative BUT controls could get heavy after some exertion and the ride was unforgiving. Back from the hills and stuck in Manila traffic and my left calf would feel like it was made of stone. I'd say it was a true sports car but one on the heavy side. Best part about it was as a golf nut, it had a boot that could easily fit take my staff bag.

Now I drive a C63 AMG. 7 speed auto, 4 doors. It's not as precise, has a ride that's quite firm but not filling loosening and doesn't scream. It roars. The torque can pin me past 130mph at which point I'm either out of road or chicken out. Most of the time it's the latter. It's a much faster car for sure. MUCH. I like however how if I'm not being immature it drives about the city like our civilized but boring e350. It being silver and the styling only recognizable to car people, I also like how I don't get ricers bugging me for road races. That's something that happened pretty often with the Imola Red M3 Coupe.