[Mr 5 0]

Makiveli:

We've seen this argument about a thousand times on this board so your comments are not new or unique but thanks for an honest, if not agreeable, post.

Mustangs are very quick. The numbers don't lie. New 4.6 GT's can see 13's out of the showroom, without turbos or superchargers or nitrous oxide. I doubt your grandmother will buy a Mustang but I'll bet she loves the latest Honda. Notice the difference here?

Look, you can take a little foreign car designed to be basic transportation and pour time and money into it and make it quick. That's rewarding, I get that. Thousands of Mustang owners do the same thing, despite your assumption that every Mustang is stock. You wish, my friend. Actually, the opposite is usually true.

Difference is that the Mustang is designed to be a fast, sporty car and pouring hard work and cash into it only enhances it and can deliver an 11-second car that can handle the power in every way as well as blow off most of the 'Fast-and Furious' wannabe's on the road.

We can yammer at each other all day about what's fastest but the fact is that despite the huge amount of Japanese econocars on the road pretending to be fast (stickers and plastic crap all over your car doesn't equal fast, just delusional) very few 'modified' Japanese econocars see better than 14's on the street and guess what? They all want to race Mustangs (and Camaros). They usually lose.

The fact that a few modified or nitroused Civics beat some stock Mustangs here and there is meaningless, as side by side, a modified Civic with less than about $3,000. invested in it will probably lose to any V-8 Mustang with around $1,000. invested as there is a 3-second et gap to begin with that is very, very hard for the Japanese econocar to close and easy for the Mustang V-8 to extend.

Two more things in response to your assertions.

The term 'rice' as applied to Japanese-origin vehicles is not inherently racist, no more than 'Kraut' (for German) or 'Limey' (for British) is. We don't play that bogus PC game here. We're Americans and we celebrate American muscle cars, specifically Mustangs. If you prefer Japanese manufactured cars you're welcomed to them but don't attempt to make personal choice a racial bias issue or make a generic nickname some sort of PC crime. You can do better than that.

Many of us own a Japanese-manufactured car as a family hauler or basic transportation and we don't apologize for it. I'm one of those people. I just don't expect my little 2-litre Mazda to be a performance car and I don't intend to force it into one, even though it's possible, given enough time and money.

Finally, you're either very young or very naive if you believe that 'modified' imports are the big wave of the future. They may take their place in the American automotive line but V-8 muscle cars will always be the car of choice for those who want more than a whine and a fart from their car and get tired of needing nitrous and turbos to keep up to the Mustang V-8's that keep passing them.

Time will tell, but I'll choose good old American V-8 muscle over Japanese econocars-on-steroids any day.

See you in my rear-view mirror.