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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!phri!fritz
From: fritz@phri.UUCP (Dave Fritzinger)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: first impressions: mustang GT
Message-ID: <2227@phri.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Feb-86 11:51:23 EST
Article-I.D.: phri.2227
Posted: Mon Feb 17 11:51:23 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Feb-86 07:13:46 EST
References: <116@druhi.UUCP>
Reply-To: fritz@phri.UUCP (Dave Fritzinger)
Distribution: net.auto
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 42
Keywords: rabbit shit, GTI excrement, GOLF feces

Summary:GTIs OK, Mustangs OK

First, it seems to me that this argument is getting way out of hand,
with flames being posted on top of flames.  I really don't think the net
is the place for this sort of thing, but I'll go ahead and post this
anyway.

Okay, now a few facts about myself and my car, so that you all know
where I'm coming from.  I drive an '83 GTI, and as I've said before, I
think that it is a wonderful car.  It is fairly fast, handles very well
(and for 2 years in England I owned an Alfasud, an excellent handling
car) and is quite economical.  It has also been dead reliable, and has
not cost me a cent in repairs outside of routine maintainance ( after
40,000 miles).  However, I will be the first to admit that it is not a
sports car.  What it is is a sports hatchback, the first sold in the
States, but a catagory of cars that is very popular in Europe, and a
class of cars defined by the GTI there.  Indeed, the GTI is still
reckoned to be the best of its class there.  The GTI is also *not* a
direct competitor to the Mustang GT, which is an altogether larger, more
powerful, more expensive car whose competition is more on the order of
various Camaros, Toyota Supras, etc.

Finally, let me make a comment on the "wheels up" cornering of the GTI,
and of most VWs.  While it does look kind of funny (I always thought
that it looks like a dog in search of a fire hydrant :-), every magazine
that I've read, as well as personal experience, says that it does not
adversely affect the handling of the car.  I know that the old model of
the GTI would circle the skid pad at just under 0.8 G, while the new one
manages just over 0.8G-very respectable for any car, and about equal to
what a Mustang GT can do.  I might add that, from what I've read, the
older Mustang GTs were kind of dog's in handling, but that in the last
couple of years they have gotten much better.  

Now, I hope that this will get some of the flames off of the net.  If
you do have any flames about this article, kindly send them to
/dev/null.

-- 
Dave Fritzinger, Public Health Research Institute, NY,NY
{allegra!phri!fritz}

"I think. I think I am. Therefore, I am,...I think."

					Moody Blues