In Baruth's defense about obtaining track times and obtaining various cars for comparison, from little blurbs and one sentence anecdotes I've read over the years in magazines like Road and Track, Motortrend, Car and Driver, etc., it can be quite a challenge to get everything lined up. There are so many elements in play, from limited availability of press cars to only having a sliver of track time to work with, to manufacturers being afraid of loaning a press car for fear of it being used in a comparison test against some direct competition. I can honestly see how getting a used car of a certain make and model being especially difficult. Chances are, there's no longer an press cars of that make available for one, and for two, finding someone to loan you their car from their private collection could be quite a feat. So while it's their job to try to line things up as best as possible, yeah, they're not gonna hit a home run every time. In fact, I bet it happens more often than any of us really expect and they never bring the issue up unless someone calls them out on it, like in this article.

Flaws aside, I was kind of drawn to this article for a few reasons. Yeah, cause cars. I'm a one note kind of guy like that. What really drew me to it though, is that how language really is very organic and how we view and define things through language changes over time. There's tons of causes for it, from expanding on a definition to make it a broader term. If you'd ask me my opinion on the matter, I'd say that the Mustang is a type of sports car and if you wanted to be more specific, it's a muscle car. Does it fit the original, traditional definition? No. But from my perspective, it fits what I think of when I think sports cars today.

It's one of those things though, where after reading the article a second and a third time, I really start to wonder whether or not the guy has actually made his point. The more I think about it, the more I think he hasn't. Calling a car one thing or another doesn't really seem like it'd have that much of an impact on whether or not you see a certain type of car in a dealership. Market trends do. He talks about this when he brought up rollover regulations. To expand beyond his example, SUVs and CUVs have killed the station wagon here in the US. They're more accessible, more versatile, and thanks to our wide roles, their size isn't a drawback. In Europe, you'd be hard pressed to find many SUVs, CUVs, and full size pickups. Their roads are too small. So of course, over there, station wagons and light pickups are still a thing. Sports cars are the same. Let's be honest. For the majority of people out there, they're toys. Expensive toys. If we were to speak strictly about sports cars or roadsters, the Mazda Miata is the most affordable one out there, and for just a hair under $29,000 starting out, that's a shit ton of money for a two seater car that can't haul many groceries, can't tow anything, only sits two people, and requires someone dedicated to the point of being near insane to be willing to drive in the winter. Not a lot of people are gonna pay that kind of money. That's doubly true in today's economy. So no, the changing definition of “sports car” isn't what's causing them to dwindle off. It's the economy.