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Daily Slideshow: Can Sports Cars Have 4 Doors?

If you polled 10 people and asked them to answer with a simple Yes or No, what would their answer be?

By Brian Dally - December 26, 2017

mmarshall

Mostly no, but with two possible exceptions...the Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru WRX/STI.

S2000toIS350

Panamera Turbo E Hybrid may have something to say here (if it could speak)

05RollaXRS

Though, I own a 2 door sports car, it is mostly because the RCF is not available in 4 doors and GSF was too big for me and styling was not my cup of tea so RCF was the only choice. Yes, 4 door cars can be sports cars. It has been proven time and again cars with 4 doors perform equally as well as their 2 door counterparts particularly in three box design cars. The M3 and M4 (and the older E90 M3 and E92 M3) were good examples. 4 doors also has an inherent advantage as far as chassis torsional rigidity goes because of a B-pillar, which coupes don't have (hence the need for extra chassis reinforcements).

mmarshall

I think we may be arguing semantics here. A four-door sports car is usually thought of as a sports-sedan. For years, up till recently, the BMW 3-series was the classic poster-child of a good sports sedan.

arentz07

I recently stumbled across a rumor of a new IS F...

Though, I do like the RC F just for its presence, which I'm not sure an IS F of this generation would be able to match. Though, I am sure the chassis would work well in an F version.

ragingf80

The EVO, STI, Panamera, RF-C are all GTs. They are not "Sports Cars". Neither is the 911 for that matter. Does that mean that they are not "sporty" or used in "motorsports" or raced on the track? Absolutely not. Even fixed roof full on Race Cars are not technically "Sports Cars". The name has been somewhat bastardized in marketing performance oriented cars, so while it's generally acceptable to call a 911 a sports car for simplicity's sake, they are not classified as Sports Cars.

Here is a good article on it:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cult...ar-definition/

mmarshall

No offense, but have you driven an Evo? I have. IMO, it's a classic 4-door sports-car in every sense of the word. In fact, if anything, Mitsubishi may have overdid the suspension.....it beats the hell out of you on anything but glass-smooth roads. But it corners like it's on rails.....it, and the STI, don't dominate the rally-circuts for nothing.

mjeds

semantics..

but technically speaking (from an insurance point of view)

Sports Car - 2 doors, Seats 2
Sports Coupe - 2 doors, Seats 4
Sports Sedan - 4 doors, Seats 4 or 5

Byprodrive

iTrader: (1)

Carroll Shelby called them Sport Cars, so I do too.

mmarshall

Shelby also called THIS FWD compact a sports car LOL.

oldcajun

The only 4 door that I would classify as a sports car is the Mazda RX-8.

mjeds

called what a sports car?

Lexmex

I never had an issue with a 4 door car being a sports car. South of the border I saw all sorts of vehicles I will never see in the US.

My personal favorite is anything sports-oriented with suicide doors, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...#Suicide_doors

arentz07

I think calling the Mustang a sports car is somewhat a stretch - I would think of it more as a "pony car" or "sports coupe". However, even then, I suppose "sedan" is technically correct - it's just not a "four-door sedan". Coupe may even be an incorrect term.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedan_(automobile)

I think what the biggest takeaway is, from my perspective, is that the term "sports car" is far too generic, in appearance, to be useful if we are going to be pedantic about the manner in which it is used. Take the example of the RC F. It is a "sporty car". There is a phrase that is oddly similar to "sports car" already. The old definition of sports cars, which is just roughly "a car with a removable roof that is used for motorsport", seems quite odd nowadays - are the only real sports cars convertibles? Would you really refer to a Cayman GT4 as a Grand Tourer? It doesn't seem like the type of car I'd want to grand tour in, hard-top roof or not - perhaps semi-grand would be bearable. I would say that either a Boxster or a Cayman would be something I'd call a sports car - they are inherently very similar vehicles anyway. My rough definition of a sports car has always been, just based on what most people around me say, a sporty car with two doors that is aimed at performance over comfort. For example, a BMW 6-series would not be a sports car, but a GT car, whereas a fixed-roof Corvette would be a sports car, not a GT car.

tl;dr: semantics, semantics...

I guess in any case it is good to know what the proper terminology is.