Postby davekmoore » Wed Jul 30, 2014 2:01 am
Mr Morlock wrote:My inclination is weight 1040KG soft top version, engine 135KW size 2000 not turbo,( ?) touring model and rht ( i.e. a convertible car, led lights for signals,drls, projector for headlamps, cloth interior for base model, and price for base model i.e. touring ( proper soft top ) $37000 and RHT $39000 and full leather and better sound system $41000. I think they have to find a way to keep the price down so it should be easy to have an entry level car even though it will get outsold by an rht. If they could achieve those numbers the car would perform better than an 86 but not be just a hot rod.
The question that it does pose however is that something like 135KW needs to be on tap and its pretty easy to achieve that with a turbo on a small engine- like what VW / BMW have been doing. One of the Minis has now got a 3 cylinder turbo engine. Ford were getting outstanding performance out of the 2litre engine in the Falcon- apparently so good it was a match for the big 6.
Avoid the extra R&D, marketing and stocking costs of offering multiple models. No need for leather or Bose or tin tops etc. Just do a near 1000kg hi-tune 14.5:1 comp 98 octane version of the 2.5L with maybe 145kW and 270 torques. As it's so light it'll test at under 6.0L per 100km (although most buyers won't care much about fuel consumption). Price a base spec as above at $35k manual or $37k with flippy puddles. That would satisfy traditional MX5 buyers as well as bringing a whole new bunch of people into our dealerships to buy these cars while providing a halo effect for the rest of the range. I reckon this combo would fly out the door albeit at the expense of some small loss of sales of SP25s.
UK since return: Standard NC2 (horrid), C200K, ND2 BBR, NC2 BBR200 (loved it), NC BBR300 (better than BARMY), V-Special, turbo NB8B (my 84th car)