stubba - I don't know about absolute performance, I could believe the 740 might be faster in numeric terms. But I drove both cars on the same afternoon, and the 430 in "sport performance" mode shifted the way I wanted, pulled stronger in the high rev band, and just felt better than the 740. The 750 was faster than either the 740 or the 430, and had a wider torque band, but I didn't like the handling as well - not to say it was worse, it was probably a little better, but it was not as smooth and predictable.
I want my every day car to be fun and have some zip, but if we want to talk speed, I'll run my Esprit against almost anything out there. I can do 0 to 100 and back to 0 in 10 seconds... I have had the car near 170 and it still had plenty left, but I didn't... at 2300 lbs and 360HP it is in a different world from "regular" cars, and the handling puts "muscle" machines like the big corvettes and Vipers to shame. A friend who is a professional driver took it on a race course and turned a 1:28. Indy cars on the same track were turning 1:09, and 750HP TransAms were turning 1:22. Not bad for an essentially stock exotic. But not a good car to take to the corner store. |
