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'91 Dodge Stealth R/T Twin Turbo and '91 Lotus Esprit SERichard A. Relph, richard@rare.orgSure - with the proviso that these are my impressions. I'm not going to defend them based on published numbers or others experiences to the contrary. I bought a 1991 Dodge Stealth R/T Twin Turbo in October of 1990. I'd owned Z's pretty much continuously from 1978 until then, with a brief 3 month stint with a Pontiac Trans Am SE (the KIT car - a piece of junk, even new). I'd been following it's progression in Autoweek for at least 18 months and knew I had
to have one when it became available. The car was great in a fullback sort of way. Nothing
graceful, but it moved well. I couldn't spin the tires. The car REALLY gripped well. But
what would you expect from a heavy car with 4 driven wheels? It was fast - - once you got
above 2500 RPM and the turbos kicked in. You could definitely feel them. It was a real
kick in the pants. It cornered I traded that in in 1994 for a 1991 Lotus Esprit SE (Turbo is redundant in 1991). Now
THAT was fast! Acceleration was incredible. And it cornered very well, with it's very low
center of gravity. But it's brakes left a lot to be desired. And it was always leaving me
little messages in the garage. The only one I fully comprehended was the clutch slave
cylinder leak, though the car provided an extra hint in that case - - you couldn't fully
engage the clutch. I loved the full leather The NSX is the Jerry Rice of the trio. I bought my '94 just a couple of weeks ago. Refined performance. Balanced. Nothing to extremes, but nothing average. No weak points. I LOVE the handling (though I dread the frequent stops at the shoe store). The feel is superb - even better than the Esprit, though the Esprit had fully manual steering. The shifter is amazing for it's brevity. Short strokes, never missed. A real joy after the Lotus' hunting. The creature comforts are exceptional (though I could use someplace to put my wallet and sunglasses). This is a car that realizes it needs a driver, and is designed accordingly. I haven't really been on the brakes yet, so I can't say much there. As for the power, I've gotten used to a turbo kick and kinda miss that. The car is still fast, and the power is really smooth, but as you've all observed, there are quite a few cars out there that can out accelerate the NSX. There are no 'quirks', which defines it's character to me. My neighbor says this lack of quirks is why it has NO character. My NSX is black,
while the Stealth and Esprit were both red. The NSX gets noticed, but not as frequently as
the Lotus did. I attribute at least part of that to it's lack of an in-your-face color.
The rest is probably due to the move from Texas to silicon valley, where unusual cars
aren't all that unusual. Of course, the NSX is the most expensive of the bunch, but in my
opinion, worth it. As my wife observed, this is the longest I've owned a 'new to me' car
without suffering buyer's remorse. And that says something... |
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