Get more, pay less. That's the impetus behind Sport Compact Car. And our annual Eight Great Rides award, now in its eighth year, epitomizes that philosophy. Designed as the sport compact enthusiast's guide to new car buying, the award goes to the eight cars with the best combination of power, handling and performance potential for less than $30,000.
Each year our editors drive every new vehicle in the segment in evaluation for Eight Great Rides. And every year there's a hitch that keeps one of our favorites from earning the award. This year, there were several.
The gap between the exit of one of last year's winners, the Mazdaspeed Miata, and the introduction of the new MX-5 kept Mazda's brilliant roadster off this year's list.
The MINI Cooper S Works, another of last year's winners, is left off the list thanks to a combination of rising prices and increased competition. We love the Cooper S and it certainly deserves an honorable mention. However, getting it optioned for hard driving means adding the $4,650 John Cooper Works package (which bumps power output to 207 hp), and a $500 limited-slip differential pushes its cost to $30,550--just outside our cap.
Mitsubishi was also affected. With EVO prices climbing again this year, the standard EVO's price tag was also pushed just beyond $30,000. Luckily, the EVO RS still offers all of the standard car's performance (and slightly less weight) for $28,499, so it gets the award. We're actually giving the award to the EVO IX RS since we've had the chance to drive it and it will be on sale just after you read this. Unfortunately, the EVO IX wasn't available at press time, so we were forced to photograph an EVO VIII.
The only new addition to this year's list is Scion's tC, which offers a whole lot more performance, potential and versatility than its $16,515 price suggests. We've even got one in our long-term fleet that will be getting the full project car treatment.
Returning after a one-year hiatus is Nissan's Sentra SE-R Spec V. Turns out, after a little price shifting in the market, the little Sentra with the big motor is still a terrific performance value.
And so the best all-around performance cars for the money are the Acura RSX Type-S, Dodge SRT-4, Mazda RX-8, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX RS, Nissan 350Z, Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V, Scion tC and the Subaru WRX. Following are SCC's photographers best interpretations of each car's character.
-- Josh Jacquot
Pick up the October 2005 issue of Sport Compact Car Magazine to read all about the winners.