I originally planned to Autopian Ask ya’ll about your Thanksgiving road-trip plans and/or any past holiday-haul adventures, but it turns out Matt already posed that as his Big Question in yesterday’s Morning Dump:
Are you hitting the road this Thanksgiving? How long of a drive, and what are you taking?
… so there goes THAT idea. But do feel free to reply to Matt’s Q here if you missed it yesterday. There are no rules, man.
Still, I needed to come up with a new question, and thankfully, The Bishop came through: “The FC RX-7 is the cranberry sauce of cars. It just sits there and nobody understands how good it is. What other cranberry sauce cars are there?”
See, that’s a good question. I suppose it could have been just “what are some under-appreciated cars,” but a cranberry-sauce car feels like something a little more special. A car that is a little sweeter, a little tangier than a merely good, underloved car. And for sure, the FC RX-7 is a great one. Just look at these two Bring a Trailer examples:
Pretty great, right? While all pop-up headlights are fantastic by default, the FC’s have a neat trick. When stowed, the lamps can be flashed through those clear-lensed slots in the nose, so you can let the left-lane bandit ahead of you know that you’d like to spin up the 13B’s dual rotors. Neat!
How about going topless? Those taught 1980s body lines make it easy to clip the roof off without goofing up the styling, and in black with those wheels? Saucy, indeed.
Your turn: what cranberry-sauce cars would you like to feast on?
Top graphic images: Mazda; DepositPhotos.com
The Saab 900s made when GM ran Saab (they were called 9-3 by then I think?) was actually much better than I expected. At least from a driving dynamics POV… I drove a non-turbo model that was into six figures on the odometer, and it was still sprightly and engaging.
The third gen (NC) Miata of course, but I’m sure others have said that already.
I can’t speak for all 1980s Audis, but the few that I’ve driven have all impressed when compared to contemporaries. Of course, they’re just beefier VWs, so complex and costly is the name of the repair game when they’re old. Still, during their first decade, even modest Audis like the 80/90 are pretty nice to drive: not exactly sporty, but refined and dignified without flash.
Hi Tinibone here, you’re local neighbourhood FC RX7 enthusiast!
I tend to agree with your assessment, the FC is a great car a smooth, powerful engine, engaging steering and good looks but I think the cause is that it’s been overshadowed by the other offerings in the lineup (ie the FD which did all of that slightly better), like the gravy that everyone picks over the cranberry sauce. (I assume, I’m Aussie and therefore assume your Thanksgiving is similar to my Christmas lunch just with less prawns).
So here’s my picks for some other cranberry sauces:
Kenmeri Skyline GTR, a great chassis and engine overshadowed by both the Hakosuka and the Godzilla Trio.
NC MX5/Miata – it’s still light and nimble, just not as light and nimble as its siblings.
Renault Megane RS – the reviewers all said it was the greatest hot hatch, by no one wants them because of their (often founded) concerns about French reliability
And as a sign off help me convince Brendan that he needs to replace his Eunos Roadster with a FC Turbo Vert
Okay so I could have had seafood in my Christmas diet all along? What part of Australia do I need to move to?
FC RX7 looks a lot like a Probe. not sure which is worse. Cranberry Sauce is kind of gross by the way.
Couterpoint:
Cranberry sauce is like the CVT in a Subaru WRX. It has no business being there, but it has tremendous potential to screw up what should be a good experience.
Also, when you try it, it’s worse than you expected it to be.
FiST. Sure they look like a hopped up shitbox but once you drive one you realize how much engineering they put into hopping up said shitbox. Sure they kept the HVAC control actuators made of tissue paper and retained the chronic water leaks, but the engine, transmission, suspension, seats and all things related to driving are amazing and must be experienced to be fully understood.
I would suggest the 1970s era of SAAB Sonnett III.
We had a new 1970 that went close to 80K miles before it was sold.
Driven by my old man and 4 teen boys. It honestly had the crap beat out of it.
We never had a break down, not a bit of repair except for brakes, oil, belts, etc.
It did require a new wiper motor at 10 months from new though. Ordered under warranty. Three years later we were still waiting for that part, when my Dad sold the car.
Often wonder what a modern day SAAB Sonnett wold look like though.
Happy Thanksgiving yo you all.
. . . yeah, Imma say that, unlike the RX-7, canned cranberry sauce sucks. I don’t understand why it exists. What can be easier than boil cranberries, OJ, and sugar, then refrigerate? The canned stuff looks like what dogs must eat if they live in Tron.
In my drunk mind, I’m not sure what’s funnier: your username, or TRON dog food.
You’re not wrong. But it’s so nostalgic for me. My grandma always used to serve several cans of the stuff and I think I might have to go grab some today for this afternoon because we lost her this year and now I think I need some.
I bought a can just because we always had it on the table at T Day. Reminds me of my mom who passed. Nobody eats it and I’m sure I could just freeze it and pull it out next year. However I always thought the indents from the can were great for cutting equal pieces
Yeah I hadn’t had it in years until Thursday, it’s not good, but I still enjoyed having it
I always liked it with stuffing.
Another Mazda worthy of mention: the third-gen Protege, especially in the last couple of years with the 2.0 liter FS-DE engine even in the DX. Great-looking car, handled well, and quicker than you’d think. The one and only car I ever bought new, and I never should have sold it.
That Protege, especially the hatch, was a great car. Unfortunately they only had a 10 year lifespan in the Northeast despite otherwise being reliable. It’s like they decided to emulate the rustproofing specifications of a Chevy Vega.
I was going to say the same thing. In Canada, literally none survived.
Cranberry sauce car? I see no relevant connection between a pureed and pressed agricultural substance and a car.
Obviously you have never owned a CVT Nissan
“When stowed, the lamps can be flashed through those clear-lensed slots in the nose…”
That trick only worked because of the deeply weird way the pop-ups worked. The covers hinged at the back like normal, but the actual lights were on a linkage that kept the lens vertical as the cover popped up and down, so they were still pointing straight ahead when they were down.
I miss my FCs so much. The GT86 drives like them, but no mad engine, box-flaired fenders, hatch, sunroof or pop-ups. Getting twice as far on a gallon is nice though.
Second gen Toyota Sienna. It’s styling very much blends into the background of everything and it does kind of resemble the cranberry sauce in a can (which is the superior cranberry sauce COME AT ME). It’s also painfully easy to maintain, insanely reliable, ergonomically perfect, extremely adaptable and a bunch of other things I’m leaving out.
I support every word of this
I love my 2nd gen sienna but you’re absolutely right it has a canned cranberry sauce blobness to it. Absolutely underrated, all the utility of the Odyssey without the self-destructing transmission. Put some snow tires on the AWD version and it’s basically unstoppable.
I’m with you, I like the canned stuff better. I also infinitely prefer fake maple syrup to the real thing.
I dunno – I think pretty much everybody knows how great the Sienna is. It just costs too damned much.
EP3 ’02-’05 Civic Si
Sure, we didn’t get this fizzy engine in the US but it’s a great, practical, analog run-around that handles like it’s on rails. Seats and shifter are worth the (low) price of admission alone.
I 2003 I sold my red RX7 convertible and bought a new 2002 Civic Si. They were both wonderful cars but I didn’t realize that their connection was a Thanksgiving dinner staple.
I would love 160 hp in my Fit. That’d be about a 50% bump from stock.
This is a great one — I’ve always wanted to drive one (especially with the weird shifter coming out of the dash) but I don’t think I’ve seen an even remotely clean one in at least 10 years, for sale or on the road. It seems most that got sold immediately got thrashed and trashed. Those that didn’t get abused off the lot got abused by their 2nd and 3rd owners. I get it, was a cheap hot hatch at the peak of the tuner/fast and furious era but man it’d be fun to experience a nice one.