Check out this link
http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/features/0403scc_uscc00/
Two little 4 banger dsm's pwn'ing cars that cost much more than them base.
You cannot over look the bang for the buck of a dsm, period. You can find a 1g awd for 2-3K in good condition and have the thing running 11-12 sec passes for another 4-5K. The motor has more than proved itself and w/ a little love to the internals of the tranny your all set.
Just b/c something doesn't come w/ a v8 in it doesn't mean its not a sports car. A majority of really fast cars in columbus are powered by 4 or 6 cylinders.
Saying awd sucks is just silly. In some instances there certainly are disadvantages. Take for instance
N-on
A-thletic
S-port
C-entered
A-round
R-ednecks
having an awd to go fast in a huge left turn would certainly not be a good idea, theres just no need for it. Now throw those very same nascar drivers on a road course w/ a few equally powered awd cars and see who does the owning. Awd cars do great autocrossing. Everytime i go there i see tons of wrx's holding their own. Yes a pregnant roller skate Miata will do extremely well considering its size and perfect weight distribution, but who wants to drive a miata other than my mom? Take a look at rally racing, how many fwd or rwd cars do well in it?? Less than 5%? The sport is dominated by awd. Awd owns in bad weather, rain or snow. How many of you awd guys garage your car in the winter?? Bet not as much as the rwd/fwd crew does.
What do I look for in a true sports car
1)Potential with mods
2)Fun to drive
3)Looks as well as it performs(who wants to drive a turd just b/c its fast down a strip)
4)Has a well engineered suspension/brake package
5)Well built, so my first mod isn't breaking shit