Lets not confuse a "sports car" with a "sporty car". There are many criteria that differentiate the two.

A sport car usually has lots of horse power, accelerates fast as hell and pull g's on a corner.

A sporty car usually has adequate amount of horse power to get it 0-60 in 8-11 seconds or so and can not pull any kind of g's anywhere unless it is spinning out doing twirly twists on a mountain road where driver is about to fall to his death and car is bouncing off the mountain as it tumbles.

The look may add a "sporty feel" and that is why average teenager geared car looks kind of cool and goes kind of ok but it will not make your adrenalin gland work overdrive.

By comparison when you drive in a sport car (even as passenger) you can feel acceleration force, you can feel superb handling (ie taking 90 degree corner going 45 without spinning out).

A 1994-1999 celica st/gt is not a sports car. It is a sporty car.
A 1994-1999 celica gt4 is a sport car because it is about 2-3 times more powerful and agile than your average 6gc.

Only way to experience what a true sport car feel like is to drive one or be driven in it. Exact words coming out of your mouth will be "holly sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep". And then you slow down at the traffic light, feel your veins pumping, your face swollen, your skin returning to its normal condition and a huge sense of pride. That is what it is like to drive a sport car.

You are right in classifying sport cars into different categories.

A sporty car is something like mitsubishi eclipse.
A sport car is something like mitsubishi evolution
A high performance sport car is something like a nissan gtr
A exotic luxury car is something like a lamborgini

True exotic cars like ferraris, lambo's, bugattis, zondas etc rarely get driven at all. 9/10 times they are used by filthy rich people who drive them from events and back and their normal cars would be something like a mercedes.

True high performance sport cars usually sit in a garage unless they are brought to a race track every once in a while.

True sport cars are rare and that is why you do not see them drive all over the place. To this day having moved to florida I have only seen 24 mitsibishi's evolutions and 23 of those were at dealer lots when I was shopping around. I have only seen 2 supras since 2007... maybe 10 sti's and I live in a heavily populated part of florida.

Now for all of us regular folks there are sporty cars. eclipses, civics, tiburons, celicas etc.

Plenty of opinions in here, but I think it's near impossible to create the perfect definition of a sports car. For me, a standard Celica is not a sports car. A GT4 is, SS-II and SS-III maybe at a stretch, but none of the others.

I think some of the other posters have got it right - the Celica is a sporty car, but not a sports car.

With regards to insurance, the insurers take into account MANY things other than whether the car is a 'sports car' or not. Aside from the value of the car, premium pricing is based mainly around three things: the claims history with that type of vehicle, the claims history with the age and profile of the driver, and the claims history with where the vehicle is kept.

For a comparison, try getting a quote on a Ferrari or Lamborghini. Yes the premium will be huge because of the value of the car, but on a dollar-for-dollar basis you will find that they are often cheaper to insure than something like a Celica. There's a host of reasons behind that, but basically it comes down to claims history rather than the sportiness of the car. The average Celica driver is far more likely to damage their car than the average Ferrari driver, therefore the claim risk is lower for the insurer, and therefore on a dollar-for-dollar basis the Ferrari will generally be cheaper to insure.

Going back ten years or so, one of the most expensive cars to insure in Australia was a Hyundai Excel. One of the slowest and crappiest cars around, and definitely not a sports car - but their claims history was horrific and therefore the premiums skyrocketed.

Anyway, I'm just trying to say that people should stop talking about their car being classed as a 'sports car' by their insurer and having to pay higher insurance as a result.

IMHO...... The 6th gen celica is definatly a sports car. It was designed, marketed, and advertised as such. The Celica has been used in motorsports since the early 80's to the late 90's Just because America got the waterd down version down not mean it isnt a sports car.

We all know in every other country in the world, the 6th gen can be found with either a 140hp engine, a 170hp engine, a 200hp engine, or a 250hp engine. I can see the point in "classifying" it into different catagories, but when it comes down to it, it was meant to be a sports car. Well in my opinion it was meant to be....

This post has been edited by 3WayStunna: Apr 18, 2011 - 8:48 PM

Lets not forget that significant majority of people on this site are from usa where celica has got a weak treatment. Our opinions and biases are rather skewed on that matter.

>

Can understand that....logic....But still not the only 6th gen owners in the world...Kinda messed up though that the 6th gen in the states never got the great engines that the rest of the world either got or can get...

I agree mostly with what Yuri says. Within a few minutes of being a passenger in a GT-4, I already experienced tire slippage. I figured it was probably a patch of loose tarmac that threw the car off a little after some aggressive maneuvering. Martin later explained that it was an intentional thing, I did not know a Celica could stick onto the road like that! I was extremely impressed. I realize there's a huge drivetrain difference between his and mine, but I could probably never match that in my Celica.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Apr 18, 2011 - 9:54 PM

>

The 6GC definitely was designed for high speed and power, tight handling, and flashy looks. The Celica is a perfect example of all of these things in the 1994 model year. There is definitely a tradeoff for a good aerodynamic shape theres no passenger comfort, The regular Celica holds a good amount of cargo in the boot with the fold down seats, But not if you have a factory strut bar or a factory gt4 fuel tank.

>

This is the exact point were making.


>

There is a world of difference between the GT4 and the regular Celica, But the regular Celica still has great handling and maneuverability. You try to drive a similar year S-powered Toyota (Eg, Camry, Corona, etc) the same as a Celica you will see what I mean. The 6GC Celica chassis was heavily influenced by TTE based on their experience rallying the ST185, while alot of that went to the ST205, The ST202/4 also reaped some of the benefits and you can't deny this, The GT4 would have been completely divorced from the Celica otherwise (much in the same way the WRX is now completely divorced from the Impreza).

This post has been edited by delusionz: Apr 18, 2011 - 11:19 PM