Motor Trend's Guide to Sport-Compact Performance Coupes

Auto enthusiasts are pretty much all the same when you get right down to it. They all share a passion for high-performance machines that press you into your seat as you apply throttle. They live for the sound of high-revving engines and throaty exhaust notes. They're addicted to a high that's gauged by a speedometer needle and tire smoke.

Today, car fanatics are once again budding like Hydras, recharging an auto industry that's been on the mend since the dreaded 1970s era of non-performance factory product. This current wave of enthusiasm has resulted in a greater variety of high-performance-capable vehicles on the market than ever before. And although the powerplants have changed a good deal from those that resided in the speed machines of decades ago, their performance is still real--very real.

Engines are now far more efficient and compact. This is especially true of performance sport-compact cars, whose highly wound, small-displacement engines deliver the goods with far less fuss than their high-compression, big-block predecessors. At an average displacement of just two liters, these engines are asked to churn out a lot more horsepower for their size than the landmark one-horsepower-per-cubic-inch fuel-injected 1957 Chevrolet could have ever achieved. Best of all, these powerplants drive cars that weigh considerably less than the vehicles of the 1950s and achieve fuel economy that their bloated forebears could have only dreamed about.

If there's a challenge in the current sport-compact market, it's selecting the right vehicle for your needs and taste. This wasn't always the case. The choice of which sport-compact car to buy used to be simple: Get a Honda Civic. They were light and small and achieved exceptional fuel mileage. Their reliability was such that adding fuel, checking the oil and water levels every so often, and keeping the tires inflated was the only maintenance required. Civic sales took off as younger buyers were attracted to the inexpensive operating costs and the ease-of-parental-approval factor. It was the youthful owners who saw these vehicles as the basis for performance enhancement. Enter the dawn of the performance sport-compact car.

Today's sport-compact buyer's checklist is a bit more complicated. Do you want import or domestic? Will you be satisfied with stock performance, or do you plan to transform your car into a road warrior? Need some storage space, or just want to look cool? Are you on a budget, or can you go all out? Most performance sport-compact cars are power-packed from the factory and can be enhanced with lots of accouterments to make them truly spectacular.