Road And Track Names Their Fast Yet Frugal Choices

The familiar headlines blare about the pain at the pump, but before putting on a hair shirt and ordering up an anemic econobox as atonement, a look through our road test data confirms what we've intuitively felt all along — high performance does not necessarily come at the expense of poor fuel economy

All too often, sporty cars are lumped in with pickup trucks and sport utes as fuel-wasters. True, there's a fair share of exotic cars with EPA ratings in the basement, but more often than not, cars with an enthusiast bent post fuel economy that would be respectable for most family haulers while still providing enough 0–60-mph muscle and roadholding grip to bring a smile to any car lover's face.

After all the number crunching, here's our top 10 list of the Fast and the Frugal — it contains some of the usual suspects as well as some big surprises.

Road and Track's Fast And Frugal Top Picks

• Audi TT 3.2 quattro
• Mazda MX-5
• Pontiac Solstice GXP
• Nissan Nismo 350Z
• BMW 135i
• Mini Cooper S
• Chevrolet Corvette Z51
• Lotus Elise SC
• Honda S2000CR
• Chevrolet Cobalt SS
  

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holmstar - 7/15/2008 10:32:09 AM

0 Boost

the corvette only gets 16 city. I'd hardly call that miserly, but we're talking about a big v8, so it could certainly be worse I suppose.

holmstar - 7/15/2008 11:12:32 AM

0 Boost

why am I being deboosted?? The corvette is a great track car, and a good value in terms of sticker price, but this article is about fuel economy. 16 city is not particulary great milage.

bmwdrvr - 7/15/2008 8:00:01 PM

+1 Boost

not to mention a car with over 400hp that gets to 60 in 4.0 seconds, and a top speed over 160mph and it gets the same epa ratings as many V6 powered sedans, isnt bad

SHOoff92 - 7/15/2008 10:40:17 AM

+9 Boost

I definitely think the Mazdaspeed 3 should be on that list.

M35MT - 7/15/2008 4:41:45 PM

+1 Boost

holla! I get about 26mpg.

quizz - 7/15/2008 10:33:37 PM

+1 Boost

Base Cayman gets 20/29mpg and the 2009 model with DI ex expected to get 32mpg. That's real snazzy.

07mcs - 7/16/2008 1:41:38 AM

+1 Boost

I heard the base Cayman will not get Direct Injection, but a bump of displacement from the 2.7 to about 2.9 liters.