A sports sedan (also known as sports saloon in

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...

) is a subjective term for a sedan car that is designed to have sporting performance or handling characteristics.

History

The term was originally introduced in the 1930s and early examples include the Sports Saloon versions of the

Rover 14 The Rover Fourteen was a medium-sized family car and variants produced by the British Rover car company between 1924 and 1948. Civilian automobile production was interrupted in 1940 because of the war, but when the war ended in 1945, the Rover 14 r ...

and

Rover 16 The Rover 16/50 and Rover 16 are mid-sized cars which were produced by Rover from 1926 to 1929 and non-continuously from 1936 to 1947 respectively. Rover initially responding to requests for a more powerful engine for their four-cylinder 14 ...

. From the 1960s, the term ''sports sedan'' was increasingly applied by manufacturers to special versions of their vehicles that allowed them to enter production cars in motor races. These cars contained modifications not normally permitted by the regulations which therefore required cars to be

homologated Homologation (Greek ''homologeo'', ὁμολογέω, "to agree") is the granting of approval by an official authority. This may be a court of law, a government department, or an academic or professional body, any of which would normally work f ...

typically by selling them in minimum numbers to the public. Some of the earlier examples were the

Alfa Romeo 1900 The Alfa Romeo 1900 is an automobile produced by Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo from 1950 until 1959. Designed by Orazio Satta, it was an important development for Alfa Romeo as the marque's first car built entirely on a production line and f ...

, Renault R8 Gordini,

Triumph Dolomite The Triumph Dolomite small saloon car was produced by the Triumph Motor Company division of the British Leyland Corporation in Canley, Coventry between October 1972 and August 1980. Background The Dolomite was the final addition to Triumph's ...

, and

Lotus Cortina Lotus Cortina is the commonly used term for the Ford Cortina Lotus, a high-performance sports saloon, which was produced in the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1970 by Ford in collaboration with Lotus Cars. The original version, which was based on t ...

. In the twentieth century, sports sedans used a

manual transmission A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission (mechanics), transmission ...

and

rear-wheel drive Rear-wheel drive (RWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, in which the engine drives the rear wheels only. Until the late 20th century, rear-wheel drive was the most common configuration for cars. Most rear-wheel ...

. However as other transmission types and drivetrain layouts have become more widespread for sedans in general, these have also been used by sports sedans.

North American usage

The term "sport sedan" was initially used in North America for luxury import sedans (i.e. BMW,

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. Th ...

, and

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

). These cars gave higher priority to handling than the domestic luxury sedans (i.e.

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

and

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

), which were more focused on comfort. However, since the 2000s, the domestic brands have begun producing sports sedan models such as the

Cadillac CTS The Cadillac CTS is an executive car that was manufactured and marketed by General Motors from 2003 until 2019 across three generations. Historically, it was priced similarly to cars on the compact luxury spectrum; but it has always been size ...

and

Lincoln LS The Lincoln LS is a four-door, five-passenger luxury sedan manufactured and marketed by Ford's Lincoln division over a single generation from 1999–2006. Introduced in June 1999 for model-year 2000, the LS featured rear-wheel drive and near ...

. Another term sometimes used is to describe sports sedans in the US is

muscle car Muscle car is a description according to ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'' that came to use in 1966 for "a group of American-made two-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving." The '' Britannica Dictionary'' ...

, but that normally relates to V8-powered two-door

coupe A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...

American cars.

Examples

Alfa Romeo Giulia (952) The Alfa Romeo Giulia (Type 952) is a compact executive car produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Alfa Romeo. It was unveiled in June 2015, with market launch scheduled for February 2016, and it is the first saloon offered by Alfa Rom ...

* Audi S4 *

BMW M3 The BMW M3 is a high-performance version of the BMW 3 Series, developed by BMW's in-house motorsport division, BMW M GmbH. M3 models have been produced for every generation of 3 Series since the E30 M3 was introduced in 1986. The initial model ...

BMW M5 The BMW M5 is a high performance variant of the BMW 5 Series marketed under the BMW M sub-brand. It is considered an iconic vehicle in the sports sedan category. The majority of M5s have been produced in the sedan (saloon) body style, but in so ...

Cadillac CTS-V The Cadillac CTS is an executive car that was manufactured and marketed by General Motors from 2003 until 2019 across three generations. Historically, it was priced similarly to cars on the compact luxury spectrum; but it has always been siz ...

Dodge Charger (LX/LD) The Dodge Charger is a full-size four-door sedan, introduced first at the 2005 North American International Auto Show and built by American automobile manufacturer Stellantis North America, a subsidiary of Stellantis. It is available in re ...

Jaguar XJ The Jaguar XJ is a series of full-size luxury cars produced by British automobile manufacturer Jaguar Cars (becoming Jaguar Land Rover in 2013) from 1968 to 2019. It was produced across five basic platform generations (debuting in 1968, 1986, 1 ...

Jaguar XF Jaguar XF may refer to: *Jaguar XF (X250) (2007–2015), an executive/luxury mid-size sports sedan car *Jaguar XF (X260) The Jaguar XF (X260) is an executive/ mid-size luxury sports saloon manufactured and marketed by the Jaguar Cars brand ...

Kia Stinger The Kia Stinger ( ko, 기아 스팅어) is a mid-size liftback manufactured by Kia since 2017. Overview The Stinger traces its roots to the GT Concept from the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show and the Kia GT4 Stinger from the 2014 North American In ...

Lexus IS F The Lexus IS (XE20) is the second generation of the Lexus IS line of compact executive cars. Sold by Lexus since 2005, the line includes multiple V6 gasoline-powered models, in four-door sedan and two-door coupé convertible body styles. Addi ...

Lexus GS F The is an executive car sold by Lexus, the premium division (business), division of Toyota. The same car had been launched in 1991 as the Toyota Aristo in Japan. For non-Japanese markets, it was released as the Lexus GS in February 1993. It cont ...

Maserati Quattroporte The Maserati Quattroporte () is a four-door full-size luxury sports sedan produced by Italian automobile manufacturer Maserati. The name translated from Italian means "four doors". The car is currently in its sixth generation, with the first g ...

GTS *

Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG The Mercedes-Benz S-Class, formerly known as ''Sonderklasse'' (German for "special class", abbreviated as "S-Klasse"), is a series of full-sized luxury sedans, limousines and armored sedans produced by the German automaker Mercedes-Benz, a divis ...

* Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG * Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG *

MG ZS 180 The MG ZS was a sports family car that was built by MG Rover from 2001 until 2005. The ZS is essentially a tuned version of the Rover 45 (which was launched in 1999). The 45 in turn is a facelifted version of the Rover 400 which was launched ...

MG ZT The MG ZT is a car which was produced by MG Rover from 2001 to 2005. It was offered in saloon and estate versions, the latter designated as the MG ZT-T. Styling is similar to the Rover 75, upon which it was based, although various modifications, ...

260 *

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, popularly referred to as the 'Evo', is a sports sedan and rally car based on the Lancer that was manufactured by Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors from 1992 until 2016. There have been ten official versio ...

* Vauxhall VXR8 * Vauxhall Lotus CarltonAutoexpress "GM gave the engineers at Hethel a Carlton GSi 3000 and asked them to transform it into a fire-breathing super saloon - which they did. The result was the legendary Lotus Carlton, the first four-door to crack the 170mph" http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/vauxhall/vectra/15524/vauxhall-vectra *

Subaru WRX The Subaru WRX is an all-wheel drive sport compact car manufactured by the Japanese automaker Subaru, originally based on the Impreza created for the World Rally Championship in 1992. Subaru claimed the name WRX stands for "World Rally eXperim ...

References

External links

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