Sport compact is an American

car classification Governments and private organizations have developed car classification schemes that are used for various purposes including regulation, description, and categorization of cars. The International Standard ISO 3833-1977 ''Road vehicles – Types ...

for a high-performance version of an affordable

compact car Compact car is a vehicle size class — predominantly used in North America — that sits between subcompact cars and mid-size cars. "Small family car" is a British term and a part of the C-segment in the European car classification. However, p ...

or a

subcompact car Subcompact car is a North American classification for cars smaller than a compact car. It is broadly equivalent to the B-segment (Europe), supermini (Great Britain) or A0-class (China) classifications. According to the U.S. Environmental Prote ...

. There is no precise definition and the description is applied for marketing purposes to a wide variety of models. Cars began to be marketed as sport compacts in the mid-1980s, when it was used for option packages on American-built coupes. Since then, it has also been used for standalone sports car models and cars imported from Europe and Asia. The European equivalent is a

hot hatch A hot hatch (shortened from hot hatchback) is a high-performance hatchback car. The term originated in the mid-1980s; however, factory high-performance versions of hatchbacks have been produced since the 1970s. Front-mounted petrol engines, ...

, however sport compacts are not restricted to just hatchback body styles. __TOC__

Characteristics

A sport compact should "fulfill the multiple duties of family car, plaything, and daily driver". Many sport compacts have coupe, sedan or hatchback body styles and are built on mass-production platforms. Other common (but not essential) characteristics include

front-wheel drive Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longit ...

all-wheel drive An all-wheel drive vehicle (AWD vehicle) is one with a powertrain capable of providing power to all its wheels, whether full-time or on-demand. The most common forms of all-wheel drive are: ;1x1 : All unicycles Reflecting one axle with one w ...

, a four-cylinder petrol engine, suspension tuned for handling and bodywork designed to improve aerodynamics or allow for larger wheels. "Econosport" is a rarely used term for a sport version of a small economy car.

History

An early sport compact was the 1968

Ford Capri The Ford Capri is a fastback coupé built by Ford of Europe, designed by Philip T. Clark, who was also involved in the design of the Ford Mustang. It used the mechanical components from the Mk2 Ford Cortina and was intended as the Euro ...

, a European coupe built on the platform of the second generation Ford Cortina sedans. The early American-built sport compact models consisted of performance or sporting packages for mass-produced

coupes in the 1980s, for example the 1986

Chevrolet Cavalier The Chevrolet Cavalier is a line of compact cars produced by Chevrolet. Serving as the replacement of the Chevrolet Monza, the Cavalier was the second Chevrolet model line to adopt front-wheel drive. Three versions of the Cavalier have been so ...

Z24, the 1986

Ford EXP The Ford EXP is a sports compact coupe produced and sold by the Ford Motor Company in North America for the 1982 to 1988 model years. The EXP debuted at the 1981 Chicago Auto Show. It shared many mechanical components with the contemporary Ford ...

Sport Coupe and the 1988

Plymouth Sundance The Dodge Shadow and Plymouth Sundance are economical 3-door and 5-door hatchbacks that were introduced for the 1987 model year by the Chrysler Corporation. For 1991, a 2-door convertible variant was added to the Shadow lineup; this bodystyle was ...

. Such models only achieved moderate sales. Sport compact models gained greater prominence by the mid-1990s, being sold in significant numbers in models such as the 1993

Ford Probe The Ford Probe is a liftback coupé produced by Ford, introduced in 1988 and produced until 1997. The Probe was the result of Ford's collaboration with its longtime Japanese partner Mazda, and both generations of Probe were derived from the front ...

(based on the Mazda MX-6 platform) and the 1995

Pontiac Sunfire The Pontiac Sunfire is a compact car by Pontiac that was introduced for the 1995 model year to replace the Sunbird. Not only was the name changed, but dramatic styling changes were included as well. The new styling was shared with the redesigned C ...

badge-engineered twins. Sports compacts of the 2000s include the 2001-2003 Ford ZX2, the 2004-2007 Saturn Ion Red Line, the 2005-2010

Chevrolet Cobalt SS The Chevrolet Cobalt SS comprises three sport compact versions of the Chevrolet Cobalt that were built on the General Motors Delta platform at Lordstown Assembly in Ohio, United States. The three versions included two forced induction ...

and the 2003-2005

Dodge Neon SRT-4 The Dodge Neon SRT-4 is a sport compact car manufactured by Dodge from 2003 to 2005. A turbocharged variant of the Neon, the car was developed by DaimlerChrysler's in house PVO (Performance Vehicle Operations) tuner group. PVO was officially rena ...

. European

es are considered 'sport compact' cars in the North American market. Examples include the 1976-present

Volkswagen Golf The Volkswagen Golf () is a compact car/small family car (C-segment) produced by the German automotive manufacturer Volkswagen since 1974, marketed worldwide across eight generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplates ...

GTI and the 2000-present

Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

Cooper. Similarly, most Japanese hot hatches and sports coupes are classified as 'sport compact' cars when sold in North America, for example the 1984-present

Honda Civic Si The Honda Civic Si is a sport compact trim of Honda's Civic. The Si (Sport Injected) trim was introduced for the third generation of Honda Civics in both Japan and North America. In Canada and elsewhere, the trim became known as the SiR for the s ...

, 2007-2013

Mazdaspeed3 The Mazdaspeed3 is a sport compact hatchback introduced for the 2007 model year by Mazdaspeed and produced until 2013. The Mazdaspeed3 is a performance-enhanced version of the 5-door Mazda3. Mazda unveiled the Mazda3 MPS (Mazda Performance Serie ...

, and the 2012-present

Toyota 86 The Toyota 86 and the Subaru BRZ are 2+2 sports cars jointly developed by Toyota and Subaru, manufactured at Subaru's Gunma assembly plant. The 2+2 fastback coupé has a naturally-aspirated boxer engine, front-engined, rear-wheel-drive conf ...

Models

Motorsport

Sport compact cars are often used in motorsport events, due to their relative light weight. They have competed in various types of motorsport, including

autocross Autocross (also called "Solo", "Auto-x" or "Autoslalom") is a timed competition in which drivers navigate one at a time through a defined course on either a sealed or an unsealed surface. It is a form of motorsports that emphasizes safe competition ...

rallying Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...

, rallycross,

touring car racing Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move ...

, drifting and

drag racing Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, most c ...

. From 2005–2012, International Sport Compact Auto Racing Series was an American

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

series for sports compacts which mostly raced on paved oval racetracks.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sport Compact Car classifications

Characteristics

History

Models

Motorsport

See also

References