Driving performance is not everything, driving pleasure is relative
In 1966, Hobby magazine compared seven sports cars that were also affordable for normal-income drivers. The NSU Sport Prinz competed against the Fiat 850 Coupé, the Simca 1000 Coupé, the Opel Kadett Coupé, the Ford 12 M TS Coupé, the Renault Caravelle S and the Karmann Ghia 1300. There was a wide range of performance in this field of participants.
While the Ford sped from 0 to 100 km/h in 16.1 seconds, the two slowest cars, the NSU Sport Prinz and Karmann Ghia, took a full 10 seconds longer and only reached 100 km/h after 26 seconds. And yet the NSU Sport Prinz in particular found many friends, not least because of its "cuddly" shape, and the Karmann Ghia was also successful in sales. The top speeds naturally corresponded to the different performance levels and being 25 km/h faster (Ford versus NSU) was probably like a car reaching a top speed 50 km/h faster today, and it was much more usable back then than it is today.
All these vehicles found buyers and I can remember the impressive performance of the Fiat 850 Sport Coupé when I was allowed to ride in it with my uncle as a boy at the end of the sixties. Nowadays, any ordinary family saloon with a diesel engine can probably match the performance of many a super sports car in the sixties, and yet even today the driving pleasure in one of these "slow" sports coupés is much greater and, above all, more tangible than what modern cars can offer.
