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Mazda's timing was perfect. In the late 1970s, British and Italian sports car makers were hanging by their fingernails, C3 Corvettes were aging ungracefully, Datsun's lovable Z-Car was evolving into the foppish 280ZX, and Porsche's 924 suffered from a hodgepodge of Volkswagen and Audi components. So the Mazda RX-7 that arrived in the spring of 1978 (as an early '79 model) was the answer to unspoken sports car dreams: it was attractive, fun to drive, and -- with a sticker as low as $6395 -- bargain priced. As a bonus, the RX-7 was powered by a rotary engine, which at the time was only one step down from a turbine as a source of wonder and amazement.

What's the recipe for creating a niche coupe, using two of America's perennial top-selling sedans as a base? Lose the rear doors, craft an attractive rear end, and offer an optional manual gearbox to please enthusiasts. But unlike purpose-driven performance coupes such as the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang, sedan-based coupes must capture the essence of the four-door original in order to carry its fan base. As recently as two years ago, the list of two-door iterations of sedans included entries from Toyota, Chevrolet, and Chrysler. Since then, however, the field of midsize coupes has shrunk to a number you can count on one hand. And with two of the standouts, the 2011 Honda Accord and Nissan Altima coupes, remarkably similar in terms of dimensions, horsepower, and price point, we decided to see how each manufacturer applies the tried-and-true formula.

I wanted my dry cleaning, but I wanted to drive that luscious Jag. Nowhere to put the clothes, except flat across the abbreviated back buckets. It would have to do. Once I stuffed them back there and refocused my attention on the task at hand (having a great, grand drive through the countryside), I forgot about everything except just how far and how fast Jaguar has come in the past five years. They are stunningly beautiful. They are thrilling to drive hard. They are luxuriously modern. May Ratan Tata live long and prosper.