sleepyhead said:budget? both acquisition, mod/setup, and yearly "consumables"
it looks like you're focused on RWD and/or AWD, only? Manual required?
G35/37's are dropping into cheap price ranges... might be something to add to the list.
If you are going to go for a G.. why not a Z?
After an e30, I am surprised an E36 or 46 did not make your list
My question as well. I would think you can get a Z cheaper than the Gs.
The e30 was awesome car no doubt. The m20 in was a tank. I got very very very disappointed when i swapped the s50 into the car. Say im nuts or whatever. But that POS ran hot just one time due to a broken radiator cap and kaplt cracked the cylinder head, hg was done. It wasn't cheap exactly either to fix. Let me rephrase, fix it correctly. As in changing all the gaskets out, machine shop etc. Let alone sourcing a head that wasn't cracked started to become a challenge.
Then not to mention every bmw ive had. Always leak, seems like no matter how correctly you do it it wants to like fluid in the driveway
Maybe i had bad luck but holy hell in the end the extra hp was not worth it during that swap. Either should have swapped for an m30 or kept the m20.
I thought bout looking into another e30 but like said before kids got there hands on it and became a rust bucket, or a hellaflush donkey riding with 5 degrees of camber. Not to mention they are crack rock prices for a plastic bumper one (89 and on)
Are you looking at staying on street tires on the track? All the cars I run with seem to need more care and feeding when you move up to stickier tires my C5Z included, I find that's also the point where I want to take it all a little to far and push the car more towards being a full track car as opposed to a weekend fun car that sees track days. I think a lot of the cars listed hold together well enough as a dual duty car but start showing their weak spots when you toss on a better set of tires.
dhof said:My question as well. I would think you can get a Z cheaper than the Gs.
Looking at the D.C. C/L... interestingly the 350Z's seem to be at an equal or higher prices than the G35's
interesting...Guess the extra comforts don't justify a higher price.
dcla: TBH I probably will be on the new grippy street tires (rivals, Re71s that category) for DEs and swap to stickies if I do run an actual TT event depending on contingencies. But I would plan to have 2 sets of wheels at that point and mostly likely it will be trailered. Really don't want to have to gut the car, for something like that Id just drive the miata. Although it is in the works of becoming an endro car.
I run 200TW on my C5Z and it works pretty well. I've resisted the slippery slope of making it uncomfortable as a driver this season, I find the threshold for me is when you want to yank out the seat and toss in a track oriented seat and harnesses. The problem with the "lower" powered cars is after you get comfortable with the power level there's a big temptation to turn up the wick which pushes them out of comfortable street car level quickly.
if you want to have a fun street car that you can also do track days in and don't have to spend a ton of money to prep, the easy button is a Porsche. Choose your flavor and go. All I do to mine (996 turbo) is swap brake pads and tires, that's it. It's one of the only cars I've run (High altitude, high summer temps) here that has run cool for an entire 20-30 minute session without any modification or work.
All my previous cars I've had to spend thousands of dollars on to get to handle, brake and run cool on the track. Then they're really not all that much fun to drive on the street....
Well fellas. I test drove a crap load of cars. Just about everything on my list and a few that you all mentioned.
I found a single owner low mileage frc c5 vette that i couldn't pass up for the price. It really was the best bang for the buck. I drove her home yesterday from Florida for 7 hours. No regrets :))
Thanks everyone for their input and suggestions.
Congrats on the new member of the herd.
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