I've always like the look of the cars and I may be selling the Rado (if the price is right). What is the overall opinion of the cars? Also I'm looking at : Merkur XR4ti, Toyota MR2, Supercoupe/Turbocoupe T-Bird, another X1/9, another Capri XR2 and a Miata. The Merkur is kinda hard to find parts for but I have the wifes family of whom is German so i can get parts pretty reasonable. I'd like to make the car a fun DD as I drive 10 miles a day to school 5 days a week, and ~100 a day on the weekend to work. Whats the opinion?
They're one of the coolest looking '80's car's ever imo.
that said, 10 years ago when there actually where some left around here, every one I ever saw was a total pile of crap.
If there's any left I'd imagine it must be a good one.
Rather have an SVO.
Carson
Reader
6/5/08 5:55 p.m.
Over the past year or so, I have seen about a dozen on the local craigslist in the sub $2000 range. Most looked pretty solid.
I hated mine - hard.
Turbo TBI? No thanks.
Jay
HalfDork
6/6/08 3:50 a.m.
If you can deal with the futzy TBI, I think they're a huge bargain in the U.S. (So much so I went down there and bought one.) Seriously, you get a 2.6 turbo, IRS, factory 2-way LSD (standard in all widebody models, some narrowbody cars had it too), retardedly wide OEM wheels (look for the Sports Handling Package (SHP) and you get 16x8 front and 16x9 rear!), a wicked interior and most of them are pretty nicely equipped options-wise. Really nice ones seem to go for three to four grand and you can pick up a solid base for a project for three figures all day long.
The price for all that is having to deal with a few miles of poorly-routed vaccuum lines but so what? They're also a great platform for a V8 conversion. I think you can buy mounts off the rack for a Ford 302 from somewhere. The only other minus I can think of is the recirculating-ball steering can get a bit vague when it's older, but rebuild parts are pretty readily available.
They also don't seem to rust nearly as badly as Toyotas or BMWs of the same vintage.
Obviously I say go for it. I like 'em.
J
What kind of mileage do they get?
Does anyone make a steering rack conversion kit?
I heard they were prone to headgasket failure... is that true?
You'd probably get more bang for your buck if you stepped up a generation into a DSM. Granted they don't look nearly as cool as the starquests and they're AWD, but you can't beat the potential of the 4g63-t ;P
That's why you should put the 4g63-t into a Starquest. Best of both worlds.
Or a small block chevy - better than both worlds.
I forgot to mention the rust.
I don't remember ever seeing a rusty one before.
PHeller
New Reader
6/6/08 11:44 a.m.
Warhammer Space Marine, Starquest Box?
I'm confused.
Oh, and Starquests are nifty. Box fenders, wide wheels, turbocharged...I'd hate to have to delete the turbocharger in favor of a V8...unless it was a turbo v8.
sanman
New Reader
6/6/08 4:40 p.m.
See, this is a bad thread. I've always wanted a Starquest and kept hearing that they had a voodoo hex on them (tbi). Reading this thread, I really want one again and I'm in the market for a project come July. I have a feeling I'm either going to like or hate you all in the near future.
Eh, TBI is an easy fix now with Megasquirt and alternate intake solutions available from other 2.6 equipped vehicles.
The biggest trick is dealing with the steering since it isn't rack and pinion. The car's lack of rack and pinion always seemed to be one of the major factors behind the car's lack of ultimate sporting performance over the years.
fiat22turbo wrote: The biggest trick is dealing with the steering since it isn't rack and pinion. The car's lack of rack and pinion always seemed to be one of the major factors behind the car's lack of ultimate sporting performance over the years.
I saw one do extremely well in GS once. With those HUGE wheels from the factory, you could fit a lot of R comp.
How hard would it be to make a rack and pinion work? I have no idea what the geometry looks like, but I'm sure it could be overcome.
One site.
http://www.projectzerog.com/forum/index.php
dansxr2
New Reader
6/9/08 4:07 p.m.
Well I've decided to be satisfied with what I have right now and bring to to FL in July. I can't wait to see how it feels not that the car runs on all 4 cylinders and no longer has a slipping transmission.! Thanks for all the input!
Hemmings Sports & Exotic did a buyers guide on these just a few months ago, maybe Feb or March it seems. I always liked them, they were the only Asian Porsche 944 competitor that was possibly cooler than the 944, but they were very expensive when they were new and they seem so rare these days in good shape, sort of like 944's actually!
