Motors Buying my first sports car - advice/thoughts?

What about a Honda NSX? Definitely a weekend car with Ferrari styling yet Honda reliability and value.

 

LOL

A bit out of the price range.

 

The concept was called "FT-86" as homage to the AE86.

The project was commonly called "Toyobaru", as the engine looks to be a 2.0 boxer from Subaru, and there will be a Subaru version as well (no 4WD though).

Toyota recently registered trademarks for "FR-S" in several places, indicating that that would be the name for the car.
Considering that FR-S would be short for "Front engined, Rear Driven Sports car".
The MR-S naming (MR2 over there) was short for "Mid-Rear-Sportscar"

And yes, I want an FR-S.

 

They are Still made in france and italy and some of there best were made before they became owned by VAG.
I cant argue about VAG as i am a lover of VAG all our cars at the mo are VAG Golf mk2(under resteration),mk1 gti Audi A3 and ur quattro, although i am just pointing out that they do have some good cars

NZS's are still pretty expensive

 

You say sports car, but that means different things to different people. None of what you listed is a sports car to me, but to others, it is.

If this will be a weekend drive, what is more important to you? Speed? Handling? Looks? Noise? Power? Equipment?

No idea what your opinion on US cars is, but as an example, I pay less for fully comprehensive insurance on my Mustang than my Nissan Micra! Limited mileage specialist US car insurance is CHEAP! Also, as it's not an official import, it has no official CO2 figures, so I pay the standard rate of road tax despite it being a 4.6L V8.

S197 Mustangs can be had for as little as £15K for a V8 (probably high miles, but "high" for a Mustang over here is 40k! as they're hardly ever daily drives). The slightly older SN95 facelift models for around £8k for a V8.

Handling is only average, but the noise, torque, and sheer road presence makes up for it. I do track days in mine... you'd be surprised how well they can handle. Just be careful in the wet - it will kill you.

Plus you will have true exclusivity as there are very few compared to European and Jap cars.


What's your budget?

A weekend car should be outrageous in some way... not a Golf, or a Toyota, or a Honda etc... you may as well have something like that as a daily. Cars that make absolutely NO sense as a daily driver, make the best weekend cars

 

I know what I'd get

 

Gets my vote. Good colour for it too.

 

The absolute max I'd spend on the car would be £12K. I appreciate you bringing up the 'stang because you're an experienced performance car owner and I do love muscle cars, but thats for later in life as far as I'm concerned. I'm only going to be 23 or 24 when I buy this car. Anything in the class of the Celica would be as good a starting point as any IMO. Also, my idea of a sports car is obviously different to yours. The Celica is a sports car to me, the MR2 as well. Most of what's been mentioned are sports cars to me except the Volvos, VWs etc. I say weekend car, you say outrageous. To me, having had only totally sensible cars since I started driving, a 200BHP Celica GT or a 255BHP ST-205 are plenty outrageous to call weekend cars. As far as what I'm after... a bit of everything really. Speed, Handling, Looks, Noise, Power, Equipment... just an all rounder! I do plan on tinkering with whatever I decide to buy in the future, so I want something that is easily maintained and upgraded.

I saw this last night and thought it looked awesome:



1974 Celica GT Coupe. What a stunner

 

Oh my... yes. I forgot about the old Celicas. It's like a mini muscle car

I know a bloke who runs a 1996 Mustang Cobra R at 19 years old. Mustang insurance is cheap if you go with Stevanage or A-Plan. He pays £1400 fully comprehensive.

Yep.. Muscle cars are not for everyone, I just thought I'd throw it into the mix.


The above pictured 300ZX is appealing. I have no idea what they go for now, but I bet it's not a lot.

 

I want that!

 

Made me cringe, plenty of people around here have V8 Mustangs as daily drivers.



I'll ask again about C4 Corvettes, can you find them in the UK?



I've been seeing more and more of them around, they're pretty sporty looking.

 

Whoever suggest a 3000GT is nuts, those things have more computer problems than a computer and more engine problems than French cars.

However if you can miraculously buy an old Evo or an old Impreza that would be semi-crazy/practical.

Or go with the 300Z.

If you're cheap, 240Z or 260Z(if you ever find one..).

 

Both myself and the OP are in the UK. Here you hardly ever see them. Apart from car shows, I've only ever seen 2 other S197s on the road. You're in the US... that's entirely different.

C4s? yeah, you can get them here, as you can anything. Corvettes have a fair sized fan base here, as do old Mopars.

I think the OP has ruled out US Muscle however.

Since when has reliability been a factor for a weekend car, or something you own as a hobby? Those considerations you save for your daily driver. Besides, are you talking from experience, or just things you've read here and there?

 

@Pook

I've worked on a few, have seen it in first sight...The 3000GT is a fun car don't get me wrong. But it's got some serious reliability issues, I haven't seen any computer chip problems first hand, but I have seen the engine wear down incredibly quickly, the turbos going out and overheating everything, and the gearboxes melt. Doesn't mean it isn't worth buying, just means that you'll have to be mighty lucky to get one that works well.

But I will admit, if it's a weekend car, to hell with reliability, it's purely for fun. So..how about a 911?

Too bad Lotus sells their Elises to black market kidney dealers, if only they made a relatively cheap model of it.

 

[edit] He said it first ^

The computer problems are the bits that worry me on the 3kGT - even if you find an unabused untuned one, which won't close to the engine troubles of the tuned/fiddled ones, you still can't be sure that one of the 3/4 ECU's won't go mad and cost you £1k+ to replace. Not to mention if it fails while you're using the car, which will often eat a gearbox.

 

Good luck finding a cheap one in the UK, they hold their value incredibly well.

 

Yeah they do. It's insane. Scratch that.

+1 to Krikkit. I just said that.

Um a Mitsu Eclipse?

 

How the hell did I miss that?

 

Shame really, Lamborghini is owned by Audi, and Bugatti is owned by VW, and if that's not enough, Audi is owned by VW too.

Back on topic, if you can't afford the Audi RS's, then they do an S range.

Sam

 

Just because a company owns another one doesn't mean they lose all their spirit. This constant moaning that VA group owns Lambo gets on my tits. All it means is you've got German beancounters behind swivel-eyed italians.

Fiat owns 90% of Ferrari, but that doesn't mean Ferraris since they took over have been more humdrum and Fiat-ish. Dodge was owned by Chrysler, but that doesn't mean the Viper was normal.

Bugatti is effectively a shell to be fair, it's a resurrected dead brand really.