The $10,000 Car Thread

[backtrail69]

Corvette C4! The 85's would pull over 1g on the skidpad stock with the sport suspension. I would go with a 90's C4 to get the 6 speed.

You ever been in one of those.. the interior and fit and finish on the WHOLE car is complete GARBAGE!

[Apex381]

Bah... so its got a cavalier interior, and maybe built like a cavalier, but it is fast and handles well. Ok so a grandsport was my dreamcar as a kid give me a break :)

[whiltebeitel]

Check out the site I posted. He's got a current inspection for the car, and he fits Hoosier 335's all the way around. It's hella fast. 1:54's at TWS.

[dirty30]

Lexus SC300 with a manual transmission. You'll love it.

[JasonC]

[quote=whiltebeitel;743206] OptiSpark FTL!!! quote]

Mine finally went out at 125000miles. They have a setup now with the Individual coil packs like the LS1's for the LT1.

[whiltebeitel]

Chad, my friend with the C4, has had the opti break at least 2, with current problems. He's saving the grand he'll need to make the conversion as soon as he can. He's got horrible missing above 5k.

[thectrlguy]

Hey... probably going to get torched for this one....

BMW 850ci (E31) - Personally think it's one of the best looking BMW's

Might need to spend a little more the 10K on it....

[JasonC]

How about a V8 Fiero?

[ldsbeaker]

Lexus SC300 with a manual transmission. You'll love it.

yeah, what he said. Those things are kinda sexy...

[Jonathan M3]

You ever been in one of those.. the interior and fit and finish on the WHOLE car is complete GARBAGE!

Yep, not to mention they ride like ass, even in stock form. Plus all the other "unique" things about C4s, like almost needing a ladder to step over the door sills.

[!RocknE30!]

Thanks for the replies guys!

1. upgrade your 318 with an S50 and suspension/brakes/all other maintenance
2. find a clean E36 328is
3. S14 240sx(stock motor is still slow though)
4. LS1 f-body - with the right mods, they are excellent track cars

thats all I can think of off the top of my head

That hit the nail on the head. All 4 things I have highly considered and right now I'm looking into f-bodies. I've got a friend in Kansas who is heavy into Camaros, etc that I BS with on aim from time to time so I'm going to give him my zip code and have him check auto trader for me. I'm doing that right now, so I'll probably just link him the potential cars.

1) I've thought about the S50 swap, but the problem is that my 10K budget right now is including the price of my car. Without that I'll have around $3K from my quad and I've got $4K saved right now ($1,000 is going to a laptop for college and if I spend all of it I'm broke). To do the S50 swap right that budget would get swallowed up fast.

2) The car I almost bought was an E36 328is, I'm going to continue searching (the few cars I found were sold) over summer to see if I can find something.

3) I wanted a 240sx back in 8th grade, but there's no way I would keep it stock and again we're in engine swap land with all the fun that goes along with it. Would definitely have to throw an SR in it.

4) Like I said, I'm looking into those right now. The resale value on them is not very good, I've found some '00 and '01 models for around 10 grand. I'd rather spend 7 or 8K and have some money to spend on whatever needs to be upgraded/replaced.

The SC300 is another interesting option, they're a pretty cool car. I'm really just looking for a car that has combination of speed and handling. I don't see myself having a lot of time to hit up PIR for track days in college, so I guess I have something that is fast but still can handle fairly well will be a fair trade off.

[Kristuphir]

944 Turbo, 928, older 911s (you got maintenance money?). Just for a start. There's lots of good stuff out there for under $10k, if you've got the bank account and skills to keep it going.

Edit: Oh...college. Right. Not so much then, maybe...

[shiftbmw]

Old school s4, e28/e34 M5, E36 M3, 944 turbo, s50'd E30?

[smonkbmw]

interesting how about 75% of the e30 owners on here always suggest some sort of domestic rwd. anyways. if i understand correctly minus laptop purchase you have $7k. i dont see any reason why you cant get a non vanos m50 swapped in for that price. maybe even a 93 vanos motor.

[whiltebeitel]

I've seen some pretty nice 4th gens for 8k in Texas. I'd rather have a 4th gen over an e30, simply because of how tunable and popular they are, not to mention the LS1, one of the best engines evar! :o

But I'm poor, so I love my E30.