Best fun per £?

[JohnL]

Just bought a Toyota MR2. For £220. Two hundred and twenty quid.

Mechanically it seems pretty good. I may have to shell out a hundred or two and a little elbow grease to sort the rust.

Pity the insurance - even TPF&T - is more than the car cost to buy ...

Anyone else tried any dirt cheap thrills like this? Am I going to regret it?

[gnomesmith]

Its not that difficult to spend that much on a meal and drinks so whats to regret?

The secret of marginal motoring is not to be tempted to spend a lot, if it goes wrong break it and sell it as spares, you'll probably turn a profit.

[Nacnud]

All the best answers have two wheels!

[bosshog]

I had an Elise then a 993 bi-turbo.
I now have a 205 1.9 gti - what a hoot! its such a laugh to drive. Its really reassuring that you don't have to spend thousands and thousands on a car to enjoy driving. I really do have a laugh in the car around my locl roads - ok I can't blast down the motorway at 150 mph anymore, but around the round abouts and corners where I live I'm have as much fun as I did in the 993TT.
Its good to know.

[whitechimp500]

Ive just bought an '88 Peugeot 309 GTi - thats previously been well looked after - for £300.
The new K+N induction kit and Momo sterring wheel must have cost somebody £150 !.
Ive removed most of the interior and external "gti" trim and its faster allready.
The idea is to make a cheap track day toy ,with"easy" front wheel drive handling, with which to attend my first few track outings (which wont happen now as my first track day is Oulton Park with the Chimaera on Aug 3rd).
Either way i'll still track day it,it should make an interesting contrast to the TVR !.

BTW anybody else gone down the "very cheap track day car " route ?.

[raceboy]

Team up with Benno in his 205, his doesn't sound that cheap though
I've always fancied buying an old one make racing car, like a Festa or a Clio just for track days, but as I've got no where to put it, and no way to get it to a track, it will have to wait

[bennno]

mine was £6K but is a scream, but a lot of that money went in to safety mods like cage, harnesess', proper seats, vented / cross drilled disks, new shocks / springs etc....oh and a 240bhp engine and set of slicks to make things interesting.

I also felt if i was going to thrash something silly round a track I wanted it pulled apart first to make sure I was not going to kill myself in the process.

That said, making an NSX spin trying to catch me, and a Griff driver give up trying to catch me after 9 laps of pushing very hard....it was pretty satisfying.

Cant decide whether to keep it or sell it though, as below I dont really have the space to keep it and can not bring myself to sacrifice my other car as intended when I started having it built back in January.

Bennno

>> Edited by bennno on Tuesday 23 July 10:09

[Podie]

quote:
Always fancied stripping out an old Capri 2.8i and using that as a track car - In fact in a pub conversation last Thursday, my mate Nick and I toyed with the idea of buying two and taking them to the Gumball rally 2004 (we are definitely entering that one!), painting them gold and silver and putting the numbers '45' and '37' on them (Bodie & Doyles no's). But we came up with a MUCH better idea....

We are going to buy an old Roller like the ones the Arabs have in Cannonball Run and dress up like shieks with false beards and headdress etc, with a sticker on the back reading "My other car is a Camel" - There will be 5 of us and we will shouting "infidel" a lot and may even be carrying small plastic Kalishnikov's with lights and sound effects! I know the Roller is slow but we won't be going to win, just for a good laugh!

top banana...

[Gargamel]

one of the bookatrack chaps has a 2.8 crapri on re moulds .... cost less than a grand
gos sideways very well

[ellingtj]

I've had 3 205's a XS, 1.6GTi and a 1.9GTi. Great steering haven't driven a car since that I like the steering more including an Elise S2. Great throttle response (all pre '92 K-reg) and the brakes were excellent on the 1.9. The only problem was they were like driving in a bean can and not as safe. Still got several engine parts and gaskets for the 1.9 engine that I am desperately trying to get rid off.

[bosshog]

Just out of interest, did you ever increase the power of the engines?

[Twin Turbo]

Mungo - great idea, but any Americans involved might not see the funny side after Sept 11th.

"A side order of cous cous (sp) and two milk"

[raceboy]

Go on do the Roller thing, but maybe just have supersoakers, if only I had mates like that, I've got all on organising the trip to the pub bit

[JohnL]

quote:
Mungo - great idea, but any Americans involved might not see the funny side after Sept 11th.

"A side order of cous cous (sp) and two milk"

Back to the "P.C." thread?

[campbell]

Good choice JohnL
I have a MK1 MR2 1989 model and I think they are top cars
They are reliable and very fast on twisty roads and can hold there own on the more open roads.
Mine is getting a compleat over haull, boady an mechanicals.
I fancy tracking the cars some time next year but top choice

You have mad my day

[ATG]

Mate of mine had a Mk1 a few years back. 16V golf GTI was chasing him and got horribly sideways trying to follow him through a roundabout when Sean couldn't be bothered to slow down. Great cars even if they do look like electric kettles.

[incorrigible]

I bought a 2.8 injection Capri for £300 (just needed 4 patches for the MOT) Fantastic value 10,000 miles and was going strong right up until Mrs B crashed it
Favourite moment was waving to the bloke following me through the drivers window, don't ya just love wet roundabouts

[JohnL]

Glad you're happy Campbell! It should be a lot of fun once I've got it going properly.

Mine's a red 1988 Mk 1 (1st reg: 29/7/88 - three days later it would have been an "F" plate). It's got a fair bit of (looks fairly easily fixable) rust espcially around the wheel arches, but the right hand rear arch is particularly fuked and the arch may need replaced - although I'll try and sort it with fibreglass. It's got 165,000 miles on the clock, and no service history - but it's been looked after, there's no way it'd run as sweetly as it does without it.

Although admittedly when I tried to start it it wasn't easy at first, it had been sitting outside near Aberdeen since February. Finally managed to get it going, and backfired it at 10mph all the way to a friend's house round the corner. Cleaned the spark plugs and it went from 2.5 cylinders (at the most!) to 3.5. 75 miles down the road it was singing. Another 75 and the exhaust blew!!

[Bonce]

This would be pretty fun to drive!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1751158208

300bhp

What about speed bumps?

[mattjbatch]

You'd never be worried about traffic jams again. Just go under them