What cheap, great sounding, weekend hobby car?

The only way that you are going to do this is buy getting a classic. As fox said something triumph would probably be best or an MG. Parts are "cheap", however if you cant muster up £100 per month I would just forget the idea. Running "fun" cars costs a lot. In the first 6 months of ownership of my GT6 I have had to put at in about £1k in costs (insurance, parts, upgrades, etc) and mine is is good condition. Restoring one or "doing it up" will cost even more that this.

That said if you are dead set on doing this i think a Triumph Spitfire or MGB GT would be ideal. However, as i said previously, don't expect it to be cheap and both of these cars have 4 cylinder engines :P.
 
Wizardskills said:
The only way that you are going to do this is buy getting a classic. As fox said something triumph would probably be best or an MG. Parts are "cheap", however if you cant muster up £100 per month I would just forget the idea. Running "fun" cars costs a lot. In the first 6 months of ownership of my GT6 I have had to put at in about £1k in costs (insurance, parts, upgrades, etc) and mine is is good condition. Restoring one or "doing it up" will cost even more that this.

That said if you are dead set on doing this i think a Triumph Spitfire or MGB GT would be ideal. However, as i said previously, don't expect it to be cheap and both of these cars have 4 cylinder engines :P.
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Thanks for the advice, nice answer.
 
Alfa Giulia, it's not due until 2012 and nobody yet knows which end the drive is going (latest rumour is it's a D-Evo platform (scaled up C-Evo) which will also be used for SUVs, so probably FWD ( :( ) with an AWD option).

It'll almost certainly sound good, maybe at 3 years old they'll have depreciated and your budget will have grown.
 
TR7 V8 conversion. You won't get a real TR8 for £2K but plenty of clones about.
MGB V8 conversion, again, you probably won't get a real BGT V8 for £2K unless its wrecked
Capri 2.8i or 3.0S - will need a bit of work for £2K or a cooking model with a V8 transplant...
Trans Am, Camaro, Mustang... 80's / early 90's versions are affordable and tunable.
Jaguar XJ-S V12 HE
Kit car. Don't expect a Cobra rep with a good V8 for £2K but there are other options.
original Mini with a 1275cc (or better) A series. Seriously. A right laugh.
Just search eBay classics section with "V8" and filter results less than £2K. You'll find some seriously odd stuff.

"sounds nice, probably V8" doesn't really narrow down what you want from it.

The old Mercedes 420SE saloon is a V8, they sound nice, they can be picked up for less than £2K. How about a Lexus LS400? Soarer?
 
V8 is really restricting sensible choices, and plenty of other engines sound 'great'. V6s for example - in particular Alfa Romeo V6s sound beautiful. Had a 164 V6 for a while years ago and putting your foot down induced a massive grin every time - sound was just lovely. All that enjoyment and it's a FWD luxo-barge - I know, doesn't sound right, but I loved it. Doesn't seem to be any 164s left any more though - must have all broken, but you could enjoy the engine in a 166, 156, or in a year or 2 when it drops into budget, a GTV, the latter actually being small, chuckable (with an incredibly quick steering rack for some reason) and moderately fun to drive.

A Fiat Coupe 20V (5 cylinder) turbo also sounds and drives pretty damn good too at this budget level in my experience, despite its handicap (FWD + snail = understeer). As does a 6 cylinder BMW 325. Hell even my slightly tatty old Vauxhall Omega 3 litre V6 elite sounds pretty good and is a very nice drive, and worth absolutely naff all. Getting back to big luxo-barges though now, but they rock imho :)
 
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Wizardskills said:
The only way that you are going to do this is buy getting a classic. As fox said something triumph would probably be best or an MG. Parts are "cheap", however if you cant muster up £100 per month I would just forget the idea. Running "fun" cars costs a lot. In the first 6 months of ownership of my GT6 I have had to put at in about £1k in costs (insurance, parts, upgrades, etc) and mine is is good condition. Restoring one or "doing it up" will cost even more that this.

That said if you are dead set on doing this i think a Triumph Spitfire or MGB GT would be ideal. However, as i said previously, don't expect it to be cheap and both of these cars have 4 cylinder engines :P.
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One thing about the MGB - I love them to bits and yes the parts are cheap and easily available, a lot of these cheap parts are also crap. Namely ignition parts, I guess this is prevalent on a lot of classics but it seems the MGB has particularly suffered from an influx of poor and inferior quality parts. I also think the MGB 4 pot sounds nice and throaty, the exhaust has a nice note.
 
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