Fun/exciting car - recommend me?

I drove an E92 330 before buying the 335i - nothing fun about it at all. Apart from the power, there isn't much fun about the 335i, either if i'm honest. I bought mine as a daily....

For £7k I imagine you could get a really tidy mk2.5 mx5, have it turbo'd, dropped on some HSD monopro, a set of AD08R tyres, a decent geo and a cheap bucket seat and you'll have more fun than you might imagine :)
 
Just don't buy an MX5 unless you can get underneath it and take the under-trays and arch liners out before committing to buy though. Its the only way you'll be able to see if it needs, or will soon need, high hundreds spending on chassis rail repairs... Their exterior condition can be very deceptive, and a check through the wheel arch and a quick feel up the back of the rail with your hand is NOT enough!

Lack of substantial residual is something else to consider before pouring loads of money into an old MX5. In a few years time a MK2.5 MX5 which cost you £7K all in with mods will not sell for the sort of money a £7K 350Z would sell for in a few years time. But you knew that already... :)
 
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mx5 turbos command strong money, hardly anyone wants to actually do it themselves, although several places offer a drive in drive out service
 
shoes said:
mx5 turbos command strong money, hardly anyone wants to actually do it themselves, although several places offer a drive in drive out service
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Quite surprised at this at it is essentially a bolt on thing now. People even sell manifold and downpipe kits. Only thing you really need to do is drill the sump and sort out a water feed for the turbo. Rest is pretty much plug and play.
 
You rarely see turbo/supercharged ones for sale though and they are usually 6k+ for ones in good shape.

If I had room for another car I'd buy a MX-5 and supercharge it. Would be an amazing daily.
 
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adam cool dude said:
Quite surprised at this at it is essentially a bolt on thing now. People even sell manifold and downpipe kits. Only thing you really need to do is drill the sump and sort out a water feed for the turbo. Rest is pretty much plug and play.
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That.

I installed a turbo kit for a friend of mine. Total package came to just over 1.5k, but every part was produced by an english company and was of good quality and it came with a full standalone ecu. Oh and the kit came with a turbo oil return that returned back through the oil dipstick line, so no drilling required.

It took me longer to take the factory bumper off (never removed in 20 years) so lots of rusty/sheared bolts then it did to install the turbo manifold + turbo. Total install time was 8 hours in a dinky shed with no room or light.

With a tune that car is making 245hp now. Bit of a monster to drive given how light it is.
 
I've had 2 S2000's and currently have a 3.0 Z4, I'd swap my Z4 for another S2000 in a heartbeat and may even do so depending what S2000 values do over winter.
 
Rainagul said:
For a budget of 7k, I think you can do better then a 350. It's pretty lacklaster compared to some of it's turbo rivals.

For 7k I'd love to get:

Celica GT4 - Turbo, AWD, Incredibly well handling chassis & cheap to tune. Grip is unbelievable

Evo 4/5/6 - Evo, enough said

Soarer/Chaser/Aristo - Prices are on the rise for all of them, but not impossible to find a manual with a 1JZ/2JZ for less than 7k. Get turbo supra power without paying the supra price tag!

e36 M3 3.0 - Incredibly nimble chassis, great power and reliable.

Turbo MR2 - Seriously cheap for the performance you get, but you need to have balls of steel to drive them to their full potential.

MK1/MK2 MX-5 Turbo - For half your budget you can build a monster MX-5 which will destroy most things on this list when it comes to handling and acceleration. Lacks top end though
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Aristo would be brilliant! Had a MR2 mk1, a Mk2 NA and turbo all excellent choices, but as you said not your cup of tea. How about a mercedes CL500 i was looking at one for sale near me months ago, 5L V8 sounded awesome! but i needed t 4 door car. :(
 
When comparing the Z4 and the S2000, the S2k is more manic, harsher, and more of a proper sports-car in the old-school mold. The Z4 is softer and more refined.
Personally, I found the S2000 very tiring to drive if I was just going somewhere rather than if I was actually wanting to go and drive. The noise on the motorway is very bad and you can't even hear the stock stereo above 65mph.
But, on a nice road with lots of turns on a sunny day there's no place I'd rather be short of some seriously expensive metal.

The thing about the S2000 is the noise it makes. With an intake the sound above 6000rpm is just epic. The other thing is that the car is slow enough that you can actually use first 3 gears to their full potential without being in triple figures and for this reason, it feels a lot faster that it actually is.

I'll just leave this here:

 
Sound system is a pretty important aspect of a car even in a convertible. The DSP Carver system with a 3rd party alpine amp and pioneer head unit is awesome in the Z4, big improvement over the stock head unit although the alpine does struggle to power all the speakers if you want to go really loud however there are no alternative 3rd party amps I believe.
 
I had the following in the S2000:

Alpine X305 head unit
Alpine Imprint module
Hertz HE4 4x100W amp - 2 x 200W bridged in to the componants
Audison SX4 4 x 100W amp - 2 x 200W bridged in to the subs
Hertz componants in the doors (can't remember the model but they were about £400)
2 x JL 10" subs in a custom box sunk in to the space where the tool box goes in the boot
Amps were on a custom platform where the spare wheel goes.
Doors were all covered in Dynamat inside the skins

It sounded very good indeed.
 
inflames said:
Aristo would be brilliant! Had a MR2 mk1, a Mk2 NA and turbo all excellent choices, but as you said not your cup of tea. How about a mercedes CL500 i was looking at one for sale near me months ago, 5L V8 sounded awesome! but i needed t 4 door car. :(
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I'm looking at a MR2 mk1 as potentially my next ( second ) car.

You can drop me a PM with pros and cons if you want :) (to keep on topic)
 
Here's a very nice Celica GT4 for sale that I was about to buy myself.

However after much thought, I need a daily driver and this will be a bit too expensive and impractical to run as that. Would have made an ideal 2nd car for me. I have spoken to the guy and he seems genuine and the car has lots of history and most of the big bills are sorted like clutch and suspension work.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/toyota/toyota-celica-gt4-.-rare-colour-.-storm-grey-/1197158064
 
Just had a thought, has your insurance gone down now? If its still silly then you need to check out that for each of these cars as well. No point in getting any of these if it will cost 3K to insure for you.
 
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