What car if NOT a Porsche?

[onewhippedpuppy]

I don’t know that you can touch an NSX for $50k anymore. At least not a decent one.

[Geronimo]

No automatics! EVER!

If I was to move on from Porsche, I wouldn't look at another P-car.

Fd3s is high on my want list, but might be worse for stress and pocket books than a Porsche

The Honda K24 swap is an amazing set up, 250WHP NA, on a mostly stock Honda motor.

My general thinking is:

C7 GS, power, handling, reliability, cost hard car to make an argument against, unless you're a snob.

Gen 1 Viper (need to understand costs and see if it drives like poop)

R32 GTR (need to understand costs)

Lotus Elise

Sell the Porsche and give up on cars all together. lol

[Geronimo]

Nope, NSX's shot past 911's when I was looking. If not I might be on an NSX forum talking about how much my NSX doesn't break

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Sounds like you are just three head studs and some seals short of the finish line.
You can do this....

[Geronimo]

What I really want is a well sorted 911, under 2300lbs with 250hp.... but I think that will take another $30-40K into a car that's worth $25K. I just can't justify that.

[Geronimo]

Whatever the plan, it will include me correcting the head studs next year. Can't sell a car with broken bits, unlike the OP of my car. :|

[Shifter]

How about a C4 ZR1? Kinda stupid cheap for what they are.

[Geronimo]

Yea, I think I mentioned C4 LT5 a few posts back. I actually like the C4, I think it is aging very well. The LT5 is an amazing engine, and who doesn't love a clamshell hood!

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

A 968 is a very popular "Not a Porsche". Particularly the Club Sport model.

Some would say the same about a Boxster. Lot of car for little money if you buy 10 years old and older. They have their issues especially in the IMS bearing days but that's not too expensive to fix. A lot of them have already had the fix and are still cheap.

I can't remember the first year of the longer driver's compartment but it's a huge change for those of us taller than 5'10" or with long legs. I would drive the thing every day (a 2000) if it were that longer model. However, since the wife needs to move the seat up to drive it, it is and always has been her car. I bought it for her in her favorite color, another thing I'm not crazy about.

Fooking bright red. So it sits months at a time.

[Steve Carlton]

I didn't study these sales, but it seems like in the 1991 vintage, there's good deals on NSXs, and I'm sure you pay more than you have to on BaT.

https://bringatrailer.com/acura/nsx/

[Farreb1]

Formula Ford...

https://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/news/a18412/virtually-affordable-racing/

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by SiberianDVM

Me too. My first 911, a 84 Targa that I had just got the way I wanted it, was totaled by an idiot running a stop sign. Saved the motor and trans and put them in the 77 Targa widebody roller I bought to replace her. RIP Bwunhilde. Long live Bwunhilde II.

That is great! Yes, I did similar. Fortunately, that was about 10 years ago (back when a good car or roller was readily available). I had just finished that (my first 911) car...except for paint could have used a refresh...but still looked really good (original black paint). Body was perfect and it was a CA/NM car so zero rust. It was a '74 with sport seats and a 7:31 that I had put a freshly built Supertec hotrod engine in and then a full AC system that blew 32 in the summer. It was amazingly fast for a 3.0...so quick that I had to upgrade from 15x6 to 15x7 wheels and wider, stickier tires because you could burn the old ones off at a stop light launch. I had just put it back on the road after much money/work. Broke my heart and the insurance only gave me 13K which was about what a professionally done/documented fresh engine and went for then.

Fortunately, I was able to get them to sell the entire car back to me for less than what one the four 7' Fuchs was worth...much less the drivetrain or sport seats. I looked for the "right" roller (another '74) to swap the parts onto for months and did not find one. Finally I gave up and bought a pristine, low mileage '89 from a Pelican in CA (they were around $20K then). After driving it home, the next week, someone's ebay deal on a '74 with perfect paint and body fell through (I had tried to buy it before and was outbid).

I went ahead and bought it too (for $10K), sight unseen (except for photos). It was a no-rust CA car that had been shipped to IL by a "collector" and had sat inside for the last 10 years...being slowly "restored". It was displaced in the "collection" with a more rare/valuable model. It had a fresh, glass-out paint job and supposedly a rebuilt 2.7. It arrived with a lot of little issues I had fixed on my other car like shifter bushings and coupler bushings disintegrated...but was a pretty good car as is.

Since that was before anyone prized a matching numbers middie, I swapped all of the parts from my first car to the new one (except the ones that were better)...and was able to upgrade the suspension while in there (as I sold the engine, tranny and newly upholstered non-sport seats from the new car)...so came out with a better car with about the same investment. I actually came out with two, because I never would have bought the '89.

Other than the parts I mentioned that I sold, I boxed up most of the remaining removable parts and saved them (only really damaged the front...so I have almost a full car (other than chassis) in my basement from doors to bumpers. So...I am still sorta looking for a good candidate to build during my retirement...but have not come across one that I can justify/afford with current prices.

It just goes to show that...when one door closes another door (or maybe a window) opens.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by look 171

Go to post 11.

So, I hear begas hit 130 today. Holy poo poo that's hot

I want this to go to a good home. I am not good at selling thing; have no patients for tire kickers and BAT rejected me a couple years ago. All stock, Socal car and garaged, always. If anyone you know someone that's in the market for one, 14,500 and take her home.

That is a nice car. Does it still look that good? Wish I had room for it...

How is the AC? Would it get me back across the Desert to LV or Abq if I bought it?

Wife and I flew out to LA to pick up our '89 with nonfunctioning AC in the hottest weeks of summer. Had to buy bags of ice at gas stations to put behind our necks to keep reasonably cool when crossing to Vegas. Good time at the coast beforehand though.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by Geronimo

Whatever the plan, it will include me correcting the head studs next year. Can't sell a car with broken bits, unlike the OP of my car. :|

There is a way to pull the entire bank of heads and the cam tower together as a unit. I have never done it but have read about it.

That would save a lot of time if you just want to fix the problem vs going nutso.

[1990C4S]

I'm working in Detroit for a month. I could swing by and yell at you to 'do some effing work' every night...

Seriously, I lived here for two years, and I would never drive a nice car here. The roads are terrible and every dent on my daily car came from this area. I keep a junker alive just to drive in Michigan.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by Geronimo

So I am here wondering....

Another year without a functioning Porsche, and I may be much nearer the point of giving up on P-car ownership. I think it takes $40-50K to make a $30K car good. lol

I find myself looking at alternatives.... so I wonder, what would be your alternative to a Porsche if it couldn't be a Porsche?

Fun, fast, unique, cost effective, somewhat reliable,

I have a list in my head, but I want to see what you folks come up with lets say under $50K US.

Originally Posted by Geronimo

it's an 82SC.

I just put in a new MC and had the pedal box rebuilt/refurb'd.

Engine has 3 broken headstuds I'll dig into next year
PMO carbs could use a rebuild I think
Typical Porsche oil leaks
I do not have the budget for a Porsche mechanic of any kind. Spent a fortune on a new 915 last year. I will fit it, or burn it if I can't at this point. hehehehe

I am trying my hardest to love this car, but it isn't making it easy.

Ooooh, yea Lotus Elise, love those, best of both worlds.

I see a solution here....

[look 171]

Originally Posted by fintstone

That is a nice car. Does it still look that good? Wish I had room for it...

How is the AC? Would it get me back across the Desert to LV or Abq if I bought it?

Wife and I flew out to LA to pick up our '89 with nonfunctioning AC in the hottest weeks of summer. Had to buy bags of ice at gas stations to put behind our necks to keep reasonably cool when crossing to Vegas. Good time at the coast beforehand though.

Still looks just like it. I haven't really driven it in the past couple years but once a month to keep the oil going. That AC will keep your nipples hard all the way across the desert into NM on mid fan setting. AC blows really cold. I have too many cars and running out of room. That green car is being shuffled once every two weeks. Its killing me.

[cassisrot]

Originally Posted by fintstone

I don't know...I took my '89 Targa out today to the grocery store. The first time it had been out in months. Top down and perfect weather on two lane country road with little traffic. The only bad part was that people got right on my bumper both ways (even though I was going slightly over the posted speed limit). The first passed me on the left in an intersection as I moved over into the turn lane (where I was signaling to turn left). Not only did they almost hit me, but their speeding up to way over the limit almost caused them to hit a car already crossing the intersection and one coming from the other direction head on. If I hadn't seen it come and pulled back to the right quickly, someone would have likely died. I drive the roads all the time in my less flashy, but faster cars and this never happens. Every time I drive my 911, someone tries to kill us. I drove my first 911 a lot and this happened constantly until one day, I had nowhere to didge and it was totaled. I wonder sometimes if maybe I need to stick to more nondescript vehicles.

Fint, where the hell do you live. I take the 87 targa out for a drive and everybody waves smiles and generally enjoys seeing us out cruising. I had 4 pickups back to back wave when they passed us. No body ever rides my bumper and I rarely ever get more than 10 over. I’m sorry you are having such bad experiences.

[cassisrot]

Originally Posted by Geronimo

So I am here wondering....

Another year without a functioning Porsche, and I may be much nearer the point of giving up on P-car ownership. I think it takes $40-50K to make a $30K car good. lol

I find myself looking at alternatives.... so I wonder, what would be your alternative to a Porsche if it couldn't be a Porsche?

Fun, fast, unique, cost effective, somewhat reliable,

I have a list in my head, but I want to see what you folks come up with lets say under $50K US.

A 15 year old Mercedes SL might fit the bill; cheap, fast, reliable and serviceable. Also at the bottom of the depreciation curve.

[GH85Carrera]