What should I buy?

Why over 3 litres? - there are loads of decent cars worth looking at which are under, or just dead on 3 litres....

E30 325i Sport and Alfa 75 V6, for example.

Both are lightweight, RWD 'sports saloons' with an LSD and huge sacks of fun to drive.

If you really want over 3lt, then how about an E34 535i, or 540i?

I just got a new job, less than a mile from home. It means I can run something ridiculous as I'll be walking to work anyway! a 540i sounds tempting actually....

Mike P

Sounds like my kind of car. How about an SD1? :) Or maybe something American like a Camaro.

Does it really have to be over 3 litres though? Because something like an MR2 Turbo, MR2 Supercharger, 325i, Supra etc etc would be just as fun. Basically there's loads of cars out there that would fit the bill. Either be more specific or start looking through Adtrader, Autotrader, Ebay, classic mags etc etc.

Some options:

3 bottles of water, connected with a spring?

:-)

Serious: you are in a country which allows kitcars. So you have no=20 excuse for not having one. Maybe a Rover V8 powered seven-cloon fits=20 your budget?

Tom De Moor

You can get some very tidy Chevrolet Blazers for that sort of money, a '96 V8 Jag Sovereign, several BMW 740/750s, Lexus, Audi A8, Loads of

2000(W & X) Ford Explorers some of them North Face editions which means all the toys.

Personally I'd go for the Exploder, but then I'm just ever so slightly biased. About £2k gets you a low mileage 2000 reg version and they're much better to drive than people think. At least go and get a test drive in one.

:>-)

My missus likes this idea. She says it would keep me amused for weeks on end :-)

Having thought about it, I think you might be right. We've got a sensible car already, so what I'm buying is purely for fun. I've been watching some old ETCC races with Volvo 240s and Rover SD1s in them, and it just looked so much fun throwing those old tanks around, so I've been considering doing something silly with a Merc 500 or similar - strip it out, lower it, more power etc and using it as a track toy - yes, I know there are much, much better things to use on a track, but I quite like driving poorly handling big cars faster than they should go :-)

Then I started looking at "other vehicles" on fleabay and spotted this..

Something like that would do me nicely I think..

Any other ideas?

Mike P

He said he wanted something fun to drive, not a lardy, wobbly Merkin

4x4.

And elsewhere you're arguing that tight well controlled cars aren't fun to drive. Make your mind up.

You've spent too long driving lardy heaps of crap to make a judgement, given the utter s**te you've posted in the past about the Exploder.

I don't mind driving something that handles a bit sloppily, my early driving days were spent in Lada saloons, they handled terribly but were still great fun to thrash down the local country lanes! I borrowed a 4 litre Wrangler recently, it was a lot better than I expected. Still like a jelly on stilts compared to my old Saab 900 Turbo, but they're totally different machines.

Mike P

Jaguar XJS

That was my first thought as it happens

Mike P

List here the number of Exploders driven by SteveH.

[ ]

Yup, thought so. And of course it pushes all the buttons for your uninformed opinion since it has a blue oval badge.

Oh, no, it's even more biased than that.

Big 4x4, made for Merkins. It *has* to be s**te.

I don't think many would disagree, other than you.

A good - as opposed to "looks good" - genuine 325i Sport is going to be close to his limit or even busting it.

I dunno, I've driven a few E30s recently and didn't find them as good as people say they are.

I'd got for a manual 535i or a manual M535i if he can find one. Both (and the 540i) are pretty rapid cross country weapons and are quite nice to drive as well.

Unless you can get a 540 with a *proven* engine replacement or proof that it doesn't suffer from Nikasil issues, I'd give that model a wide berth.

The odd thing about hoods is that they're not small and nimble like a Westfield or Locost (I won't mention caterhams), but they aren't big or cosseting enough to be considered comfortable tourers.

I've had two, so this is actual experience.

There are lots of slightly unfashionable kitcars for your budget which are not sevens or cobras - these are the default choice of the kit car world.

I'm talking about Quantum H4s, Midases and GTM Rossas. Try and see if you can find a Rossa K3 to have a go in. Sporting enough to do an event in and very elise like in concept. Comfortable enough to commute in as well or travel the length of the country in. I did all of these with mine. Best of all depreciation is absolutely not on the cards.

There you go, the kit car opinion. Someone will be along soon with something else :-)

For that money you will spend the rest of your life regretting it. There is a LHD one on autotrader for £4.5k. I'd have it if I had the room and the bottomless maintenance pockets.

And anyone else who has actually driven one.