max £6k budget - I want a lunatic of a car please

3rd gen Camaro.

5.3 LS swap.

Turbo.

10 second 480rwhp for a lot less than £6k



You can thank me later.

P.

^^^^ exactly what I was going to offer up
German quality....

Thanks chaps so far, I already have a fairly rapid Merc (the new car the wife will be driving) and I know I'll be stoned for saying it but I can't get past that E55 front end, I just don't like them (sorry)

I'll add after seeing the lovely Passat that I'm not looking for refined as such, we have a lovely new Merc that is both fast enough for family travels and is chocker full of toys, I want something that the wife DOESN'T want to drive as its too fast or too scary or both haha

apologies for not making this clear in my original post

A mapped 535d will do the job, leave just anything behind and you can take the kids

Just about into CV8 Monaro money, might be a little tight but if you can find one....Right hand drive, sensible size, 5.7 LS1, cheap mods. I’ve got one and I love it. Fun to hoon about in but can cruise like a big German thing.


Also has the bonus of not being typically girl friendly, my wife has driven mine twice. After both times she looked utterly beaten!

Toyota Blade Master G ... Have a google ... It doesn't look mental parked up though (just read that).

Being you've mentioned you're open to engine swaps, I'm surprised this thread hasn't taken right off. Maybe it will tomorrow. Should be loads of options out there.

Let's move away from the big engined Mercedes and Jaguar then. You want the right look too.

Like an Evo or Impreza. We're looking at actual fast cars here, not cars that are just fast by virtue of a large engine (ie executive models)

So. Mk3 Supra turbo? Even a manual is around 3k.
Alfa 156 gta? Or 147gta? I think 6k would just buy one.
6k might also just manage a c3 or c4 corvette. But only 2 seats. And not that fast, but lots of shouty.

How fast are we talking here, really? I don't think any of those would even keep up with a turbo impreza.

IMHO this is a tricky price point. £10k gives you alot of choices, but this is a middle man's land really. You get cheap cars that can very quickly become expensive. Or cars that aren't quite as fast but will stay reliable.

So, here it goes without straying into other options.

-Mk2 Focus ST ; This budget will just get you one. Just don't look too much at tuning options ; I'd simply do a remap and try to be happy! The 5 pot warble is nice
-850 T5R ; Similar to tbe above ; I *think* they're around this mark for something decent, maybe less with change.
-A Turbo'd MX-5 ; quite easily doable for the budget and I reckon with change to spare. Not a swap but it's a change of induction.
-Audi TT 225 with change for mods ; I suspect it's a bit too much like the Imprezza and you'll need handling mods to get rid of an understeer biased chassis.
-It seems Nissan 350Zs drop into this price range, just.

Now for engine conversions.
-Mk2 Golf/Jetta or a Scirroco and drop in either a Mk3 GTi engine with some induction choices or a 1.8T 20V and turn the wick up.
-Mazda RX-8 with a look into LS conversions ; I doubt one with a bad engine will be hard to find .
-An E36 and look into V8 conversions.
-A sheddy E30 (you couldn't be picky about cosmetics at this money! The car being as rot free as possible would be my priority here) and look into M52 conversions.
-MkV Escort using a Zetec Turbo of sorts.
-A W124 saloon of sorts (again, not cosmetically fussy) and drop in an OM606 on boost ; buying a rotten W210 would be your best bet here as a runner I suspect.

I suspect the reason people haven't suggest engine swaps is because more are now aware that they are far from a 'bolt-in and drive' solution and things can very quickly get expensive, and not just for cars that are injection driven. Before you even get to the brakes and suspension needing attention unless you do a Roadkill (aka, the Impala ) you almost always end up with teething problems, from the smallest thing to more annoying ones, some which may require the engine to be pulled out again. Seth is one person I reckon who can relate to this as well as HoTWire. Seth is lucky in that he can do pretty much all of the work himself. It did take him quite some time to plan it however which TBH probably stood him in very good stead.

The cars that were cheap to do conversions with are no longer cheap to buy for a viable basis. E30 6 pots are strong money now in good form as are Pug 205 GTis ; buying a GTi-6 205 may not be a bad shout.

It depends on what the OP is willing to live with or accept.

Find a mk2 golf with a bam engine conversion. Or at least a k04 turbo and map.

270+bhp in a mk2 is scary... but so much fun if the car is set up right.