15k to spend on a retro but what?

My colleague recently bought a Mk1 RS. RS specific parts are pretty dear, and "wear and tear" bits are daft. Check out the prices of headlights and floor mats. It is reet nice though.

Are you wanting it to be a investment or just for fun?

Corrado, xr3i, e36 m3, e46 m3, corolla ae86.

S1 lotus Elise

Certainly won’t depreciate, parts in the main are fairly cheap and readily available, great to drive, easy to work on.

Inspiration here:

retrorides.proboards.com/thread/218024/lotus-elise-honda-printed-trumpets

Sold a C2 996 almost 3 years ago and prices seem to be the same atm.

What is it that you like? Do you need rear seats? How are you going to drive it?

If you like Japanese coupes then you'd get a really good Integra, Celica GT4, or R33 GTST.
If you go to Pistonheads and set your budget and restrict by year, you can see tons of cars.
From Porsche, you could get a 944, 968, 996 or a 924 Turbo.
There are various M3s and M5s, 840s, loads of 80s hot hatches, TVRs, Lotus Elans, Bentleys, Jags etc.

Wow, I thought you always wanted it! A bit of a surprise.

It depends on what you want. What do you want from the car?

£15k would get a lovely E46 M3. A lot of other nice cars too.

I almost bought w Mk1 FRS instead of the M3. Back then parts were pricier for them. I think for what I use my car for I made the right choice but you do wonder “what if”. I had an S1 RST prior to that so it seemed cool having the successor. I remember Bruce saying thr Mk1 FRS was a really fun thing too.

A 944 is a nice old thing. You’ll get a nice S2 for that.

However, some spares are pricey albeit always have been. The issue now is some are NLA at times. Lower arms Porsche stopped selling for a while, which meant only a Hartech refurb was an option if yours could be rebuilt.

Sills are now in patchy supply too.

From a 996, the 944 is cool in a retro way, but a stock car may feel underwhelming.

While I liked my S2, I adored my Turbo, but that had some key mods, a lot of work done and around 300BHP. Bar the miles that was on, it was one of the nicest Turbos out there, with a lot of the right work done (not many944s will have a fresh cooling system and subframe mounts for example, despite both needing doing). Similar cars I’ve seen on sensible miles are now £25k however, and a 996 is then the better car out of the box, with change.

S1 Elise would be my pick howver. I’m not sure I’d sell both of mine to buy one , as I do like being able to tour/go places, but if I sold the ST, and I someone had the means to buy one, I would .

O




Strange I’ve just seen this thread. I’ve just bought this. Getting delivered on Thursday 😀

Good ones are out there for under 15k, you just have to be quick when they come up.

I know of a mint one running 400bhp for 20k if you’re interested.