So the Rover Mini has to go, it's giving me a bad back as I can't get the standard seat back far enough and the steering with the fat wheels is too heavy. I could modify it but it will kill it's resale value.

So, once it's been welded up (a 10 year old car and it failed on 5 major rusty bits underneath - good British build quality ) it's gonna be sold.

So I'll be in the market for another second car. Budget is £2k ish as I need the rest of the £££ to redo the driveway!), it needs to be able to be left in a car park all day and used fairly regularly, so no completely open cars, I would actually prefer a tin-top.

Over 15 years old so it has class car insurance (preferably pre-1972 so no tax!!), small enough to go in my single garage and leave me a bit of room to work around it.

Reasonable fuel economy, a body that wont need constant attention with rust. Fun and nippy to drive and relatively cheap to upgrade and improve.

Can be fwd or rwd.

So far the only car I've thought about is another Mini, but an older cheaper one that I can mess about (put proper seats in and small wheels so no more back trouble) with and that's already had the bodywork sorted.

Ideas?

Scimitar SE5



pre 72
GRP body
4343mm long
1638mm wide
1321mm high
coil overs all round as standard
front: double wishbone
rear: 4 bar + watts linkage

all simple bits with some tunning options (including various cheap engine swaps - seen cossie 24v, omega V6 and diesels)



[Edited on 9/9/2010 by mcerd1]

Going to be hard finding a 15 year old metal classic that's fairly immune to rust.

Scimitar would be a bit big for a single garage methinks and not really 'nippy' but is otherwise a good choice.

For me the Pug 205 would be the obvious choice with a 1.6 GTi (IMO).

Going kit/fibreglass you've got
GTM Rossa Mk1, Mk2 or K3 with hardtops
Midas Bronze or Gold
Mini Minus

Another thought might be a MX5 with a hard-top (probably need to stretch the budget by £500 to get a reasonable one)

[Edited on 9/9/10 by iank]

Can't believe I'll get a good one of those for £2k will I??

Not asking much are you :-)

A few come to mind:-

Reliant Scimitar (poss pre 73)
MX5
Mk1 Golf GTi (poss Cabrio)

- Jim

or Porsche 924, iirc they're galv bodies.

Jim - what I REALLY want is your Alfa

Scimitar with a granada cossie engine will make it nippy. A fairly straight forward conversion apparently.

Compared with modern cars Scimitars are quite narrow.

A friend of mine pick up a nice MX5 for <£1500 complete with hard top.

- Jim

MX5 might be an option, and the wife would drive it. Bit of a girls car though, and how is it for upgrades??

quote:

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Originally posted by Jasper
Jim - what I REALLY want is your Alfa

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jasper
MX5 might be an option, and the wife would drive it. Bit of a girls car though, and how is it for upgrades??

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Cool, shout if you need another pair of hands for anything, I'm around in the evening

quote:

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Originally posted by Jasper
Cool, shout if you need another pair of hands for anything, I'm around in the evening

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Suzuki Cappuccino

ok this one isn't a pre 72, but you should have a read anyway: scimitar engine swap

and if the wife wants to drive you can always look into adding the eletric power steering (on almost any old car)

Like the idea of the Scimitar, but there's no way I've got the time or inclination for a big engine swap job.

It would be good if it could be used on the odd track day, so maybe the MX5 with some upgrades....

924 worries me with the price of parts.

GTM's worth a look....

For me it would be a 205 GTI 1.6 or 1.9 but probably a 1.6.

- better than most of it's peers on corrosion
- solid appreciating values for tidy ones
- plenty to choose from
- you'll find a good one for £2k
- cheap to run and repair
- fit's in your garage
- great to drive and comfortable
- practical for 4 adults and luggage

what more do you want...?

Sure i saw a Scimitar with a BMW 525 TD in it a while back.

That would be quite good in my book....

Yeah - I had a 1.9 about 9 years ago and loved it, worth looking at again as well.

So why the 1.6 not the 1.9?

Volvo 66
Hillman Imp
Austin 7

What about a VW Corrado? go for the 2.0 16v, 150bhp and sublime handling, or if your wallet could stretch to it a 2.9 VR6, superb engine 190bhp, but expensive to tune. The 16v is a fair bit lighter so gives better handling and can be tuned to about 170bhp.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jasper
Yeah - I had a 1.9 about 9 years ago and loved it, worth looking at again as well.

So why the 1.6 not the 1.9?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Benzine
Hillman Imp

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quote:

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Originally posted by iank
or Porsche 924, iirc they're galv bodies.

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quote:

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Originally posted by dazzx10r
What about a VW Corrado?

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Imp too small, Legnum too much like my Beemer.

Quite like the idea of a 924 or 944 ...

Hmmm,
How about a 924 Turbo....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alister667/476083994/in/set-721576000875 44946/

less than 50k miles, MOT'd a couple of years ago, sitting in a shed ever since. Not a trace of rust. Only down side is the colour. It's not called the flying turd for nothing...

Hmm, nice, quite partial to a bit of 80's brown. How much?

Honda CRX Del Sol?

MX5

I will have one sometime, my parents had one some years ago ,very practical fun little car.

I've been getting nearer and nearer to that phase of my motoring life.

Use of Locost seems to have gone down to one outing per taxdisc/Insurance , thats quite expensive!

quote:

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Originally posted by Jasper
Hmm, nice, quite partial to a bit of 80's brown. How much?

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Ohh, also, it has an interesting back story...

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=56225

Cheers,

Ali

Hmmm interesting, but I've got to sell the Mini first anyway... so no rush.

You better give me some more info!! And pictures £3k, but you got it for free

quote:

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Originally posted by Jasper
MX5 might be an option, and the wife would drive it. Bit of a girls car though, and how is it for upgrades??

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Lots of very nice Porsche 924s on Pistonheads, love that 80's look

quote:

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Originally posted by Jasper
Yeah - I had a 1.9 about 9 years ago and loved it, worth looking at again as well.

So why the 1.6 not the 1.9?

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