Fun car conundrum.

tomstickland

This is slightly outside the MSE std comfort zone. This is about spending money on cars for fun. However, it is still MSE because it's about maximising the efficiency of the spending.

For the last 4 years I've owned a 1991 BMW 318iS. That's the last of the old style 3 series saloons, with a pepped up 16v engine that was a bit special at the time. 140BHP and just over a metric tonne, not enough to set the world alight, but sports suspension, rear wheel drive, 48/52 weight balance and Golf GTi 8v performance gave a great package.

Well, I spent a fair bit on parts for it. I spend £1K on suspension parts, sourced an LSD (limited slip diff) from America, fiited a Z3 rack and gear shifter and did general maintenance to it. Quite a lot in fact...fuel tank, new brake lines, engine subframe, mounts, 2nd hand gearbox, headlights, helicoiled engine cam cover...etc. Lots of tyres too.

It was all worth it because I enjoyed driving it every time. Rear wheel drive, lightish, well balanced, cheap to run (35mpg).

Anyway, a week or so the engine developed a rattle. The following weekend I took it apart to take a look and found that a bolt had worked loose and rattled around doing minor damage. A timing chain guide had snapped off.

I didn't have all the parts needed to fix this so I went out and bought a MK3 Gold 1.9 TDi estate for £450. Apart from the paint work being keyed all round this is actually a totally sound car. It's returning an amazing mpg (55-60 by the look of it) and I'm quite enjoying being sensible. Diesel is a bit of a novelty too.

The original plan was to just fix the engine back up and then continue driving the BMW. It's not in perfect condition and the shell would give a few more years service I reckon. There's no structural rust, just a bit by the sunroof.

Then I decided that I should take the opportunity to do things properly: take the BMW off the road, rebuild the engine completely and then drive the car down to the bodyshop to be resprayed. I reckon this project would cost me around £2K.

That was a week ago. Since then I've had a good think and decided that maybe I should break the car for parts. There's about £1300 of value in it (some tuning items, loads of spares, lots of tidy std parts worth £5 and £10 etc).

I'm going to keep the Golf because it's sensible and cheap to run.

Then I'm going to go and buy a 2nd car for fun. Something a lot more focussed and extreme.

My first thoughts were kit car or VX220. I've seen 2001 model VX220s going for £7-8K on Autotrader and Pistonheads. I'd have to wait a few months to save up the cash levels for this, allowing me time to break the BMW.

Someone else suggested an early MX5. Tidy examples can be picked up for £2K and despite the slight image problem, they're great cars. Reliable, rear wheel drive, light. Would be fun I reckon.

I have two problems to fix though:
1) Insurance. I heard that there's a company who offer transferable insurance, so you can insure 2 cars for one driver on one policy.

2) Storage. I have a garage but it's full of tools. I was thinking of building a shed on my parking space so I could store the 2nd car out of sight of the very occasional vandals that we suffer (one or two bad things per year).

tomstickland

Nurburgring:

It's not really lowered that much - that's compression on the banked corner.

anewman

Clean looking inside the engine! You must have kept up well with the oil changes. I doubt my timing chain will look as clean.

On insurance I think Admiral do multi-car policies. Not quite sure if it *really* works out any cheaper though.

Is buying another BMW 3 series of same era and mixing and matching the best bits and saving some spares not an option?

tomstickland

I've been through every combination I can think of, and there are a lot of them!
Buying a cleaner shell and swapping over parts. Selling and buying another one. Sorting this one out, properly or cheaply or minimum cost.

My ultimate feeling is that I want to move on from E30 ownership. Leave whilst the going is good. End the holiday after one week, don't book a second week and have enough by Wednesday.

Oh yes, oil changes. Tend to buy 4 x 5L of oil and 4 x filters for £40 ish and then change them every other month.

Keith

MX5 is great fun, supercharged ones are even better

stumpjumper

Another vote for an MX-5 from a happy owner. The smiles get bigger when the sun shines too. Don't worry about the image, not many hairdressers would be seen dead in a 13 year old car! Only thing to watch out for is the dreaded tin-worm, these cars rot from the inside out so visible rust on the wheel arches and sills will mean you won't get much change out of £700 at the bodyshop sorting it out properly. Imports seem to suffer less from this than UK cars.

thescouselander

How about a MKII MR2 Turbo. I used to have the non turbo version and it is one of my all time favourite cars (that I've owned) - the turbo would have been even better. You can probably pick one up cheap as chips now.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

A VX220 at that price will be a dog. I'd go for the MX-5, although actually I'd go for another Chimaera but only because I know them.

tomstickland

Dog, but what will be wrong? If it's mechanical then I can fix it.

KK22_2

My vote would be for the VX220. Great cars, known a few guys who have owned them and loved every minute of it. Not too expensive to run or maintain either.

As a side thought... ever thought about a caterham?

tomstickland

Yes, actively thinking about kit cars.