MSE Supercar ownership experience?

Herzlos

Ignoring all the spam focused around BMWs for some reason, I think there's actually a decent discussion to be had.

Not for me at this stage, I'm firmly in minivan territory though I'd love a fun minivan. Like a Ford Tourneo ST, but for now I'll just need to settle for my 99hp diesel and taking a run at hills.

What do you reckon is the most MSE way to go about having a supercar experience? I mean more in the fun-to-drive way, not the broken-down-and-need-remortgaged way.

Assuming you've got a daily car so practicality and reliability isn't a big concern.

Kit cars? Older Japanese imports like a Supra/Celica/GT-R? Older hatchbacks with modern engines?


Please don't engage with any dark posts, for that matter, too.

WellKnownSid

2024, a thousand miles on the clock, under 25 grand.  0-60 in 3.8 seconds.  7 year warranty.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202409164077361?sort=relevance&twcs=true&advertising-location=at_cars&make=&page=2&postcode=w1d 4dp&price-to=25000&year-from=2022&zero-to-60=TO_4&fromsra

caprikid1

Depends what you want, I owned quite a low powered Caterham for some time and that was quite exhilarating, been out in a few older 911's and was quite underwhelmed .

a 200BHP Plus Caterham given the weight is quite a fun machine, but the parts prices can be staggeringly cheap, mine use Sierra Diff, Spitfire Brake discs (£15) Caterham were often cheaper the motor manufacturers.

caprikid1

"Kit cars? Older Japanese imports like a Supra/Celica/GT-R? Older hatchbacks with modern engines?"

Z Cars mini's seem utterly mental !.

Grumpy_chap

I would have though that self-drive supercar hire would be the best way to get it all out of the system...

Tucosalamanca

A friend has a Westfield, which ticks all the boxes. Cost £15k and is cheap to run.
However, it's only a dry day vehicle and is only really suited to the track, which is where it gets driven most.

Another friend has an old Impreza that was an MOT failure (corrosion).
It's been turned into a track car and is transported by trailer to/from the track.
Lots of fun and not huge amounts of money...

DullGreyGuy

Herzlos said:

What do you reckon is the most MSE way to go about having a supercar experience? I mean more in the fun-to-drive way, not the broken-down-and-need-remortgaged way.

Assuming you've got a daily car so practicality and reliability isn't a big concern.

Kit cars? Older Japanese imports like a Supra/Celica/GT-R? Older hatchbacks with modern engines?

What do you mean "experience"? 

Ownership?
Driving?


If you live in the south-east Mercedes-Benz World has a track where you can take a C63, E63 or GT63 around as a driver or a passenger for not too silly money plus its a track so no speed limits to worry about. 

A less exciting mechanism is simply to get a test drive, significantly helps if you can turn up in an appropriate car though. A work colleague had mentioned he'd been to a Maserati and Ferrari dealership, had looked round the first half but hadn't gone to the Ferrari section as he was already well over his budget and "its not like you can just take one for a test drive". Accepted we had a nearly new decent merc at the time but to prove his comment wrong went to the dealership, said we were considering a California and took one out for a test drive.

noitsnotme

I had an older Subaru Impreza WRX with the Prodrive Performance Pack.  Paid a couple of grand for it, owned it for 7 years then sold it for a little more than I’d paid.  Never did much to it except general maintenance.  It was a daily drive for a good chunk of my ownership.  Was a lot of fun for not a lot of money,even on the roads.

raptor2004

Excellent thread, and one that the MSE Motoring forum needs more of.

Anything that is RWD, enough power to have fun and maybe a LSD.

A lot of options to choose from depending on budget. I suppose the MSE way would be cars like the Honda S2000, E46 M3, GT86…..

Nissan GT-R (from 2009) are also excellent but too expensive 

raptor2004

WellKnownSid said:

2024, a thousand miles on the clock, under 25 grand.  0-60 in 3.8 seconds.  7 year warranty.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202409164077361?sort=relevance&twcs=true&advertising-location=at_cars&make=&page=2&postcode=w1d 4dp&price-to=25000&year-from=2022&zero-to-60=TO_4&fromsra

This will not provide the same sort of fun a sports car would. It’s heavy and probably handles like a boat. 

On track (and public roads) even a low powered GT-86 will leave it in the dust around the bends.

Higher powered cars like the E92 M4 V8 starts to pull hard on these electric cars after 60 mph.

Nobbie1967

Having followed a chap on another forum who is working through a list of super cars to own, the trick seems to be lots of research and patiently looking for a very specific car rather than a spur of the moment purchase of something that catches your eye on Autotrader or Collecting Cars. They got a well maintained Aston Martin Vantage and ran it for 18 months with pretty minimal running costs and lost about £3k in depreciation. They have now bought a Ferrari 360 in red and seem to be doing alright so far. You can reduce the risk of catastrophic bills, but with these sort of cars they are always a possibility.

If you can spanner yourself, a lot of old Porsches can be pretty economical to run with the aid of eBay and breakers. I ran a 986 for 7 years and made a profit breaking it at the end, you could probably do similar with a 911, although it depends how you’re defining ‘super car’.