Fun with cheap cars

The challenge is to find a car that is not attractive to enthusiasts and modify it so that it becomes a fun drive, on the cheap. Bolt ons only or minor fabrication. Headers and exhaust allowed, Intake system ie throttle body changes or mods allowed, programming changes to the ECU if possible allowed. Mods to the suspension, steering, brakes, wheels, and tires are allowed. Seating is to remain stock as is the overall appearance of the car. Now for the hard part; If are all on the same page as to what is allowed and what is not lets get down to the details. If you nominate a certain car please give the specifics of exactly what you do or have done in the past to achieve fun car status.

Why are superchargers not allowed if the supercharger is a junkyard bolt on?

99ish Saab 9-3

In reply to Chadeux:

I was trying to keep it simple but you do have a point. I like junkyard bolt ons. Tell us about your car.

My car or that theoretical car?

My current best attempt at this theory involves an engine swap, but the final product is still looking like it'll be under the cap for the buy in for this exercise.

(V8 S10 Blazer, the worst way, built from leftovers, No AC because AC cost money and doesn't help with skids.)

That car is a 9c1 Impala. Plan is to add the best tire you can come up with a mini van size, bolt an M90 onto the 3800, become a low level tuning wizard to keep it from killing pistons, and then drive it like a stolen rental car.

In reply to old_:

The Saab does fit some of the criteria but I rather keep Saab and Volvos out of the running. For the purposes of this challenge nothing older than a 1998 model. The reason I say that is because Volvos of this era are not as reliable as the old Red Blocks. As for the Saab I am prejudiced because my boss at the time bought a brand new 9-3. It had so many issues that the dealer kept it for 6 months until they could figure out the problems.

In reply to Chadeux:

I like your Impala. It is within the spirit of this mental exercise. Off course I would love to see the real thing rather than a hypothetical car. It takes creativity and a lot of research to come up with parts that were not originally meant for your car but you get it to work on your car.

I don't have an Impala, never said I did. I have a Malibu I could do similar things with using Grand Am parts, but my Malibu is actually reliable-ish, so I'm throwing parts at my hopeless Bravada (S10 Blazer) instead.

I'm not sure what you're looking for here, any late 90s or early 00s crapcan will handle if you put some thought and money into the suspension. Anything especially easy to make work or well engineered from the factory (e.g. Honda), as you mentioned, has been done to death for that reason. We were cherry picking because you asked for a cheap jack of all trades cherry, which mostly narrows it down to fully depreciated sports cars and Hondas, and of those with AC that works worth a damn you're looking at something with an American AC system, so Corvette.

I suppose the 1ZZ powered Chevy Prizm LSi is pretty neutral out of the box and had a bigass Delphi AC system instead of the Denso setup the regular Corollas got. When mine worked it would easily drop the cabin temp of the black car 30*+, like you would get out of it on a humid day and the keys would be cold enough to have water dripping off of them.

BrokenYugo wrote: any late 90s or early 00s crapcan will handle if you put some thought and money into the suspension. That is what I am looking for. With some cars you can swap parts from a sportier version of that platform. Ford Fox bodied cars come to mind or the older Falcon platform cars. But what do you do if you want headers and there are none available from the aftermarket and all the OEM exhaust manifolds are fairly restrictive. Making tube headers is an endeavor that requires a lot of skill and you are not. WHat do you do?

In reply to fortee9er:

You buy a different car with a better aftermarket or you learn to do things the hard way.

You can put STI suspension under a base Impreza, but the one I drove rode like a Conestoga wagon and the AC was fairly useless.

You can drop a 350 into an old S10, but at this moment, by the time you've got it sorted the way you're asking and not just a tire burning hoon machine you could have spent the same money or less on a C4 that does everything better besides hauling stuff.

Cars that aren't attractive to enthusiast aren't attractive to enthusiasts because you can't cheaply or easily make them attractive to enthusiasts. I recall a few years ago this magazine tried to track a cheap V6 manual trans Camry, they gave up when they couldn't keep a motor in the thing without going to the trouble and expense of converting it to a dry sump oil system.

I think I am sticking with the SVT Contour. It fits all your criteria.

Kind of plain on the looks. Can be made to Handel and go fast. Comfortable for what it is. The ac is good when serviced. There is a decent aftermarket for it.

BrokenYugo wrote: In reply to fortee9er: I recall a few years ago this magazine tried to track a cheap V6 manual trans Camry, they gave up when they couldn't keep a motor in the thing without going to the trouble and expense of converting it to a dry sump oil system.

Actually that is what gave me this idea of the challenge. However I did not get to read the whole story because I don't subscribe to the magazine. Nothing against GRM times were tough and I had to cut all my magazine subscriptions. My other inspirations are my 1994 Suzuki Swift GT and my 1979 Lincoln Versailles (Falcon Platform).

I'm skimming but I was always perturbed by Mike Kojimas cannibalizing of NX2000 hubs to upgrade SE 200sxs. I mean killing a Unicorn to upgrade a car with higher production numbers seemed odd to my Euro centric classic car mind. What I'd like to see is more of the parts bin ethic but from the next model up swapped down with very little massaging.

Fine. P10 g20, Mazda 626/mx-6/probe gt with klg4 manifold and bolt ones, Pontiac vibe gt/matrix xrs, and focus st 05-07 with manifold upgrade plus bolt on.

If you want a midsized fwd sedan like the camry, the mazda6s, 626, svt contour and 4th gen maximas (00vi+ y-pipe) would be your obvious choices

Fifth Gen Maxima with a manual.

1999-2003. Plenty of people own them that are not enthusiasts.

old_ wrote: 99ish Saab 9-3

Came here to say this.

I bought mine for $250 and drove it onto a trailer. Needed a power steering pump and alternator repair before it was driveable on the road.

Power mods are cheap and easy and TURBO.

I just bought full springs and shocks off a wrecked viggen convertible, the front shocks were nearly brand new Bilstein B8s, for $200.

I've done full poly bushings, a bigger turbo, a bigger intercooler, an exhaust, a tune, a rear sway bar, and a few other small things including deferred maintenance like plugs, fuel filter, valve cover gasket, PVC system, etc and I am all in under $1500 currently.

2nd gear will spin the tires from a roll at about 45 mph. I drive this car everyday and my wife can drive it no issues.

You could easily start with a slightly better one and drive it home.

A grand prix gtp can be made pretty fast cheap, but it seems like they are getting harder and harder to find well taken care of

Cars built post 1998 eliminates all the obd1, lightweight early 90s goodness.

08 to 11 Focus. For couple grand in bolt ons plus a tune they can be seriously quick fo auto x and track use.

fortee9er wrote: The challenge is to find a car that is not attractive to enthusiasts and modify it so that it becomes a fun drive, on the cheap. Bolt ons only or minor fabrication. Headers and exhaust allowed, Intake system ie throttle body changes or mods allowed, programming changes to the ECU if possible allowed. Mods to the suspension, steering, brakes, wheels, and tires are allowed. Seating is to remain stock as is the overall appearance of the car. Now for the hard part; If are all on the same page as to what is allowed and what is not lets get down to the details. If you nominate a certain car please give the specifics of exactly what you do or have done in the past to achieve fun car status.

I'm not trying to make fun of your exercise, but... I don't get it.

I can spend $2,500 and get a car that simply does all these things (C4, Miata, 328i, Saab 9-3, Porsche 944, Mustang, etc) and not have to futz with it, or I can spend $2,500 on a car and parts to buy a car that doesn't do these things by design and have to spend money plus work on building a car that still won't be as good at these activities as an actual sports car would be?

What am I missing here?

Whatever is left from the cars you already elimanated. You basically eliminated 89% of probables.

nutherjrfan wrote: What I'd like to see is more of the parts bin ethic but from the next model up swapped down with very little massaging.<img

I like that!

lnlds wrote: Fine. P10 g20, Mazda 626/mx-6/probe gt with klg4 manifold and bolt ones, Pontiac vibe gt/matrix xrs, and focus st 05-07 with manifold upgrade plus bolt on. If you want a midsized fwd sedan like the camry, the mazda6s, 626, svt contour and 4th gen maximas (00vi+ y-pipe) would be your obvious choices

Yes, but SVT Contour and Focus are hard to find.

Lugnut wrote:

I'm not trying to make fun of your exercise, but... I don't get it.

I can spend $2,500 and get a car that simply does all these things (C4, Miata, 328i, Saab 9-3, Porsche 944, Mustang, etc) and not have to futz with it, or I can spend $2,500 on a car and parts to buy a car that doesn't do these things by design and have to spend money plus work on building a car that still won't be as good at these activities as an actual sports car would be?

What am I missing here?

You're absolutely correct. This is an exercise in creativity. Think of old hot rodders when there wasn't much of an aftermarket or factory hot rods to provide better parts to swap in. AS on example one of my project cars is a 1994 Suzuki Swift GT. I've owned the car for 15 years and I love it. In these past years I was able to do the entire suspension, lowering springs, Koni shocks, polyurethane bushings, bigger sway bars, shock tower braces (front and rear) bigger sticky tires...etc. But the car sorely needs a LSD differential, and a close ratio gear box. There are a couple of vendors offering LSD for this car and one vendor that offers better gears for the transmission. Problem is cost. As of right now looks like I have reached a dead end. But maybe there is someone out there who faced the same issues and came up with a reasonable solution.