Supercars in a slack economy

Hello all. New to the boards and a relatively new subscriber as well. I really enjoyed the affordable supercars piece in December's issue. I've drooled over many relatively affordable, slightly aged supercars on eBay in the last few years and was pleased to see some of the cars I regularly review mentioned in the article.

Aside from money and impracticality, the primary reason I've held off on any of these cars is the potential maintenance required. I love getting my hands dirty, but even with the internet I'm concerned about reasonably affordable replacement parts for some of the makes (particularly Maserati and Lotus). What is the general concensus on this train of thought?

On the otherhand, despite falling in love with it in the mid 90s, I'd totally overlooked the Viper. I had no idea how much these had fallen in price. Unfortunately, the soft top and side screens on the early, affordable models are just silly, so I'll have to wait until the GTS coupes come down in price a little more. Does anyone have any experience on the up keep of a Viper?

Not all of the Viper verts have side screens.

Do any of the early model years not have them? Every one that I've looked at either had them or I thought had them because I couldn't see any evidence of regular windows.

The early cars are fine for practicality, once they are up to temp any rain that comes near it is instantly evaporated by the 1000F rocker panels.

And you can cook breakfast on them (the rocker panels).

While I'm sure there are many Viper-specific parts, they look to be mostly parts-bin cars. At the very least I'd imagine most of the electrics are.

If its anything like my old prowlers all the trim came from something else. More then likely truck based.

If the Lotus guys have a list of GM parts for the esporit then the viper guys being much larger in number have to have something like that.

Lotus parts really aren't that bad. Most everything came from something else, and there are some good suppliers. I get the majority of what I need for my Esprit from O'Reilley's. You just have to know what to ask for. A few things from the speciality suppliers, but they aren't bad either. My web page has a cross reference list on it that is rather popular. A 89-up 4 cyl Stevens Esprit is probably about as bad to maintain as a MR2 Turbo. Some quirks, but the internet has a tremendous support group.

An MR2 T?They just need oil and gas.. Even with abuse.

Yeah, well, I feel bad at the English car club when everyone is talking about their Lucas jokes or stuff breaking/falling off and I just drive. Knock on wood.

Don't get me wrong...I have loved Esprits since "Test Drive" came out for the Commodore 64. I've only seen one in person.

That game was the E36 M3 on the C64 back then..

If you thought the game was cool, you should try the car.

The answer is Miata, except when it's Corvette.