Knurled. said:
Javelin said:
spitfirebill said:
The Turbo Tbird for sale here.
Ding ding ding we have a winner, no more callers please!
Turbo T-birds and all other Fox bodies have steering feel like DSMs have shifter feel. It's nonexistent to the point of actually hating you for wanting it.
A whole industry cropped up in the 90s for fixing all of the problems the Fox body suspension had, and contrary to the OMG IRS weenies, it was all in the front. When Ford developed the SN95, a lot of their attention was focused on making the steering not suck so bad. SN95s are still horrible vehicles, and the fact that they are an order of magnitude BETTER than the Fox body says incredible amounts to how enthusiast-unfriendly the Fox chassis is.
Price point. What the heck else is going to meet even a third of his requirements? Exactly.
Volvo 850 AWD almost meets your weight criteria
4th gen f-body with a 3.8 V6, then boost to infinity
STM317 said:
In reply to Knurled. :
And thanks to that whole industry that cropped up, You can buy new manual steering racks for $150 for a Foxbody. If you want steering feel, I don't see how it's going to get better than that.
Ive never driven a Foxbody, so is the poor steering feel related to the power assist, or something else?
The steering columns and racks have a lot of friction, but the main thing is the steering geometry is so bad that (IIRC) it actually has negative Ackerman. The inside tire actively fights the ourside tire in a corner, this leads to vague steering feel even if everything else were perfect.
Te back-inna-day fix was the best knuckles possible for steering geometry (again IIRC, from an '83 Lincoln Continental) and modifying the subframe to get the rack as far back as possible. Other subframe tweaks to move the ball joint forward, and alter the antidive under braking while you're in there moving the LCA pickup points, were also popular. The SN95 knuckles turned out to be better than the old school stuff when they came out but the roll center/antidive chatacteristics are still not that great.
F body is right on the limit of your desired weight, but is cheap, upgrades are cheap and you can fit 315s at all corners (not cheap).
_
Dork
2/29/20 11:56 a.m.
I'm gonna throw out one that was on the Grand Tour recently. The Ford Sierra aka Merkur Scorpio. Not sure if forged internally, but meets the rest of the criteria. And is turbo from the factory.
In reply to _ :
XR4Ti was the Sierra. The Scorpio was just the Scorpio, although it was called the Grenada in some markets.
Fails the "no German cars" clause, and all are way older than '95.
OjaiM5
Reader
2/29/20 12:05 p.m.
I would take "not German" of the list and build an e36.
What was the last year of the Fbody?
A little too heavy for your target (& automatic), but I picked up my XJR Jaaaaag for half your budget ($1850) & it's Supercharged from the factory with 370 horsepower. Throttle response is instantaneous and has ALL the torque.
Why not FWD? It opens up a huge amount of stuff then.
I mean, I know I'm a broken record on here about them but zx2s are cheap as hell and damn nice for the price. Much faster than most people think( I've had people tell me it runs a 15 sec 0-60......it's half that)
Yea I came to say E36 325i. The M50s can take decent boost and the rest of the drivetrain is good enough.
I respect not wanting german cars, but maybe ask yourself why not? They need more maintenance then Japanese cars but they're well built and engineered. I've found them to be well within the capabilities of most enthusiasts to maintain.
Dootz
Reader
2/29/20 5:27 p.m.
I don't mind high-maintenance cars. I DO mind random issues or problems that pop up and leave me stranded on the side of the road. Trying to keep my time limited with that.
Could probably jump budget to $4200 or so. Yeah there are cars that meet my lb/hp numbers stock, but I want to have a turbo car since I'm due to move somewhere that's got high altititude later on in the summer.
In reply to Dootz :
No car is immune from shoeleather mode, sadly.
Dootz said:
I don't mind high-maintenance cars. I DO mind random issues or problems that pop up and leave me stranded on the side of the road. Trying to keep my time limited with that.
Could probably jump budget to $4200 or so. Yeah there are cars that meet my lb/hp numbers stock, but I want to have a turbo car since I'm due to move somewhere that's got high altititude later on in the summer.
while nobody here is probably going to wish you ill will. you've literally taken all the GOOD options off the table by your budget, your preconceptions about FWD and distaste for German cars and Miatas..
literally all the options we could give you, that are good.. you won't take.
Saab 9-2X, the Saabaru
Took me less than 5 minutes to find one in my area with a manual that looks decent under $4k.
160ish factory turbocharged horsepowers, AWD, only slightly over 3k lbs, not a Miata, not German, and should be at least a little bit fun to drive.
You may be able to find a 2G DSM for that price. AWD, excellent suspension, boost. 3200 lbs stock, not hard to lose a bit of weight. The 7 bolt motors are just fine for most uses. People say they are weak because the are good for “only” 400HP or so. Like any other car mentioned above, it will be an older high mileage car. Figure replacing any rubber bits that haven’t already been replaced. I wouldn’t worry much about crank walk. Not a lot of cars affected, and it’s not a problem that would wait 20 years to show up.
spacecadet said:
Dootz said:
I don't mind high-maintenance cars. I DO mind random issues or problems that pop up and leave me stranded on the side of the road. Trying to keep my time limited with that.
Could probably jump budget to $4200 or so. Yeah there are cars that meet my lb/hp numbers stock, but I want to have a turbo car since I'm due to move somewhere that's got high altititude later on in the summer.
while nobody here is probably going to wish you ill will. you've literally taken all the GOOD options off the table by your budget, your preconceptions about FWD and distaste for German cars and Miatas..
literally all the options we could give you, that are good.. you won't take.
Some folks can't be satisfied.
Chrysler Crossfire plus boost? Solstice GXP? C5 vette?
Dootz said:
I don't mind high-maintenance cars. I DO mind random issues or problems that pop up and leave me stranded on the side of the road. Trying to keep my time limited with that.
Could probably jump budget to $4200 or so. Yeah there are cars that meet my lb/hp numbers stock, but I want to have a turbo car since I'm due to move somewhere that's got high altititude later on in the summer.
SuperCharged will give the same benefits. Also the XJR has a power to weight raitio of 10.8 to 1 from the factory and it's NOT German 
Just build a 3rd gen Camaro.
Toss the 96+ requirement and have a blast in a C4.
S10 w/ LS swap.
All I got. If you allow older stuff I could throw a bunch of ideas.
I quite like my fox ford. The steering isn't 911 sharp but with the skinny tires on 13" wheels and no power assist it is entertaining when pushed.
bigben
Reader
3/1/20 1:22 a.m.
If you can talk the guy down just a little bit I think this checks all the boxes.SR20 240sx
Of course I'm also partial to the 3.6L V6 CTS w/ 6 spd manual. Just a tad over your weight requirement. An early one should be in the price range, but it will take some searching to find a manual one. CTS-V cast off components make cheap upgrades. I scored a full dual exhaust system for $120. After market performance parts generally come from down under. Mace Cams
mad_machine said:
the 4k or less really limits you. I cannot think of anything that scratches all of your wants with that in place. Even if you raised up the bar some, you are still looking at mostly german cars.
I do not know what you have against cars from there, but they are not hard to work on and quite reliable if you stay atop the maintenance.
sometimes i dump gallons of oil and coolant in my driveway to remind me of my e36/e46 BMW ownership days...
