mazdeuce to thw white courtesy phone please

Or anyone else with an opinion.

I'm looking for a car to basically do what you did with your 2. Knowing how that story ended, would you still recommend one for auto cross and rally cross in basically stock configuration?

In a perfect world I would be looking for something dead simple and RWD. That does not exist in my budget and new enough to not have to replace all of the suspension components before any fun happens.

It looks like I'm going to have to learn FWD. I need four seats to satisfy SWMBO, budget of 10k next summer, new enough to not need rebuilt prior to competing and cheap parts for when I break it.

The 2 looks good, what else would you recommend.

did the 240 have 4 seats?

What $ are you thinking?
I loved my 2. I still recommend them to people. Knowing what I know now, if I were to do it again, I'd find the cleanest Civic Si (the recent generation with the limited slip) that was in my price range. It's a nationally competitive RX car out of the box and is a much better freeway car. Competent on track and reasonable at AX.
The 2 is like a low power superlegarra Fiesta and is a genuine joy to toss around at road legal speeds. It's just not really competitive the same way that the Si is. I didn't think that would matter as much when I bought it, but for me, now, it does.

Edit, just re-read it for $10k, let me look around and see what I think.

In reply to wvumtnbkr:

Volvo yes, Nissan, not usable ones.

After looking around I'd still think hard about the Civic Si. It looks like you'd be looking at an 8 or nine year old car, but they seem to be durable and the parts are cheap. A manual transmission Accord would fill the same gap with less competitiveness but more room if you want to be a grown-up about it.
I can't quite think of anything RWD that would work. A V6 pony car would be the easy button but none of those are very good as they sit and the back seats are marginal. First gen CTS-V can be found but you'll spend some time getting it up to speed and I'm not sure I'd want to rallycross one.
A lot of options in FWD hatches, VW, Focus, Volvo things, but none of them are as good (in my opinion) as the Si. We have a wave of cars, the FiST FoST, BRZ, GTi, that would be on the list in five years, but they're all expensive now.

wvumtnbkr wrote: did the 240 have 4 seats?

By the time in ready to buy I'd be looking at an 21 year old car at least. I would be compelled to go through it completely and I'm really trying to avoid that.

I keep seeing the Si and did a little research on them. It seemed they have some fragile components in the rear suspension. Certainly not ruling it out because of that, the LSD is a huge plus.

Aren't there a number of Japanese semi-luxury offerings available in RWD? Lexus GS430 gets you a V8 and RWD and 4 real doors.

I'm not sure I'd rallycross one, but I'm not sure I'd rallycross anything nicer than a $500 car.

IS300 can be had with a stick so that's one to consider as well.

I'd avoid that cts-v with the glass jaw rear dif. (it's the same one they used in their v6 cars and not akin to anything else in gm like say the gto...)

Nick (LUCAS) Comstock wrote:

I keep seeing the Si and did a little research on them. It seemed they have some fragile components in the rear suspension. Certainly not ruling it out because of that, the LSD is a huge plus.

The one I've spent the most time in is the one that ran PF at nationals two years ago. It's run dozens of RX events, something like 20 track weekends (Laguna Seca two weeks ago) across the country twice and it's at 140k miles. It's a really good car. I've driven quite a few FWD cars in RX over the last few years and I think these are good enough that SF is destined to pretty much be a spec class as soon as these fall in prices, similar to the way the Mistas dominate SR now. If we had gotten this engine/trans/diff in a hatchback it would have been the go-to car without hesitation.

Having said all that, I wouldn't hesitate to put my kids in a Mazda2 when they learn to drive in a couple of years. I'm just a little leery of them, and all B segment cars for that matter, when you turn all of the safety switches in your brain off and try to drive them at 105%. Watching the Pirelli Challenge B cars, they get more than a little hairy at the limit.

I have a 08 si coupe and it's tight fitting anyone above kid size in the back seats. It's a fun autocross car in nearly stock form. All I did was put a bigger rear sway and tires and the car is fun to drive. I've got 136k miles on it now (bought it new with 76 miles on it) and it's been great minus the clutch master cylinder. But that is apparently solved with a 99-00 one. I've never heard of rear suspension issues except for the sway bar mounts but if they're re-enforced, they seem fine. I've had my sway on for 120k miles now and it's fine.

The four seat thing is the wife's requirement. To have a backup in case her car breaks, which is unlikely. The car won't be a daily but may be used to drive the mile to school to pick my son up a couple times a week. She won't let him ride on the bike, if it wasn't for her requirement a C4 vette would be high on the list. A V6 Mustang would be perfect except no LSD and like had been said they are not very capable stock.

The 2 is a really fun car to drive, it's a FWD NB Miata.

That being said: a lot of the little stuff on it is cheaply made. My car blew out the rear shocks after 25k miles (solved inexpensively by a set of KYB Gas-A-Just, but still, 25k?)

It's also just not competitive in the SCCA classing system.

In HS it just is down way too much power to the FiST and SI.

In STF it's down way too much power to the 3 and RSX and just isn't quite as fast as the Mini.

It is a much better STF car than HS car because it really benefits from the added stability of more wheel width and lowering and more aggressive damping. Also, STF is still in general, a softer class than HS.

In HS it also is hard to find a competitive tire that will fit on a legal rim.

Also, another strike against it is that the aftermarket for it was never huge and I'm afraid it will dry up fairly fast now that it's out of production.

KyAllroad wrote: Aren't there a number of Japanese semi-luxury offerings available in RWD? Lexus GS430 gets you a V8 and RWD and 4 real doors. I'm not sure I'd rallycross one, but I'm not sure I'd rallycross anything nicer than a $500 car. IS300 can be had with a stick so that's one to consider as well.

I think I want something smaller than that. A big Lexus, while it would be fun to hoon around in, is not going to be easy on the tire budget or anything else that's affected by trying to bend a big heavy car through very tight corners. And that kinda works against the pony cars too.

That's why I'm trying to find something small and simple. The lighter the better. Going back 30 years or so opens up a lot of potential cars. But, then I have to deal with 30 year old car issues, which I really don't want to do again.

Prior to my (agreed upon) five year hiatus from buying cars, I habitually would get bogged down during the reconstruction phase and through life getting in the way of a long resurrection, via no time or money or both, very few of my old car rehabs made it to the "time to have fun" phase. Sure, I still played with them on occasion, but, bringing back junkyard bound cars from the dead on a budget takes a lot of time and life moves fast. I don't want anymore failed projects.

Given the five years to sit back and actually clearly see where I am in life, I am looking for something simple to have fun in. Something that I keep basically stock, just wheels and tires for each given discipline and replacing what gets worn or damaged. Good dampers may be the only true "mod" I'd be looking to do.

If you just want to 'tires and have fun' the 2 really is good at that. It's a very good car at teaching rallycross. Instantly unstable under lift/braking, it's great. With a set of crash bolts and some mucking with bump stops it's fun at autocross even if it's not competitive. And honestly. It's my second favorite car ever at real street speeds. You can absolutely wail on it without ever going so fast as to be dangerous or a complete A-hole.
The ONLY place it truly falls down is if you somehow decide you want to be competitive, because it's really not. It's a good car, and if you don't ask it to give more that it has, you'll be happy with it.

Why not AWD? Something like a Subaru 2.5RS would tick all the boxes. Easy to work on and get parts for, can hold its own in autox and rallyx, as well as get groceries and haul 4 people.

When did the Civic Si get a limited slip?

In reply to Woody:

The sedan/coupe starting in 2006.

Nick (LUCAS) Comstock wrote: A V6 Mustang would be perfect except no LSD and like had been said they are not very capable stock.

Plenty of cheap options for LSD's on any Mustang. And you'd have tons of aftermarket to choose from with suspension, brakes, etc. If a $230 differential is all that's keeping you from getting a car that you'd consider otherwise perfect, that seems like it might be worth taking a harder look.

STM317 wrote:

Nick (LUCAS) Comstock wrote: A V6 Mustang would be perfect except no LSD and like had been said they are not very capable stock.

Plenty of cheap options for LSD's on any Mustang. And you'd have tons of aftermarket to choose from with suspension, brakes, etc. If a $230 differential is all that's keeping you from getting a car that you'd consider otherwise perfect, that seems like it might be worth taking a harder look.

Not stock/street class legal. And I don't care about aftermarket, I don't want a project.