Most of us dream of getting to drive legendary cars like the Ferrari F40 and the Porsche 930 Turbo, but would owning and maintaining these cars be just as rewarding?
Perhaps, like puppies or kittens, some cars are better enjoyed knowing you can give them back to their owners at the end of the day.
What are some cars you want …
An F40 is an icon and would be fun to try, a Duesenberg would be another one. I can think of all kinds of expensive exotics I would like to drive but wouldn't want the expense and maintenance.
Impreza STi. Between the engine bottom-end issues, the parts weirdnesses, and the ability to rust audibly, I wouldn't buy one unless it was silly cheap.
The driving experience is great, though. Especially with a GT35R and a front mount intercooler...
Any Jeep
Any hellcat powered thing
Anything Italian
Post E36 BMWs
Anything French
Nissan Murano Crosscabriolet
Stock engined 3rd gen rx7.
If I had the money for an F40 or the like I wouldnt mind paying maintenance. I would be okay with the cost of running for something so special. The ones I have a problem with are the less special, crazy maintenance cars.
Most AMG Mercs and M cars come to mind.
My exception would be the F355. I have a special affinity to that car, and I know the maintenance and repairs are horrid. Outside of the sound its not that special anymore.
Most supercars, one reason I want to do the thing in LasVegas where you rent then for a few laps
Alfa Romeo Montréal
VW Phaeton or the v10 tdi Touareg
Ferrari Daytona
Citroen SM
The 3 rotor Mazda Cosmo in stock form (only reason I wouldn't own it is I imagine parts availability to be nil)
just about any car from Group C racing history ..
Anything with an Animal as the hood emblem
McLaren F1
In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :
I did it a few years ago in a superlegerra, 911 turbo, and scuderia. I fully expected it to be more of a parade lap, but my instructor pretty much only knew the words faster, and more. We got a little too close to a 458 for my comfort. It was very much worth it.
Koeningsegg.
In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :
That's an interesting concept. Hellcat powered VW Thing. Yes I know that is not what You meant. But can you imagine?Just thinking about it seems like a suicide mission.
Citroën 2CV
Model T Ford.
They are mechanically interesting, and I think that every Real Car Guy should know how to drive one in case of some sort of really odd, low speed emergency.
I had actually made arrangements for a driving lesson with a local guy who has five of them, but he is old and it was very early in the pandemic and his wife freaked out and put the squash on it. Hopefully we can reschedule at some point.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:Impreza STi. Between the engine bottom-end issues, the parts weirdnesses, and the ability to rust audibly, I wouldn't buy one unless it was silly cheap.
The driving experience is great, though. Especially with a GT35R and a front mount intercooler...
I had an STI for a few years that I got out of before it gave me any problems. It really was something else to drive. The thing I never understood was at the time is that all the magazines complained about how the STI had an understeer problem... which was just flat out wrong, or it was wrong if you were driving it right. If you're trying to be gentle with the throttle coming out of turns it will understeer, but if you undo all that you've learned about proper performance driving and just shove your throttle foot through the firewall the car rotates very, very nicely as the front wheels pull the car in the direction you want to go. It feels like cheating.
The car I'd love to spend some time in but not own is a healthy FD RX-7 with the original sequential twin turbo setup.
Opti said:In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :
I did it a few years ago in a superlegerra, 911 turbo, and scuderia. I fully expected it to be more of a parade lap, but my instructor pretty much only knew the words faster, and more. We got a little too close to a 458 for my comfort. It was very much worth it.
That's great to hear, I should go and do that soon
In reply to MrFancypants :
AWD, especially computer controlled AWD, does take a certain getting used to. One of the fastest stock STI drivers I've known let HAL do all the work he wanted to do instead of locking him out.
I was on the RX-7 Mailing List when the FDs were new cars, and people were tinkering with the ins and outs of the twin turbo system, getting a proper boost curve (10-8-10?) and figuring out what restrictions did what as far as the switchover point was concerned, so as to eliminate boost spikes when modifying them. Weird system, and I think I might understand the basics (it prespools the secondary turbo before gating it in to the intake, i think?) but it seems to be a lost art nowadays.
Nowadays... there are single EFR turbos that provide the same responsiveness at low RPM but pull like a freight train at any engine speed, making huge amounts of power for something with that kind of low end (400whp+) They're getting to be really popular in the FD community as an alternative to the sequentials, which have probably been all converted to parallel turbos at this point.
Ford GT40, the original.
Vintage Ferrari. I'd love to own one but they all share parts so you're paying trust-fund prices even if you have the bridesmaid model.
959 or a Singer.
Honestly an R8 (V10 manual) and a Cayman GT4. I cannot see me getting either, but if I do my wife want the 987.1S. So I kinda have the go ahead...
M3.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
With the sequential turbos on the RX-7 it isn't so much that I want to avoid any of the traditional issues with a big single turbo that may no longer be all that much of a problem as technology has advanced... it's more that I just want the original experience as Mazda engineered it.
I'm sure there are now setups that are much better at what it was that Mazda set out to do, I'd just like to see what the original wacky setup drove like.
A big Dakar truck down a wide open sand wash.
MrFancypants said:In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
With the sequential turbos on the RX-7 it isn't so much that I want to avoid any of the traditional issues with a big single turbo that may no longer be all that much of a problem as technology has advanced... it's more that I just want the original experience as Mazda engineered it.
I'm sure there are now setups that are much better at what it was that Mazda set out to do, I'd just like to see what the original wacky setup drove like.
I own one, it doesn't drive all that wacky, really. When in good working order the way it's supposed to be (which mine is) it's really smooth. Drove mine to dinner tonight, it likes the slightly cooler temperatures we're having right now. :)
I lust after an F355.
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