The most Reliable sports car...

Well, what is it? Is The Answer the Answer or something else. Inquiring minds want to know.

I am going to say the air cooled 911s are the most reliable. They can easily go hundreds of thousands of miles with proper maintence

I think a 350z would be up there.

depends what you consider a "sports car"

Pretty sure any car with a carbuarted sbc and live axle fits the bill.

My father-in-laws '81 VW rabbit diesel is dead reliable but IDK how many would qualify that as a "sports car"

As far as british cars go, you can't beat a TR8. As long as it has a 4 barrel conversion, headers and any other mods that unclutter the engine bay. The only car I have ever had that gets more reliable the more you use it. Let it sit, and Lord Lucas starts to get his hands on the electrics.

A well restored MGB is hard to beat for durability and easy maintenance.

n/a RX-7?

12A RX-7. It's like a Miata without a timing belt.

I would have never put the words "rotory" and "reliable" in the same sentence

I have no direct experience with any LBC, but a good friend had a very nicely sorted Triumph Spitfire. It never left him sitting, but it also rarely got put away without needing "something" to make it right before the next drive.

So I'll add to my 350z suggestion above by mentioning an S2000.

mad_machine wrote: I am going to say the air cooled 911s are the most reliable. They can easily go hundreds of thousands of miles with proper maintence

... and the odd top end rebuild, but that kinda qualifies as "proper maintenance".

mad_machine wrote: I would have never put the words "rotory" and "reliable" in the same sentence

proper care and feeding and they are great. The problem I found with almost every car I had was the motor was either killed by an old cooling system. Or the oil injection fails. This means the motor will be short lived. Fix/upgrade these two things and they are fantastic.

IS300 gets my vote, my red car has almost 200k of track, drift, autocross and tons of fast road use on it with zero failures.

mr2 spyder has been damn good for me. Just watch out for precast and high g cornering with low oil level (neither has happened to my in 160k of boosted r comp abuse).

What about corvettes? Mechanically pretty understressed.

NSX

Having watched the recent Top Gear patagonia special, my answer is Lotus esprit twin turbo v8. On a,more serious note most cars with na engines that are well maintained are pretty reliable. Most v8 mustangs, my non-turbo sw20 is pretty reliable, na 300zx cars, supra, and the list goes on.

The answer is the answer.

Seriously, MGB? My mom used to tell me stories about having to occasionally cool the fuel pump with ice cream on her brand new B.

Had zero problems with my TR8's which is very unBritish. But as Todd mentioned, get a 4 bbl carb.

exotic... only one NSX. If not for it the exotics would still be uber unreliable.

all others... sorry "the answer" devotees... the most reliable sports car is still the Volvo 1800. Irv has over 3 million miles now. Nothing even comes close

Keith Tanner wrote: My mom used to tell me stories about having to occasionally cool the fuel pump with ice cream on her brand new B.

hahaha. I bet that makes the garage smell terrible the next day.

Keith Tanner wrote: The answer is the answer

This, Crx/Civic/Integra. Nothing British, Italian, or Rotary. Ever. My two cents... and worth every penny.

mad_machine wrote: I would have never put the words "rotory" and "reliable" in the same sentence

If you got less than 200k miles out of a 12A then it is because you abused it. 300k was not uncommon.

S2000 ftw. Great performance and Honda reliability.

By my definition of a "sports car" probably "The Answer" or an STS Civic.

If you've had to modify it to make it reliable, that kind of disqualifies it. That means it was broken to start with.