What car should share the garage with the Ferrari? Looking for a beater sports car.

Ok with paddles, or prefer a manual gearbox?

What about a M4? 996 Turbo? Viper ACR? Lotus Exige S?

Lots of fun, "dual" track/street stuff out there. Lots of variables too.

 

In addition to suggestions, our friend loves thrashing her Subaru WRX STi. A Porsche Boxster could be another possibility. I like carving up the back roads in my wife's Benz SLK (ssh, don't tell her! ).
T

 

Thrashable means willing to kiss the tire wall, which potentially rules out a lot of the above. Exile front and rear clams, for example, are brutally expensive. Ditto the body work on a 997. The Subaru is a great choice if you want something with chronic understeer (though you can balance a good bit of it out). Whatever era Corvette meets your price point also a good choice.

 

C6 Z06.

 

GT3 Just got one a couple months ago and I love it. Perfect track vehicle and comfortable enough for daily driving.

 

+1. Other possibilities: M2 or Cayman S.

If you want to focus on actual *driving*, a track prepped Miata. Doesn't necessarily have to be prepped to a class either-- throw a cage, coilovers, and a blower into a nice street car and go pass P-bugs.

 

C6 Z06, Viper, new Mustang, especially the GT350. Camaro Z28. 996 could work well too.
Or go outside the box and get an Atom. Is it more a track toy or a crossover? Some really cool and different options available.

 

One of the reasons I no longer have a Ferrari is that at least for me they are no fun to drive unless you are pushing it to its (or your limits). It is fairly well known I have had a lot of cars, though I will admit to slowing down as I am getting older (I have only brought a dozen since the beginning of 2016). Among those cars was a C7, 4C, 2 FtypeR's, Miata RF, i8, and I am now shopping for a Caymen S (or an R8) for my girlfriend. The M2 is a nice car, though dealers have waiting lists (some asking 10K over sticker. I do not consider the M4 to be a sports car more of a GT car. The C7 Z06 is a handful and like a Ferrari not a lot of fun unless you push it. With all that carbon fiber you might find it is not a cheap fix like a C5 was. The RF (mine is modified quite a bit) is a lot of fun at almost any speed. I would say the 4c but you might dump your 360 after you drive it (I had 2 360's the 4C is in my opinion is a much better drivers car, and when I am done a much faster car), and it probably will not be a cheap fix, nor is it a stick shift. I have owned a lot of Porsche's and the goods ones, well they are good, the problematic ones, can be expensive. My neighbor has a 996tt that he uses as a track and road car. He does a lot to that car to keep it on the road (seems it is in the shop more than it should be) and he has to change wheels and tires every time he hits the track. I do not doubt you but I find it interesting a high torque kind of guy (muscle car junky as you said), would truly like a high revving car like the 360, but perhaps you are more recovered than it seems. Good luck in your search, if there is no thing I have learned from almost 14 years on this site my definition of what makes a car good, is not what most people think.

 

Why do you say the Ariel is not street legal ?

 

Get yourself an e36 M3 Coupe. Stick shift, tons of fun, park it anywhere, track it, cross-country drives, easily modded. Best part, you won't lose money.

 

R32 GTR
Beat up NSX
Any recent Vette

That's the order I'd go from coolest/rarest to most common.

 

What about something like a Honda S2000? Might be a little too downmarket compared to some of the other cars that have been mentioned, but I don't think we'll ever see another car like it.

 

If you want something for fun track days and can also make a decent driver, I'd look at a Porsche Cayman. The 981s look the best, IMO, but just about any variation would be fun. Get a manual-- they're not hard to find.

 

I owned an Ariel Atom and it was street legal at least in Florida.


The reason it can be a problem is the car is not made with a VIN number. The car has a MDO which is a manufactures direct order. Your state has to issue a VIN for the car.

In Florida you have to order the car with some equipment and have the car inspected by the Director of Vehicle compliance. A very easy thing to do. The Atom company can tell you what to do and who to contact.

I also went to my DMV to find out of any Ariel Atoms were registered in Florida. There were three and mine made four.

These are wonderful cars to drive, better than most exotics and the company is very helpful even after the sale.

Best

Lee

 

Modified RX-7

Modified for power and reliability through a performance shop spending on the motor itself, then clutch, suspension, roll bar, clutch 1.5 way diff, single turbo conversion, and cooling.

Having said that, it's unreal how well it handles even in a winter mix of rain/sleet. See the pic below. The chassis is very stiff, lightweight, and perfectly balanced. Sounds great, easy to repair, inexpensive and the biggest mistake people do is ignore the factory defects that cause issues.

Mine is completely overbuilt ($20K in receipts plus maintenance) as a track beast with full interior and daily driving reliability so all I had to do was just turn the key and drive it. Built by one of the best rotary performance shops in the USA, Banzai Racing. Banzai Racing are Australian, in rotary terms they are Puerto Rican Rotary crazies from another hemisphere.

When flogging it, it runs cool even in stop and go traffic with no fans due to clever and essential oil coolers and air ducting.

It's as tractable or lose your stool wild as you want it to be and cheap to rebuild, cheap to insure. I've driven the build near 6,000mi now and both compression and oil analysis says it's barely broken in. Many of the performance builds that corrected the factory flaws have substantial mileage between 30,000-50,000mi making twice the factory power. You get what you pay for.

Mine makes 550whp/400tq (Dynojet) at the wheels and weighs 2700lbs with full interior and roll bar. And boy are these motors happiest to spin above 4K with a 10K redline.

Maybe the biggest statement of all I can make of this is I replaced my 2015 GT-R premium with this. It's seriously that fun.

Video: Partial throttle merging.
Pic 1: Winter pic on the drive home after purchase.
Pic 2: Mustang heartbreaker dyno at 23.8psi (single turbo). No torque you say? That's strange, I have gobs.

Unless you are building up a Nissan 240z, or 350z, there isn't another Japanese sports car that ticks off all of the boxes as one of these.

https://youtu.be/9W449iOS15A
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Awesome RX-7. They are a beautiful shape as well, and have plenty of upgrades.

 

Why settle, go all the way and get a ZR1

 

I love the 3rd gen RX7. There's a guy in Birmingham, AL that has a four-rotor dropped into his. Engine is from Pulsed Performance Race Engineering in New Zealand. The videos I've seen of it sound just like a 787B.

Pulse Performance Race Engineering: Extreme Mazda Rotor Engines by Pulse Performance Race Engineering, NZ

 

3-rotor or even 4-rotor are automotive candy. I love the sound of them, it's definitely a goal.

 

R129 Mercedes or M roadster BMW. Both cheap, pretty and fun

 

I would first ask what is your budget and appetite for repair costs if you do smack it at the track? That will make a lot of the suggestions here null and void.