Cheapest "fast" car possible (modified)

[deevergote]

I was just looking at a few car magazines, and it occurred to me... most truly fast cars are insanely expensive. However, these are cars that are fast from the fast factory. You pay big bucks for a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Viper, etc... and you get a beast of a car.

However, I was wondering what cars can be had for relatively little money that can be just as fast as those exotic cars. Take looks and brand prestige out of the equation, and give me a car that can perform just as well as a 6 figure car on a track.


My first thought goes to the Miata. You can buy a used Miata for very little money. It's not a fancy car, but it handles decently... and with the racing heritage it has established over the past 20 years or so, there are a number of quality aftermarket parts for it. A built and boosted engine could take a 2300lb 1st gen Miata through the quarter mile in 10 or 11 seconds easily enough, and the factory weight balance will make it handle pretty well,

Any other suggestions for budget projects that could perform as well as an exotic?

[Losiracer2]

335i with a tune. My friends is pushing over 400whp with a simple stage 2 tune. Drives just like factory. He bought his for about 30k, its an 08' 6spd. Totally rapes an E92 M3

[deevergote]

Really? 400whp with nothing more than a tune? No additional parts added?
The stock 335i makes 300hp crank, which means it probably puts down about 240whp... so if it can make an additional 160whp with just a tune, that's impressive! I know with modern turbo cars, you can adjust boost pressure by the ECU, so I suppose it's definitely possible... but still impressive!

[Losiracer2]

Really? 400whp with nothing more than a tune? No additional parts added?
The stock 335i makes 300hp crank, which means it probably puts down about 240whp... so if it can make an additional 160whp with just a tune, that's impressive! I know with modern turbo cars, you can adjust boost pressure by the ECU, so I suppose it's definitely possible... but still impressive!

well maybe a tune, an intake and some other easy bolt on stuff. But certainly not anything that costs over 2k.

I mean, a mazdaspeed 3 can make over 30 whp with just an AEM CAI. So a tune and that maybe possible. And I certainly think that it makes close to 300whp stock. I think the twin turbo models were a lot more powerful than the current single turbo version. Definitely underrated from the factory

yep this one does 280 whp stock. Guy says they probably have 350 crank in order to produce that kind of numbers on the dyno

[evil_demon_01]

For the track a Lotus Fraser would be a good candidate.

[Leung]

what about those Toyota MR2? i see a red second gen usually parked around the block in an apartment complex and i bet it's wicked fast for its small size.

[owequitit]

I was just looking at a few car magazines, and it occurred to me... most truly fast cars are insanely expensive. However, these are cars that are fast from the fast factory. You pay big bucks for a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Viper, etc... and you get a beast of a car.

However, I was wondering what cars can be had for relatively little money that can be just as fast as those exotic cars. Take looks and brand prestige out of the equation, and give me a car that can perform just as well as a 6 figure car on a track.


My first thought goes to the Miata. You can buy a used Miata for very little money. It's not a fancy car, but it handles decently... and with the racing heritage it has established over the past 20 years or so, there are a number of quality aftermarket parts for it. A built and boosted engine could take a 2300lb 1st gen Miata through the quarter mile in 10 or 11 seconds easily enough, and the factory weight balance will make it handle pretty well,

Any other suggestions for budget projects that could perform as well as an exotic?

Used C5 Z06 Corvette. Preferably start with one of the 405HP ones. They can be had for well under 20K, have a good fundamental chassis, and the small block will respond well to any changes you make.

[h22sparkle]

An 86 with a suzuki motor swap, srt4 with a stage 3 turbo swap. Lets not forget those ls1 swaps in rx7's.

[Straight Success]

Fast is subjective. Again, I pose my question raised in other threads. What defines quick, fast, or shittin' your pants insanely fast?

2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe. ZL1 Camaro. Boss 302 or Shelby GT 500 (R.I.P.). 392 SRT8 Challenger. BMW 1 Series M coupe or M3 (little more expensive). Audi RS4. If these are a little too expensive, try these...

Always, an '06 Pontiac GTO. With a little suspension tweak, and the ability of reaching 200 mph stock from the factory... enough said. A Subaru WRX STi w/ little tweaks here and there. That AWD sure does come in handy. Jeep SRT-8 with minor suspension work (yes a small SUV). TransAm WS6.

[deevergote]

By "fast", I basically mean any high-end car that costs an insane amount of money.

Most of you guys have the right idea as to where my thought process was going.

[GeoffM]

Straight line fast? Anything American. Corvette, Camaro, Charger. The list goes on. Fast in a corner? That's where big bucks start to come in.

[deevergote]

Yeah, it's the corners with impressive power that I'm thinking.

Even the big honkin' American cars like the Viper can handle.
That's why I was thinking Miata, because it's already a decent handling car that can be had for little money. Just beef up the engine, and it could come close to an expensive supercar.

The C5 Z06 is almost in the supercar category itself, though that puts the performance of it closer to the pricey ones I'm targeting than most. Even a C5 won't be cheap, but it could possibly be cheaper than modifying a different car to handle as well.

[stevediraddo]

easy if you actually have 20-30k to spend, but if you want to spend virtually no money, any american car with a 305 or larger engine is a good start

i got a 93 caprice classic for days I just want to tear up the roads. 5.0L 305 SB.. ive yet to start modifying the engine but, there is no replacement for displacement!

(recently watched my cousin spend 20k on a 95 RX7 with twin turbo, he loves it but I just cant wrap my head around BUYING a car already tuned)

[deevergote]

Man, that thing is straight out of Initial D!

[MortsAccord]

Lol @ you guys saying anything AWD.
AWD belongs at rally/auto-x.

you need to consider suspension geometry first over all things when your talking a road car. Use a benchmarking tool like a specific track, say Nürburgring?

Dev has it more on par with a miata. Corvettes are nice but how about an american mid rear car?

Pontiac fiero Gt. The only problem with using this vehicle is part of its suspension geometry. When taking it to the cars limits, there are some very scary results. The fix for this is to fit the vehicle with some corvette front suspension.

You then gut the 2.8l v6 and drop in a 350 small block. You could get crazy with it for power. Personally id twin turbo it with some gt3071's. Convert to fuel injection and modular heads by using a Motown block. I guess you could drop in a crate engine like the corvettes ls7.

For import id do a 2nd gen Crx, s2k, or the overplayed ae86. For fwd vehicles, id get a 4ws prelude, and have fun. 66.5 mph stock slalom run on a 89-91 economy car? Great starting point.