Which car would you buy?
 

Hi all

I new around here and I have a quick "general" question.
I'm and older guy "50" but still quite a gearhead as a I have a Panoz AIV roadster & 2008 Superchaged Saleen.
I'm thinking about selling the Saleen which serves as a daily driver due to the amount of miles I have to commute which is about 53 a day round trip. I just have a hard time with wearing out a fairly nice car as it is approaching 19,000 and the history shows these car take a pretty good hit when they become a high mileage car.
Anyway my question is I been looking at the forsale section and there are some really nice turbo cars currently for sale. I have also been searching the net and I'm finding several Mazdaspeed Miatias for sale. Most of the cars are pretty in the low mileage 15,000 to 40,000 miles and run from 15,000 to 10,000. If I was to purchase a "speed" car I would upgrade the turbo to the BEGI 250 rear horse power system and be done. I'm pretty sure I would not mod the car any more since it would not be a track car or a race car.

So now you kinda know where I'm at would you forego the Speed car and the $5,000 cost in upgrades or just by one of the older turbo cars in the for sale section like Rinbos' 340 hp car or some of the other well sorted car but it has to be sorted out well enough to be a daily driver.

Thanks TJ

MS or DIY MX5 turbo aside: If you are not tracking it, I doubt you will need a 340 rwhp miata. 200-220 rwhp is good for most drivers, and 250 can be a bit overkill for street use. Either way - I'm not sure I would buy someone elses turbo project as a miata newbie. Always lots of fun little things to sort out and not having done it yourself it's always that much more of a pain in the ass.

FYI, my miata when it dyno'd at 209 whp with a small T25 turbo gave my buddy's 02 Saleen S281 a run for it's money. So if you buy a mazdaspeed miata, and upgrade the turbo and ECU, lay down like 240whp, and I think you'd be pretty happy.

It is really going to come down to personal preference. Do you want to have a car that is mostly stock or something quite a bit more "fun?"

Just how much do you want to enjoy your commute? Stock non-turbo 1.8 Miatas make about 100 horsepower at the wheels or WHP (around 133 engine HP factory rated). The Mazdaspeeds don't make a hell of a lot more (140WHP if I recall). 250WHP is quite a healthy increase over a standard car.

Do you want something a bit more stock or something to tinker with? That is up to you.