Honda's early micro cars and the 1st gen civic/ cvcc were great. Pretty much anything japanese in the 60's and very early 70's were great POS's.

 

I'll play. I have an 86' Isuzu Trooper II I bought for 800 bucks. Thing weighs 4300 pounds stock, 15" wheels, it has a real boxed frame under it, independent front suspension, disk brakes on all four corners, 4 cylinder carbureted, 5 speed transmission, 4 wheel drive, 3:1 low range (all jeeps are 2:1), and the thing gets a consistant 18-20 MPG in the city, depending on whether I'm using the A/C. Hell the miata gets 18-20 city! It was SUV of the year in 86' First SUV with independent suspension. First SUV with A/C standard. Had a real frame under it. For its time it was pretty advanced.

Anyways I love the truck. People say the miata is a "fun" car. Multiply that buy a thousand and that's an 86' Trooper II. I wouldn't sell it for nothing.

 

I've always wanted to boost one of those. For comparison, I ended up with a 93 Toyota Cressida, but I'd take that one too.

 

I actually found an example of last rwd straight six camrys on CL too. Yes, 5spd. And I let it go even at $1800. But I think the 5 spd 929 is a prime candidate- like a Miata, you just need to focus on the boost related items.

 

I always wanted to put a bp-t in a festiva.

 

I have the same addiction. I love my cheap, somewhat powerful shitboxes. I found an nx2000 for my first car, had a v6 probe, and now a miata with a few modded land barges in between. Now I'm tempted by a uber cheap contour svt I found days ago.



I search craigslist all the time for people throwing away their old se-r, nx2k, miata, 240sx, etc...

 

**** box cars are the most fun ever!

My friend owns a 96 Probe and a 04 Mustang. I own a 88 Accord and my Miata. We have more fun in the Probe and Accord than we do in the Miata v Mustang. FWIW the 4 cylinder auto with a carburetor Accord is faster than the v-6 auto Probe.

 

While in the US (2005-2007), I had an -86 200sx as a daily. Beat it without mercy for a year and it never complained.

I have wanted a Twin Turbo 300ZX for the last 10 years. They are overprices, bitches to work on, heavy and un-modern and I just want one. I dooo!

 

I had a 1G Mr2 as my first car, it was bad *** with all of it's 87 rwhp.

That thing was so fun, and the only reason I got rid of it was because I MADE $2500 by selling it.

 

I loved my MX-3 GS... dont really miss that girl though





I'm tempted to buy another one but all of the ones I see are in shitty condition

 

Its interesting how people who have similar taste for sorta oddball cars seem flock together. Most people don't have clue what a classic SE-R or NX2000 is let alone its performance potential.

Brain: You had a 626GT? Thats awesome man, have any pics? Your stock just went up lol.

Here is my SR20DET swapped SE-R (yeah it could use some paint heh):




Here is my old SR20VE swapped NX2000:

 

Sick cars, I love the se-r's. I lust for a 323 gtx, I just want one really bad.

As for spitfires, they are way nice. I prefer the gt6 though.

My gt6:

One day I plan on swapping a bp in and turboing it, or a turbo rotary. Also considered putting a I6 back in it, like the ones from the 240-280z's. I did all the bodywork and my dad painted it, but sadly it sits now days motorless. One day.

 

Saw that and have wifes blessing.
Somebody buy it under me and save a lot of work.

hrk

 

Problem is the GT6 is starting to become sought after. Prices have jumped a bunch in the last year or two. Spitfires are still cheap.

PatsMX5 - I drove a 90 trooper for 12 years. Loved it. Base model with 0 options. Reliable as hell. Knew that car like the palm of my hand. Dri-ft around corners? no problem. Climb out of real trouble when hunting? no problem. Haul or tow way more stuff than any Forskinrunner ever dreamed of? no problem. It was a real workhorse. Downsized my house and didn't have room any more. Sold to a friend in Idaho. He's had 0 problems in the mud, snow, etc in the 2 years he's had it.

They are #1 in my book as a crapbox SUV.

 

Yeap. Mine's got 225K miles on the clock and it's still kicking. Anyone that's into off roading will tell you that 99.9% of automatic hubs will fail from abuse. They say that cause the Trooper is the exception to the rule. I've never had the original hubs apart. They just work. Friends with Jeeps break hubs like crazy. Maybe it has something to do with mine stock auto hubs being 5 times as massive as their "heavy duty" ones... Basically everything on a Trooper is about twice as strong as the same part on a Jeep. Only thing that the Jeep has is power. I'm working on that...

 

I heard the isuzu npr t6 diesel is a bolt in for the old troopers...

 

My brother has a ro-spit (rotary spitfire) or whatever term has been coined for them. It had a n/a 12a. He tore it down to do a full restoration, and ended up finding a 13b for when he puts it back together.

Even with the 12a you could pretty much spin the little tires until 3rd gear. The 13b and a turbo should be interesting if he can get some meat under the wheels.

Cool thing about the spitfires in respect to engine swaps is the size of the bay or lack of one. Hood/fenders just kind of cover the engine on the frame.

I think I would prefer a bike engine considering how light spitfire are.

 

God I love the GT6...poor man's jag ftw.

 

i loved my 94 probe GT, that thing was a tire spining beast on anything over 7-8psi. always wanted to do a turbo kl swap on a mx3. and i have wanted a escort GT sence i was 15.

 

Tell me more.

Did you know they made a turbo diesel Trooper II from 85-86? Only made 700 in the world. I actually have that 2.2 Isuzu diesel with 38K miles on it in my garage that I wanna swap in there one day.