best fast car for spain

best fast car for spain

Author
Discussion

cabbron

Original Poster:

416 posts

218 months

Sunday 20th March 2011
quotequote all
ok fellas,heres the brief:

£25k max budget

convertible,fast,fun,durable,cheapish and simple to maintain,proper car.

i throw it open!

Kneetrembler

2,069 posts

203 months

Sunday 20th March 2011
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C5 Corvette,Porsche 911,Caterham,Tvr

so called

9,092 posts

210 months

Sunday 20th March 2011
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smile


cabbron

Original Poster:

416 posts

218 months

Sunday 20th March 2011
quotequote all
thanks for the replys guys,now heres the rub-we all know how hard it is to find specialist care for our p&j out here and there are other criteria too such as the heat! sold my s/c elise last year after heat soak issues,lots of ££££,charge coolers etc etc and runs back to the uk for decent set up and work to be carried out.been indulging in a bit of ph classified surfing and really cant find anything jumping out at me,so keep 'em coming.if i was uk based the decision is different and easier,prob fancy a noble to scratch the itch.

want to be able to do a few track days too so the choice gets harder,keep coming back to the caterfields but after a bad expireince a bit put off and not too pretty either imho(sorry mick,yours is special tho!)

Diag

56 posts

169 months

Monday 21st March 2011
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Funny you should mention the Lotus as that was what I was thinking of recommending. I can’t see a 111R suffering with heat problems. I have mine out here a few weeks now and the only potential problem I can see with it might be the lack of aircon, but reading what a few guys in the Lotus club say they don’t agree. Mine is not meant to be a daily driver, mainly because I wouldn’t park it anywhere over here, but that’s a different story, and holds true with any nice car.
As a matter of interest, what work could you not get done here that you had to send the car home for?

Have you considered a dedicated track car?

E46 M3 cab or a Boxter cab would fit in well with your criteria.

mickrick

3,700 posts

174 months

Monday 21st March 2011
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Honda S2000?

cabbron

Original Poster:

416 posts

218 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
i am probably trying to find one car to fufill too many roles tbh.

i have thought about a dedicated track car and the caterfields do this very well £ for £ but for say 4-6 td's a year that i could find time for i am trying to get a usable car to enjoy for road blasts aswell.not looking for a daily driver,so can have somthing a bit more special.

porsche-had a 911-image was a problem(uk problem)get expensive to track,also cant afford what i would want if i wanted if you get that.coxster no doubt a good car,i just dont have the hair products!

tvr,quite like,never owned but have a bit of a bad rep-will investigate further

s2000-sensible call,need to be thrashed like a 2 stroke,fun i would imagine,may miss a bit of torque after fi cars i have had.

bmw m3-a bit heavy,mates run them on track and brakes/susp/tyre bills scare me!

lotus-had 7 of the beauties over the years,just fancy a change but will return to them,always do!my last one was a bit special and needed fettling with uk specialists,111r would be fine here.-always struggled with proper geo's/corner weighting and dont even mention mapping etc.hence my original post saying want somthing tough and easy to maintain here.

corvette-pretty car but maybe a bit big to chuck about.(got a boat with the same engine i think-likes the drink)

wholly agree on the parking,i only ever dare sit outside a bar where i can keep an eye on the spanish parking lottery.so disrespectful and no thought how much goes into keeping our cars just so.

the search continues!cheers for the input.


Kneetrembler

2,069 posts

203 months

Monday 21st March 2011
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The only problem in any part of Spain is as always having it looked after properly whatever needs doing to it.

I always take mine back to the U.K.or Germany.

The other problem as has been stated is parking your P&J and leaving it without worrying and coming back to a scratched/dented car, and going on a Spanish ferry is a nightmare, because not only do they pack you in like sardines but you also have the Spanish masses walking scraping past with their bags and sticky fingered little brats.

Doesn't make much difference whether it's a car or bike, when you come back they will be sitting on it, it used to drive me mad leaving my bike.
Sorry for the hi-jack.

I think you have to go more for a track car without having to worry about the odd mark on the body, otherwise all of the above applies.

cabbron

Original Poster:

416 posts

218 months

Monday 21st March 2011
quotequote all
glad somone agrees with me on the specialist care some of our cars need,for me it was the uk which has cottage industry engineering excellence in bucket fulls.kneetrembler you echo my thoughts abit now too-why have somthing nice here,a track slag or at least somthing not too precious may be the way forward so i dont get stressed and violent towards our esteemed hosts when they abuse itlaughmay spend what could be saved on purchase on lots of tyres/brakes and a few more td's.

in all honesty some of the spanish td's are akin to scenes from mad max anyway!

Kneetrembler

2,069 posts

203 months

Monday 21st March 2011
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Exactly

ShinyAndy

217 posts

263 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
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Who's trackdays have you done? We did a few 103 Octanos days last year and they put aside all my fears about anything other than UKstyle run day.

I'm in the same boat though, ran an S1 111S Elise down here for about a year and had no issues at all. Local sportscar specialist did just as good a job as anyone in the UK too. Being a VX220 fan (I´ve owned 3) more than a Elise I am very tempted to blow 12K on a 300bhp low mileage car, get it matriculated (hopefully) and then you have the perfect track slag and fun Sunday morning blast car

Diag

56 posts

169 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
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Owning something nice and keeping it right is a challenge, more so in Spain than anywhere else. Personally, I have given up on the idea of a nice daily driver. My daily is too nice so will be going for sale shortly. No idea what’s going to replace it, but that’s another subject.
For fun, I have the Elise, which I was planning on selling, but am in two minds now. I’m enjoying it too much. I was thinking Caterham as well. The biggest problem for me is finding the time to go out in a two seater because I have a wife and three kids.

I think a fun car for Spain needs to be light, with the emphasis more on chassis than power but I like lots of torque. The torque is the only thing missing from my Elise. Possibly the ideal car would be an S1 Elise with an Audi Turbo between the rear wheels.

What type of specialist care do you find is not available?

cabbron

Original Poster:

416 posts

218 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
quotequote all
diag-just fancied a change,had 2 tricky s1 elises on the trot but am thinking s1 audi too!love that giant killing torque and robust engine.may be the one but i will wait to land the right one.

v8vpaul

25 posts

158 months

Wednesday 23rd March 2011
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wholly agree on the parking,i only ever dare sit outside a bar where i can keep an eye on the spanish parking lottery.so disrespectful and no thought how much goes into keeping our cars just so.

its no lottery, 100% scraped car every time..!

cabbron

Original Poster:

416 posts

218 months

Thursday 24th March 2011
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biglaughyou naughty boy!you had enough of the isle?

mickrick

3,700 posts

174 months

Thursday 24th March 2011
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The Island is beautifull, but some of the locals are greedy grabbing inconsiderate ignorants! I have no time for rude people, except to teach them a lesson.
Even my Wife is sick of people, and she's Spanish. She often talks of going somewhere else, but I tell her it's probably the same where ever you go these days.
We had an awfull day yesterday. My wife was walking our Black lab, and some fellow with a Husky cross let it off the lead "to play" ours was on the lead, and as soon as the fellow let his dog off it took a great chunk of our dogs ear!
st happens, but this asshole told my wife he had "healing hands" to which my wife replied get you dog away. He buggered off leaving my wife sobbing in distress, and our lovely quiet lab bleeding everywhere.
Some guy cutting the palm trees gave my wife his phone to call me.
The vet couldn't stitch him up becuase he'd eaten, so we spent all day wrapping the poor dogs ear, untill he could have anestetic, and be stitched up at 4.00 in the evening. 150 bloody euro's that some other asshole should have paid.
If I see him out, I'll show him my fking healing hands! punch

Anyway, back on topic. Ideal Spanish car. Old Land Rover pickup (They come with dents from new) with a towbar, and some great bloody oak beams for bumpers!
Oh, and plenty of old anchor chain wrapped around the front one.
Then you park by ear, and get some satisfaction. wink

cabbron

Original Poster:

416 posts

218 months

Thursday 24th March 2011
quotequote all
o/t talking dogs,bad week for us too so feel your pain-our doberman got a hunters illegal snare round her front leg on tuesday,distressed call from significant other asking where my side cutters were(she knew what they were called-impressive) to cut it off as leg was swelling fast,cut and bleeding.saved leg.fking furious as removed 22 illegal traps,with caza's socio numbered tags, on the mountains within 500 metres of my campo last year.took them to guardia to denounce local gun club for use of said illegal snares,shrug of shoulders,look into it,did nowt,tossers.our siamese cat lost a leg to one 2 years ago and nigh on chewed its own leg off to escape.lets just say had several incidents with said members of local hunting club and the guardia turn up within 10 minutes.been accused of giving centre partings with some kind of silenced high powered rifle ffs- as if i would.biggrin

had a 110 landy,sold it last year-miss it badly for easing parking situationsbiggrin,wasn't exactly lara croft pimped but with its wheel spacers,kiddie catcher,adjustable tow bar(recomended for inflicting max damage to as many different offending vehicles)it was amazing how many "situations" just disappeared around me;)

mickrick

3,700 posts

174 months

Friday 25th March 2011
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Well I've never been a fan of American iron, but I want this badly! lick
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2640288.htm
Anyone want to buy a kidney?

Edited by mickrick on Friday 25th March 08:08

cabbron

Original Poster:

416 posts

218 months

Friday 25th March 2011
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is the said kidney pickled with g&t's?beautiful car btw.

mickrick

3,700 posts

174 months

Friday 25th March 2011
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That's me liver. Lagavulin. drink