What car...?

[timbob]

As I'm (hopefully!) going to be gradutating with my degree next summer, and it coincides with my 21st birthday and a bit of inheritance coming my way, I'm going to be on the hunt for a car.

I discarded the kitcar idea, as that would be too expensive (at least 5k for the car, and more for everything else), and decided to go the retro route. So I'm after something thats:

a) retro
b) easy to work on/tinker with
c) at least 2 litres
d) RWD
e) £1500 tops

I've thought about maybe getting an unmolested 1.3l escort, and dropping in a 2 litre pinto from a scrappy...I don't have any experience with anything this major, but I reckon the only way to learn would be to do it - good summer project!

[timbob]

I've thought along the Capri lines already - a 2.0, or even 2.8i if I can find one would be great...would be a mk3 - I'd hazard a guess that a half decent mk1 would be out of my price range.

An old cavalier is kind of out - Gareth (littlegearl), who is a good mate drives one already!

What're the old E21 3 series BMs like? I've not heard or seen much about them...which might be a good thing - a bit more individual?

[timbob]

Brilliant replies guys, there's a lot of food for thought!

I've had another thought over the weekend...looking through the Classic Cars Weekly newspaper (or whatever it's called?!), I noticed a plethora of late 80s BMW E30 325i's all going for about the grand mark, with sensible mileages, looking in a nice condition....