£5k car - 160mph, 0-60 6 secs ?

[Ursicles]

Need a car for a european road trip, and the requirements are:

Circa £5k (max £5500)
Must be able to top 160
0-60 in sub 6 secs.
MPG nothing nuts so i need to keep stopping for fuel- lets say 17mpg?
Reliable!

Thoughts?

[coldel]

350z

[james_gt3rs]

Porsche Boxster S

[coldel]

james_gt3rs said:

Porsche Boxster S

Can you get reliable ones for £5k?! (off to check classifieds!)
Just did a euro road trip and the guy in the boxster arguably had the best experience with the roof down and porsche handling, although his series 1 S was a lot more than 5k

[shakotan]

Audi A8 D3 4.2 petrol or 4.2 TDI

Edited by shakotan on Monday 19th November 14:19

[designforlife]

mk2 MR2 turbo.

[300bhp/ton]

Ursicles said:

Need a car for a european road trip, and the requirements are:

Circa £5k (max £5500)
Must be able to top 160
0-60 in sub 6 secs.
MPG nothing nuts so i need to keep stopping for fuel- lets say 17mpg?
Reliable!

Thoughts?

Most big bargy things with large engines are likely to be in this ball park performance wise. Lots of choice for £5k from Jags, thru to BMW's and Mercs.

Do you want sporty though?

Toyota MR2 Turbo or an Impreza. The Subaru's won't be 160mph, but are genuine 140mph+

[Ursicles]

Imprezza did come to mind - but was surprised by its top speed being 'low'

Was going to buy an M2 Comp this yr, but have gone a bit nuts and bought a supra mk5 which wont be with me for a good while yet, and not sure my octavia 245 vrs will cope with the strains of the road trip!

[james_gt3rs]

coldel said:

Can you get reliable ones for £5k?! (off to check classifieds!)
Just did a euro road trip and the guy in the boxster arguably had the best experience with the roof down and porsche handling, although his series 1 S was a lot more than 5k

Lot of luck involved... how long's a piece of string...

[coldel]

What % of your entire road trip is going to be spent over 140-150mph? I presume you are going to be on the autobahns for a bit, but realistically is it going to be any more than 10% of the trip? Even then I can run 10mph and that isnt fast, the difference is negligible. I would say reliability is the big thing, no point buying the cheapest car that does 160mph instead of 150mph because its an utter dog which will blow up the second you take it over 150mph!

[coldel]

james_gt3rs said:

Lot of luck involved... how long's a piece of string...

I do like Boxsters but wasnt aware of any S's that cheap. I did have a nose on here and there is one, 100k miles and tiptronic otherwise all the others over budget by some way. I guess if you find an old one privately for sale and they are desperate to sell...

[bangerhoarder]

Even the owner's manuals for mk2 MR2s don't suggest driving them over 130mph for any period of time. I think 150mph is doable in a turbo, but not 160mph. A 5k one will have dumped you off the road long before that speed anyway, they're just not that planted at very high speed.

[Ursicles]

the 160/150mph thing would be negligible.

[coldel]

bangerhoarder said:

Even the owner's manuals for mk2 MR2s don't suggest driving them over 130mph for any period of time. I think 150mph is doable in a turbo, but not 160mph. A 5k one will have dumped you off the road long before that speed anyway, they're just not that planted at very high speed.

I got a Celica ST205 with for all intents and purposes the same engine - I wouldnt want to run that at 150mph+ for any length of time they get VERY hot.

Better off with a lazy drive V6 or V8. As mentioned up top 350z's are right at the bottom of their depreciation curves right now and are GT cars so good for cross country touring.

[PixelpeepS3]

AVIS 2.0 diesel. it'll be the fastest thing you've ever driven and they'll come out and fix it when you break it

[ninjag]

Ursicles said:

Need a car for a european road trip, and the requirements are:

Circa £5k (max £5500)
Must be able to top 160
0-60 in sub 6 secs.
MPG nothing nuts so i need to keep stopping for fuel- lets say 17mpg?
Reliable!

Thoughts?

For space for lots of gear:

2003 Porsche Cayenne 4.5 Turbo with biblical mileage (171k):
£4,990
165mph
0-60mph = 4.8 seconds
17.8 mpg
Reliable....ummm.......

Or spend £5,500 and get one a year younger with 41k less miles.


Style and comfort plus supercharger fun

Jaguar XJ 4.2 V8 Supercharged (very clean looking) 122k miles
£4,000
155mph
0-60mph = 5.0 seconds
22.3 mpg
Reliable....errrr.....


Perhaps the sensible choice?

BMW 650i 4.8 135k miles
£5,450
155mph
0-60mph = 4.6 seconds
25.4mpg
Not sure on reliability.


For crazy rolling acceleration and windy hair/dome

SAAB 9-3 2.8 Aero Convertible a few around with approx. 75k miles at less than than £5k. With a remap it will be 310bhp
150mph+
0-60mph = with a remap and decent traction around 5 secs, but it's the rolling acceleration that is brutal
25.5mpg
Reliability is good enough

[Loyly]

bangerhoarder said:

Even the owner's manuals for mk2 MR2s don't suggest driving them over 130mph for any period of time. I think 150mph is doable in a turbo, but not 160mph. A 5k one will have dumped you off the road long before that speed anyway, they're just not that planted at very high speed.

That was my thought. I had Rev 3 MR2 Turbo. It was great at less than 100mph but front end lift was palpable at speed and made the steering very light. A crosswind at speed was usually unpleasant too. A big front splitter might help if you want high speeds but they're really better suited to monstrous acceleration at lower speeds, where they're really impressive.

[Ursicles]

650i ..... interesting idea!!

[Bumblebee7]

LS460. Job jobbed.

[BigMacDaddy]

I'd second the BMW option - 650i or 550i, plenty around that sort of price and the 4.8 V8 is a cracking engine