Sensible VMax contender

[ehasler]

OK - aside from Blackpool and Stuttgart's finest, what other cars out there would give a good showing at VMax (175+), be fun round the twisties, and be practical enough to use as an everyday car?

I might be wrong, but I'll exclude Ferraris from this at the moment, as I don't really see these as being usable everyday. By which I mean having a reasonable sized boot for those trips to Le Mans, and be safe to park on the street without worrying too much about having it vandalised or nicked.

[Plotloss]

CLK55AMG?

Or indeed any Merc with that engine...

[jeremyc]

Something from the Aston Martin stable?

DB7 GT, Vantage, DB9?

[ehasler]

Gazboy said:

NSX? Corvette C5/Z06? Tweeked Skyline/Supra? How much are you spending?

Me - nothing!

I guess a budget of up to £50k would be reasonable, or maybe £100k.

I was just wondering what else out there mixes huge speed with reasonable practicality.

[C3 GTK]

ehasler said:

OK - aside from Blackpool and Stuttgart's finest, what other cars out there would give a good showing at VMax (175+), be fun round the twisties, and be practical enough to use as an everyday car? I might be wrong, but I'll exclude Ferraris from this at the moment, as I don't really see these as being usable everyday. By which I mean having a reasonable sized boot for those trips to Le Mans, and be safe to park on the street without worrying too much about having it vandalised or nicked.

You don't want much do you

It's got to be German however you look at it.

[craigw]

aside from the other suggestions which I agree with on the whole.

How about...

BMW Z8
Merc SL55
Cayenne Turbo (think about it)..Oh bugger, forgot, no stuttgart.
Turbocharged Alfa 147(autodelta?)
Viper
Jag XKR
Esprit V8 (lack of bootspace may be a prob)

thats me lot!

mach
vmax15000bhp

[slinksport]

How about the old stalwart.. Lotus Carlton..

Way below budget.. leaving plenty of cash for a bit of tweaking, boost increase, HUGE brakes etc, oh, and a house in france with the change (from the 100k!)

Or alternatively.. just my Fiat Seicento.. driven out of the back of a hercules at 35,000 feet... I reckon that would break 175 on the way down..

Can't help thinking that might scupper reliability and warranty claims though!

W

[mr_tony]

seen a few 'old style' merc sl's creathed on by brabus - several of them claimed 200mph+ top speed - available from around 20k!

[hornet]

Audi RS4?

[dcw@pr]

mr_tony said:

seen a few 'old style' merc sl's breathed on by brabus - several of them claimed 200mph+ top speed - available from around 20k!

I was in the Brabus HQ last summer for a few hours, and there was a guy there who did all the Brabus distributing in Norway. He had just driven all the way down to Germany in one of his customer's old style merc SLs, which had a 7.3l engine stuffed into it. He claimed that on the autobahn he had a great time playing with porsches, but that he got scared at 190, when it was still pulling strong. So if you can pick up one of these for £20k, it might well be the car you are looking for...

[dazren]

mr_tony said:

seen a few 'old style' merc sl's creathed on by brabus - several of them claimed 200mph+ top speed - available from around 20k!

£20k.

The engine alone was £160k when new before adding a vehicle to put it in.

DAZ

[rob.e]

craigw said:

Esprit V8 (lack of bootspace may be a prob)

Nope, esprit has a pretty big boot actually. Plus on a GT there is storage space up front as it doesn't have a spare.

[mr_tony]

dazren said:

mr_tony said: seen a few 'old style' merc sl's creathed on by brabus - several of them claimed 200mph+ top speed - available from around 20k! £20k. The engine alone was £160k when new before adding a vehicle to put it in. DAZ

whooo 160k for the engine, could mean the maintenance is 'interesting' on a scale I've never befor eencountered!

I've seen two now on sale in autotrader for around 20-25k. Both cars were around 10 years old, but had seen less than 100k miles (well thats what the ad's said!)

[chaparral]

How little can you get a Jag XJ220 for?

[rico]

chaparral said:

How little can you get a Jag XJ220 for?

£110k ish then its the maintance costs that are
Ideally upgrade the brakes too

[chaparral]

I guess I'll get flamed for this suggestion, but how about a C4 Corvette with the biggest of big blocks (a 502-inch monster) under the hood?

And as for the Jag, I thought it was basically a Metro 6R4 under the skin, isn't it?

[MOD500]

dazren said:

mr_tony said: seen a few 'old style' merc sl's creathed on by brabus - several of them claimed 200mph+ top speed - available from around 20k! £20k. The engine alone was £160k when new before adding a vehicle to put it in. DAZ

Hi Daz

Are you sure about the 160K for the engine alone? I remember reading the Brabus price list for their conversions in the early 90's and the costs ranged from about 10K for light fettling to the 280 and 320 models up to about 40K for the howitzer V12 monster. Add in some decent brakes and suspension and you'd get to maybe 55K? Maybe it was 160K for the whole car?

Any news on the M3 track car BTW?

Best Regards

MOD.

[danhay]

There's an Alpina B8 in the classifieds which allegedly does 180mph?

[dazren]

Martyn. My brother and I were at the motor show a few years ago at Earls Court. They had a ML 7.3 on the stand which was alledgedly going to a certain "german cobbler" following the show. The cost of the engine alone was £160,000 in addition to the cost of the monster wheels, suspension and cabin gadgetfest overhaul. Oh and the Donor Mercedes ML.

No news on an M3 yet. Called by a local mechanics last week, he only had a coupe with sunroof to test the headroom in. Really need to check the space without the roof before going out and finding one.

DAZ

>> Edited by dazren on Wednesday 14th April 17:32

[Big T]

How about;

Brabus CLK55 (5.8) £25K (a steal and on sale now!)

Mercedes CLK55 DTM Edition (probably over budget but would blow most motors away and enough room for the family!!)

Or how about a Brabus TV12 (Not sure where you'll buy one from but 7 people doing nearly 200 would be fun)

V-Spec R34 (You'll have plenty of change to max it out)

Jaguar XJR100 (de-limited of course )

BMW B10 BiTurbo Alpina (must be able to pick an oldie up for peanuts)

BMW Hamman M3 (You seen one??)

Some form of Holden??? (Big trunk for your Le Mans picnic table Ed)