Recommendations for new car

[piscestattoo]

Hello all

I'm after some thoughts on what new car. I'm getting rid of a 3 series, I have a Quantum already. What I'm looking for is probably as follows

- Non soft top (which eliminates a lot of cars!)
- Decent enough reliability to do say 10k pa
- Newish, ie something I can pass off as "a few years old" but definately post 2001

Budget is around the £10k mark

Practical doesnt come into it much, performance I'd expect to have a 0-60 sub 10 seconds. Initial thoughts are a GTM Libra, but I cant find that many around at the moment. So seeing as Stoneleigh is just around the corner and there's bound to be some bargains had, anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks
Andy

[Locoblade]

Sounds more like you need a hot hatch really! Whats the point in spending £10k on a kit car with all it's shortcomings unless it does something that a regular shopping trolley doesn't?

Edited by Locoblade on Monday 16th April 21:13

[FNG]

There's very little that's hardtopped, and even less from that subset that's new-ish.

The Libra's the only one I can think of.

Nothing similar to the Quantum has been released since, er, the Quantum was.

Unless you fancy a shonky MR2-based F355 replica of course

[piscestattoo]

FNG said:

There's very little that's hardtopped, and even less from that subset that's new-ish.

The Libra's the only one I can think of.

Nothing similar to the Quantum has been released since, er, the Quantum was.

Unless you fancy a shonky MR2-based F355 replica of course

Thats kind of what I'm ending up looking at. It's basically me not wanting to be dragged down the Mondeo route as a first car, but I'm just out of range of the higher end cars, like say the Avelle or similar

[Furyblade_Lee]

With 10k you can pretty much have any Libra out there the way the market is at the moment! You can have mine for 10K! For your money you could get a VVC powered Libra around 160bhp, 0-60 in 5 secs, easily do 10,000 miles a year and should be as reliable as an MGF or Elise.

[Furyblade_Lee]

There are a couple for sale at the moment, one is a red Libra with a 200bhp DVA power K-series in it, set up for sprints and hillclimbs, £8,250. Might be a bit juicy for high miles though. I get 45mpg from mine on the motorway. There are another couple for sale also, all with 1800cc K's in. Give GTM cars a call or look at the owners clubs.

[piscestattoo]

Cheers! See, I was looking on the Team GTM website and there seems to be a very nice Spyder slightly out of my price range, 1.4 MPI on a 55 plate. But that seems to be the only one - do you know of any others?

Edited by piscestattoo on Tuesday 17th April 08:03

[piscestattoo]

Apologies, there is more on the Team GTM site than I realised, 2 other cars in the Parts section.

The top one looks good, I think I prefer that front end to the Spyder

[jonty99]

I spoke to the creator of the Veranti, and they're apparently working on a coupe and targa version of the Veranti rather than just the spyder version. Its supposedly due to those evil SVA people saying that because the chassis is modified by cutting the roof off it needs SVA-ing.

The Veranti Spyder is however a great car, and I'd recomend one.

[Furyblade_Lee]

Steve Hole at Totalkitcar may be pursuaded to sell the turquoise spyder, very smart 197bhp Honda v-tec, must be 0-60 in about 4.5 secs or so. He had it up for sale for ages,wouldnt sell for some reason, but it is truly magnificent. Officially not for sale now (i was after it) 12k I am sure would buy that one if you can talk him into selling it, maybe less....... there are loads for sale normally, just have a nose about.

[piscestattoo]

Good shout mate - any suggestions of where to look around? Obviously PH Classifieds (before I get binned...) but Total Kit Car, Ebay and Findit seem to be favourites. I think Stoneleigh is going to be my best bet though

[Furyblade_Lee]

Go to the show, if you see one you like just ask if they want to sell it, everything in life has a price..... the market is bad at the moment so there may be people willing to sell on a whim.

[ricola]

I'll be at Stoneleigh in the phantom with a view to selling it that weekend (you know you want to )
Rich

[marcevo1]

you cant really go wrong with a gtm IMO

all i'd say is the v6 is a belter - loads of torque and great noise.

i imagine youve seen mine for sale? a bit more than what you want to spend.

all i'd say is look carefully at all the revised anti roll bars, rear suspension type, size of brakes and type of seats (the recaros are worth paying for). If you dont take this into account you'll end up spending loads of dosh getting it up to current spec.

good luck with the search - you wont regret going for a libra

marc