Car collecting for budget minded car nuts.

[AdironRider]

Gawd I love that 6 series except for the totally ghey ALPINE logo and the striping. Had a buddy get one right off the boat what sweet ride.

My needs are simple. I have a daily driver and I have a 65 convert. mustang I've been working on for a while and drive when its above 40 hasn't rained and isn't going to rain. The top never goes up if its on the road.

I want a 66 mustang fastback. Always loved the mustangs, want to do a resto mod job on the fastback rack and pinion, 5 speed manual, hydraulic brakes, updated sport seating, elec. ignition, roller rocker 302. discs all the way around.

Techically its ALPINA, which is a pseudo inhouse tuner ala AMG for Mercedes with less public knowledge of the company.

If its a true Alpina car, that will be worth some coin I bet in a couple decades. Love the sharks.

And to this day the 88ix was the best car I ever owned (Ive owned over 20 e30 BMW's). Super bomber, until some greasemonkey forgot to tighten the lug nuts and I lost a wheel at 80 and flipped it. Safe though, came out without a scratch, which was suprising I must admit.

[OSECS]

While i'm not too stoked on the big pinstripe either, it's ALPINA, not Alpine. That makes it ok in my books.

Thanks, meant alpina spell check works both ways. There are very few cars that logos, badges and swag work for me. I like cars that have all the badges removed (more the newer cars than 60's cars).

[Hugh Conway]

Hugh, if you like those, you might check out Alfa GTVs as well. I test drove one a few years that was for sale for like $2500, and it was cool! Pretty rare, V6 rear mounted transaxle, 4 doors, and looked cool and sounded amazing. If I had had the money back then, I would have bought it. edit: PNW beat me to it.

Yeah, those are cool - but for Alfa's the GTA is what I want (and not in the same ballpark pricewise).

6-series looks nice. Some reason I never warmed to the 6-series, but I think an 850i would be the tits. Problem is like so many of those early 90s sports/GT cars (Supra, 300zx, RX7) it's hard to find one that hasn't been beat or tunered to shit.

Dare to dream Jed, how about a Sundancer

[PNWbrit]

Yeah, those are cool - but for Alfa's the GTA is what I want (and not in the same ballpark pricewise).

Those are serious money nowadays.

A little more modern, but I always wanted an Alfa SZ



Bloody hell they haven't aged well though....

[OSECS]

Yeah, those are cool - but for Alfa's the GTA is what I want (and not in the same ballpark pricewise).

6-series looks nice. Some reason I never warmed to the 6-series, but I think an 850i would be the tits. Problem is like so many of those early 90s sports/GT cars (Supra, 300zx, RX7) it's hard to find one that hasn't been beat or tunered to shit.

Dare to dream Jed, how about a Sundancer

Who made/makes the sundancer. Ditto on the 850's, sex on wheels I've always thought.

[Hugh Conway]

Who made/makes the sundancer

AMC - same platform as the eagle.

yeah, 8-series were awesome looking. After seeing Wheeler-Dealers do some work on an 840i I also realized that wrenching it yourself could be a royal pain in the ass with so much shit crammed into it, much of it still $$$$ for parts.

[assman]

Basinbeater, nice taste in cars. I had a 1985 635 M6 for a while. Beautiful car. I'm a city guy and my loft comes with just one underground parking spot. I tried keeping the 6 in a rented garage in the burbs till I realized that months were going by and I hadn't even thought of it. I sold it to a BMWCCA guy a few years back. I later heard he lunched the engine at a track day when he missed a shift.

The MR2 is a wicked great car. Don't part with it.

[assman]

.yeah, 8-series were awesome looking. After seeing Wheeler-Dealers do some work on an 840i I also realized that wrenching it yourself could be a royal pain in the ass with so much shit crammed into it, much of it still $$$$ for parts.

I knew a guy who showed up at BMW events with an 850. He tagged the front end and not all that hard. Behind the bumper were a bunch of PLASTIC duct work. All of it cracked. The cost was close to $5000 just for the PLASTIC duct work.

Fuck 850's

[basinbeater]

I do like the 850, but now you are up in the mid teens, and that is way out of budget for a budget collection, or quiver as some would put it. That does mean they typically cost enought that kids haven't screwed them up. I don't think the shape has held up as well as the old 6 series.

That sundancer is an AMC car. Not sure what I think of it. Ugly as hell, but there is something appealing about it.

A car I think will become a classic is the Honda S2000. Beautiful lines, reliable, and great to drive. Price is still too high though. Need to drop down to 6-7k for straight examples.
Sorry, posting pics at work is a chore.

[OSECS]

AMC - same platform as the eagle.

yeah, 8-series were awesome looking. After seeing Wheeler-Dealers do some work on an 840i I also realized that wrenching it yourself could be a royal pain in the ass with so much shit crammed into it, much of it still $$$$ for parts.

Thought so, and working on any BMW post about 1980 is a total bitch. Crammed is a kind word for what those Germans do to car assemblies.

[PNWbrit]

The MR2 is a wicked great car. Don't part with it.

It's always surprised me that the first gen MR2s aren't more desired. They were a fun little car when they came out. My sister had one for a while.. wife and I actually borrowed it and drove it around France on our honeymoon. Edit: at the time they weren't selling them in France and everywhere we went the thing was mobbed by people asking about it. One guy even made a very good cash offer to buy it from em there and then.

Was a well made un-rusty Fiat X1/9 with the Italian style removed.

[basinbeater]

What I really want, I missed the boat on. E30 M3. Those are out of my range now, and they are never coming back into my range.

[AdironRider]

I think its more German mentality than anything.

Ive engineered this so well it will never break, so lets just stuff it way the fuck down there!

At least BMW will still make any part you need for any model OEM. Thats pretty badass. Not cheap though.

[basinbeater]

Osecs, not true. I had a 99 e46 328i, car was a piece of cake to work on. My 88 325ix is a piece of cake to work on.

[Hugh Conway]

I always liked the X1/9's big brother, the Lancia Scorpion - but again that exceeds the pricepoint of this exercise


I think for the high end cars, kinda yes, but the sedans until the mid-late 90s were pretty easy to access.

[PNWbrit]

I was unaware that the Monte-Carlo Coupe was called the Scorpion in the US.

Great car. Made out of shitty steel. Welcome to Italy in the 70s.

[bagtagley]

Mitsubishi Starion VR was almost my first car (excluding my folks' shitbox Corolla that I drove). Guy took amazing care of it, and was my soccer coach as a kid, so was cutting me a screaming deal. Don't recall why it fell through, but was probably for the best.

Star of Orion, my ass. That's Engrish at its finest.

[OSECS]

Osecs, not true. I had a 99 e46 328i, car was a piece of cake to work on. My 88 325ix is a piece of cake to work on.

I've had 5 series and shit is just crammed into every nook and cranny of those. I tried doing a few things but always hated life by the time I finished. I've worked on a number of pre 70's American cars so I have been spoiled a bit. Those usually just require brute force and a flexible body to muscle old connections free.

[bagtagley]

I always liked the X1/9's big brother, the Lancia Scorpion - but again that exceeds the pricepoint of this exercise

I still have a thing for the Delta. Saw one dominate a local rally in San Marino. The thing was beat to hell, but absolutely killed it. I tried to talk to the driver, but my Italian is unbueno. I think it ended with me saying something like "Lancia...Bella", which he got a kick out of.

[assman]

A car I think will become a classic is the Honda S2000. Beautiful lines, reliable, and great to drive. Price is still too high though. Need to drop down to 6-7k for straight examples.
Sorry, posting pics at work is a chore.

Great car with a screaming engine but a fucked up instrument panel. Possibly worse than a late 80-'s Vette. i can not buy a car unless I like the panel. After all, everyone else appreciates the exterior while I'm driving it but I'm looking at the panel.

[PNWbrit]

I still have a thing for the Delta.

I had the use of an Integrale for a week years and years ago in UK. Fun car.

[Chugachjed]

The sundancer is cool but I don't think it fits my rugged personality as well as my SX/4 did. I'm acquiring the parts to build a hot one whenever I find one either clean or cheap. I could maybe go for the wagon with the sport package or the ultrarare Kammaback.

[Kim Jong-un]

What I really want, I missed the boat on. E30 M3. Those are out of my range now, and they are never coming back into my range.

I should have never sold mine.

Had a 1990 that I bought new. By the time I sold it it had a 2.5L engine with Euro cams, all sort of Motorsport bits on it. A wonderful car.

Pardon me while I cry.

[hawkgt]

I like cars for car sakes..... I do not ever see myself as a serious collector as have a ton of other things I would like to blow the $$ on. my reasonable project is a 95' dodge 1500 that I want to lower and turn into a rat rod some day...


Although... I do have a soft spot in my heart for early year C3 Vettes ever since my high school buddy had a 427 69' with a 4 speed.... and a rather ravenous coke habit.... good times.

edit: not his car... ^ 68' but love the color

[Hugh Conway]

I was unaware that the Monte-Carlo Coupe was called the Scorpion in the US.]

New name + US regulations of the 70s =

Us regulations of the 70s best described as add weight, uglify, cut power


For cheap collector cars BATs had some dirt cheap Soviet/Eastern Block metal that would be fun. $1k?