brokenblinker
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2021
- Threads
- 19
- Messages
- 335
- Reaction score
- 255
- Location
- San Jose, CA
- Vehicle(s)
- 2019 GT350, 2012 Leaf daily
- Thread starter
- #1
I used to ride motorcycles all of the time. When my wife and I started thinking about kids, I sold the bikes and got a 2007 Corvette. I drove that for about a year until my kiddo was about to be born (needed to get a family car, we were buying a house, etc.)
When my daughter was ~6 months old, I decided to look for a fun compromise car that was affordable and ended up with a single owner 2012 Golf R with quite a bit of work done making ~360 HP. While its pretty quick, it comes with a few downsides. 1) I'll need to return it to stock for the latest California smog rules in a year or so and 2) it just really isn't that much fun when not driving fast.
With that said, I've started looking around for a fun sports car. I plan to sell the Golf, get the cheapest commuter car that runs, and get a sports car that is more of an "experience". Towards that end, I've driven a few different cars targeting something with a hard cap of <$60K. The following is a list of cars that I've driven trying to find the right one for me (in order of my experience).
2018 M2 Thankfully, the dealer didn't give me a hard time about test driving it (only dealer car in this list). This car seemed like general fun, but it was still too much of a compromise for what I am looking for at this time. It didn't feel as raucous as I was hoping. Its interior at 3yrs and 20K miles was not as nice as my Golf's at 9 years and 110K miles. The engine wasn't all THAT exciting (I hear maybe the competition or CS would be better in that department?) and while the power/speed isn't what it is all about for me, it didn't feel any faster than the Golf R. Unfortunately, it was a shortish shared test drive, so I didn't get a chance to feel the limits of the playful handling dynamics that people talk about.
2017 GT350 I rented this on Turo for a full day with unlimited miles and had a wonderful 500 mile joyride through tons of twisties. The engine is everything I have heard it would be and more. What a joyous machine to drive. The shifter is perfect. The engine revs to the moon, but the best part is how much character it has between 3-6K RPM. It doesn't make a ton of power at 3K, but sounds good enough that I was just constantly upshifting so I could rifle rev matched downshifts into every corner. The handling was sublime. Only negative is...its a big car. On the tightest roads it just feels like it barely fits. Weight was less of an issue, it was well composed, but it was hard to get over the pure size. I still have dreams about the engine note and just the fantastic feeling you get when driving it.
2016 Corvette Z51 What an incredible machine from a technical perspective. This much performance, in this cheap a car, with this (kinda) nice interior. I was really impressed, but could tell it wasn't for me by about mile 5 of my 100 mile twisty test drive. This car is fast...its just not very engaging when not pushing super hard. The interior is nice, the engine is...robust and strong and flat torqued and...just not that exciting honestly (to me, I understand it is great for many). I left this test drive feeling like the car was incredible and better than the GT350, but far less fun.
2006 BOE Supercharged Lotus Elise Test drove this car and loved it. Committed to buying it as soon as it was smogged. Then Cali changed the smog rules the next day and the car could no longer be smogged. He sold it out of state. This was an awesome machine. I have no driving downside to mention (getting in and out is a chore, but definitely was part of the "experience" I was looking for). Only downside to this one was the questionable safety (I got out of motorcycling for a reason after all). Since this car, Lotus Elise prices are going insane, so I think I've kind of put my interest in it on hold for a bit.
Factory Five 818 Test drove this car and was underwhelmed. The pedal placement wasn't great. The 350WHP in a 2000lb car was awesome...until the diff blew up on my test drive (I never launched or even got on the throttle more than 50%). I was stranded with no cell phone coverage, eventually stopped a bicyclist that lent me his cell phone and was able to get picked up. Credit to the owner who didn't blame me (I mean I wasn't in any way at fault, but I could imagine it is frustrating to be in that situation). I still debated buying it off the guy at a lower price and taking the project of finding another diff, but decided the safety aspects made that not worth it probably.
So where am I now? I'm leaning towards the GT350. I can't get the experience of cruising down twisty roads right in that 45-60mph range and doing the 3rd->2nd downshift over and over. It feels like the car has auto rev matching (it doesn't) because its just so dang repeatable and reliable. We'll see where the urge takes me in the next month or two, looking to finally pull the trigger.
When my daughter was ~6 months old, I decided to look for a fun compromise car that was affordable and ended up with a single owner 2012 Golf R with quite a bit of work done making ~360 HP. While its pretty quick, it comes with a few downsides. 1) I'll need to return it to stock for the latest California smog rules in a year or so and 2) it just really isn't that much fun when not driving fast.
With that said, I've started looking around for a fun sports car. I plan to sell the Golf, get the cheapest commuter car that runs, and get a sports car that is more of an "experience". Towards that end, I've driven a few different cars targeting something with a hard cap of <$60K. The following is a list of cars that I've driven trying to find the right one for me (in order of my experience).
2018 M2 Thankfully, the dealer didn't give me a hard time about test driving it (only dealer car in this list). This car seemed like general fun, but it was still too much of a compromise for what I am looking for at this time. It didn't feel as raucous as I was hoping. Its interior at 3yrs and 20K miles was not as nice as my Golf's at 9 years and 110K miles. The engine wasn't all THAT exciting (I hear maybe the competition or CS would be better in that department?) and while the power/speed isn't what it is all about for me, it didn't feel any faster than the Golf R. Unfortunately, it was a shortish shared test drive, so I didn't get a chance to feel the limits of the playful handling dynamics that people talk about.
2017 GT350 I rented this on Turo for a full day with unlimited miles and had a wonderful 500 mile joyride through tons of twisties. The engine is everything I have heard it would be and more. What a joyous machine to drive. The shifter is perfect. The engine revs to the moon, but the best part is how much character it has between 3-6K RPM. It doesn't make a ton of power at 3K, but sounds good enough that I was just constantly upshifting so I could rifle rev matched downshifts into every corner. The handling was sublime. Only negative is...its a big car. On the tightest roads it just feels like it barely fits. Weight was less of an issue, it was well composed, but it was hard to get over the pure size. I still have dreams about the engine note and just the fantastic feeling you get when driving it.
2016 Corvette Z51 What an incredible machine from a technical perspective. This much performance, in this cheap a car, with this (kinda) nice interior. I was really impressed, but could tell it wasn't for me by about mile 5 of my 100 mile twisty test drive. This car is fast...its just not very engaging when not pushing super hard. The interior is nice, the engine is...robust and strong and flat torqued and...just not that exciting honestly (to me, I understand it is great for many). I left this test drive feeling like the car was incredible and better than the GT350, but far less fun.
2006 BOE Supercharged Lotus Elise Test drove this car and loved it. Committed to buying it as soon as it was smogged. Then Cali changed the smog rules the next day and the car could no longer be smogged. He sold it out of state. This was an awesome machine. I have no driving downside to mention (getting in and out is a chore, but definitely was part of the "experience" I was looking for). Only downside to this one was the questionable safety (I got out of motorcycling for a reason after all). Since this car, Lotus Elise prices are going insane, so I think I've kind of put my interest in it on hold for a bit.
Factory Five 818 Test drove this car and was underwhelmed. The pedal placement wasn't great. The 350WHP in a 2000lb car was awesome...until the diff blew up on my test drive (I never launched or even got on the throttle more than 50%). I was stranded with no cell phone coverage, eventually stopped a bicyclist that lent me his cell phone and was able to get picked up. Credit to the owner who didn't blame me (I mean I wasn't in any way at fault, but I could imagine it is frustrating to be in that situation). I still debated buying it off the guy at a lower price and taking the project of finding another diff, but decided the safety aspects made that not worth it probably.
So where am I now? I'm leaning towards the GT350. I can't get the experience of cruising down twisty roads right in that 45-60mph range and doing the 3rd->2nd downshift over and over. It feels like the car has auto rev matching (it doesn't) because its just so dang repeatable and reliable. We'll see where the urge takes me in the next month or two, looking to finally pull the trigger.
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