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What sports car do you drive?


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#1 karim marouf

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Posted 18 October 2000 - 23:26

This thread has probably been done before, but I'm curious what people on this list drive. Please list only performance cars (not SUV's!) you now own or have owned in the past. What was the best performance car you ever had? What was the worst? Why? What would you like to have? Also list racing cars you've owned!

I now drive:
'88 supercharged Toyota MR2
'67 Jaguar E-Type coupe

In the past (not counting unfinished projects I never drove)...
'57 Chevy 210 Delray coupe
'65 Buick Riviera
'67 MGB-GT Mark I
'67 Triumph GT6 Mark I
'86 and '88 Toyota MR2's

Racing cars...
I drive my MR2 at track days about a dozen times a year, but I've never owned a purpose-built race car. I have raced someone else's supercharged MG-TD and an Alfa TZ2. The MR2 is great fun an amazingly reliable---at least 15 hard track events, lots of canyon driving, 25K miles of daily driving since I bought it used, and so far no problems!

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#2 Ray Bell

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Posted 18 October 2000 - 23:33

Not much sporting stuff for road use, though I got very close to owning an Austin-Healey 100 at one stage.
Racing, though, has seen me own a Hustler SC1 Clubman-type Sports Car which I fitted with a Renault 16TS engine and Fiat 5-speed box, ran that 1973 to 1975.
A friend had me drive the 'Tornado' Sports, a car built in Tasmania for John Goss using a Falcon 6 engine, it was rear engined. And then someone else gave me a drive in a Nota Sportsman with a Corolla engine... which caught fire during the race.

#3 GT Action Photo

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Posted 19 October 2000 - 04:00

For the record:

Cars I now own:
1998 Mazda Millenia S (new)
1958 Austin-Healey 100-6, since 1961 (used)

Cars in my past:
1959 Austin-Healey Sprite (new)
1972 BMW Bavaria (used)
1975 Alfa-Romeo Alfetta GT (new)
1981 Alfa-Romeo Alfetta GTV-6 (new)
1981 Ferrari 308 GTSi (used)

SCCA Race Car:
1967 Autodynamics Mk.III (used)
Formula Vee

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Austin-Healey 100-6
Photo:GT Action Photo

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Autodynamics Mk.III Formula Vee
Photo:GT Action Photo

With kind regards,
Gary Trobaugh

#4 Ray Bell

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Posted 19 October 2000 - 05:42

Luv the Healey!

#5 rainern

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Posted 19 October 2000 - 12:20

Not a performance car....so i am not sure if it qualifies..:)
But it is made by a F1-constructor.....:)

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Rainer[p][Edited by rainern on 10-19-2000]

#6 Dave Ware

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Posted 19 October 2000 - 21:02

I am somewhat intimidated...my only sports car was a '66 MGB. Great fun to drive when I was a teenager...in the early 80s it stopped running for the nth time and we parked it in Dad's garage. It is gone...it's engine and gearbox will live on, though. I have a friend who will put them in an MGA he is rebuilding.

Race car: 1975 Lynx B Formula Vee. Just getting started with that adventure.

D.

#7 Ray Bell

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Posted 19 October 2000 - 21:02

Definitely qualifies... what power unit is it?

#8 Wolf

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Posted 19 October 2000 - 22:30

Rainern, I don't like to show extents of my ignorance, but what is it? Never seen anything like it.:confused:

#9 Ray Bell

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Posted 20 October 2000 - 01:58

Matra 530, if I'm not too far out with my guesswork... I looked up a book and found it had a Ford engine, though later ones had Simca engines, so I don't know what's worse...
Still, as the man says, was made by a GP constructor...

#10 Apollo4

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Posted 20 October 2000 - 04:26

Another Mr2 guy here. Got two of them in fact:

87 NA
88 Twincharged

and a Mr2 webpage too :)

AW11 Archive: http://www2.msstate..../MR2/mkimr2.htm

#11 BT52

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Posted 20 October 2000 - 15:32

Have a Lotus Elise 135 plus... a 1967 MGB GT (but don't tell anyone!)

#12 rainern

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Posted 20 October 2000 - 17:22

Yes it´s a Matra 530. My car is a 1971 model.
Power comes courtesy of a 1700cc Ford V4 OHV engine.
Not the fastest thing around....:)


#13 Ray Bell

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Posted 20 October 2000 - 21:02

At least there's cheap spares in the odd Transit van...

#14 jarama

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Posted 22 October 2000 - 00:29

I'd been rallying for around 11 years or so, and the faster cars I drove were a Talbot Samba Rallye Gr.A and a Peugeot 205-GTI 1.9 Gr.N.

Then I was given the chance of testing one of the Spanish Porsche Cup's 944S2 at the Catalunya circuit.

My own road car is a VW Golf GTI 1.8, and the most powerful road cars I had the chance to drive were the Porsche 911S 2.7, the Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 and the Audi S2.

#15 Indy500

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Posted 23 October 2000 - 22:21

I drive an Escort RS Turbo (non modified) 1989.

Not a real sportscar, but quite a handfull when on a racetrack.

I drove the 'ring' with it and was glad to off the circuit at the end


#16 rainern

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Posted 23 October 2000 - 22:35

Yes true Ray....:)
But here in Sweden we have plentiful of spares at least for engine in the Saab 96 V4...:)
The current motor for this particular car started its life in a Saab....

#17 Ray Bell

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Posted 24 October 2000 - 00:01

I remember them... the V4 SAAB... the one they used the dreadful Ford engine in before they woke up and used the even-worse Triumph engine.
Good thing they finally made their own...

#18 david_martin

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Posted 24 October 2000 - 08:18

You would be amazed how many of those Saab 96 there still are on the road in Finland. I know people in Northern Finland and Northern Sweden who have had them for years, and every year they pass the road worthiness inspection and every winter they start, even below -25 degrees celcius.

An while the V4 ford engine was pretty terrible, it was probably preferrable to the two stroke version that preceeded it!!

#19 Ray Bell

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Posted 24 October 2000 - 08:50

For a time, at least, they ran them simultaneously... you could buy it with either engine.

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#20 rainern

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Posted 24 October 2000 - 14:05

Seems the tread is developing towards classic Saab´s...:)
The V4 and two-stroke unit were both available during 1966-68.
Both engines was also used in the Sonett sportscar based on the 96.

This is the two-stroker without the hump on the bonnet(hood)
.

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Rainer

#21 Falcadore

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Posted 24 October 2000 - 18:19

Since my learning to drive Toyota Corolla which lasted far long than was intended I've owned a pair of Datsun 260Z's. The first a '78 2+2 re-engined with a 280ZX motor has since gone to the car car haven in the sky, and my current Zed is a '74 Sports, and a restoration project - not in the best condition, but the mechanicals are now well sorted - next is the body ....

Could be expensive ....

#22 Falcadore

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Posted 24 October 2000 - 18:19

Since my learning to drive Toyota Corolla which lasted far long than was intended I've owned a pair of Datsun 260Z's. The first a '78 2+2 re-engined with a 280ZX motor has since gone to the car car haven in the sky, and my current Zed is a '74 Sports, and a restoration project - not in the best condition, but the mechanicals are now well sorted - next is the body ....

Could be expensive ....
yours
Mark Jones

#23 Eric McLoughlin

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Posted 24 October 2000 - 23:15

1996 Caterham 7 (Ford 1600 Crossflow)

#24 ZippyD

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Posted 25 October 2000 - 18:54

Current car is a 1999 VW Beetle.

Most exotic - 1963 Corvette convertible. 300 horse power, 365 foot pounds of torque. An awesome beast!!!!

Most fun - 1978 Fiat 128(see the getting there thread)

#25 Catch 22

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Posted 29 October 2000 - 22:25

Current mounts:
1990 Mazda Miata (moderately tweaked)
1998 Mazda Millenia S (stock; a fabulous car, our second one)

In the past (chonologically from earliest):
1965 MGB (mildly tweaked)
1960 Austin-Healy Sprite (highly modified; race car)
1963 Ford Lotus Cortina (stock; tow car, believe it or not)
1967 Datsun 1600 Sports (mildly tweaked)
1969 Datsun 2000 Sports (mildly tweaked)
1951 Jaguar Mark VII (restoration project)
1964 Porsche 356SC Coupe (restoration project)
1972 Mazda RX-3 Coupe (extremely modified; race car)
1985 Audi 4000S Quattro (stock)
1989 Ford Taurus SHO (stock)

Those are the ones I'm proudest of. The Porsche was my favorite, but the Miata has been the most reliable and the most fun.

- Catch 22 (Steve Bruun, seb1190@worldnet.att.net)

#26 dbw

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Posted 01 November 2000 - 08:08

daily driver;'00 honda s2000--a REAL sports car!!!
latest lifelong project;1930 T35b bugatti
if anyone cares,theres an endless list of former mounts that run the gamut from abarth zagato's to a 550 spyder,OSCAS,SIATAS,20's and 30's dirt cars a brace of indy millers;1936 gulf 4 cyl,rear drive[one of 2]and a 1935 miller ford fwd 2 man cars [one of 10] and finally open wheel pre war bugs.lots of oil under the bridge.....


#27 Barry Lake

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Posted 01 November 2000 - 13:09

I think you win so far dbw. Although there are some other very nice cars here, Rainer's and the Healey 6 for a start...

This reminds me of my early days on Modern MOTOR magazine, about 1979-1980. The then editor suggested we write a story on "cars we have owned" so we all sat down and wrote a list. After a brief examination of the list, the editor said , "Forget that - does anyone have another idea for a story?"
It wasn't quite the most boring list of cars known to man, but it certainly wouldn't have appealed to the performance-car readers we had.
Perhaps it says something about the rates of pay for motoring journalists in Australia.

The other side of that coin is that we got to drive all the latest and greatest cars on the market year after year. We didn't really need to own them.
When asked what was my favourite car, I would say, "The one I can take back at the end of the week and exchange for another..."

Currently I own a half share in my lady's 1992 Toyota Camry for daily transport. MY car - for the past 13 years - is a 1971 Datsun 1600 rally car that doesn't get to see the light of day too often any more. Last outing was for a motorkhana in May.
My daily transport always has been the most cost effective available at the time. My money went into open wheel racing cars, then three children, then a divorce settlement, and now a massive book collection. There never seems to have been enough left over for a really nice road car.

#28 fines

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Posted 01 November 2000 - 19:17

dbw, can you tell something about the track records of the Millers? Do they have chassis numbers?

#29 dbw

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Posted 02 November 2000 - 03:39

michael;
here's my old miller's racing history as i researched them;
*miller-ford chassis#5[of 10 ,possibly 12 made]..entered by ford motor company,indianapolis 500,1935 .qualified last in the field at 109.937 mph. driven by george bailey with car #35.retired lap 26, unknown reasons.
*possibly this car reappeared as one of the "grancor"team cars entered at indy postwar by andy granetelli;not confirmed.
*chassis#5,fully restored to it's 1935 livery,resides in arizona[as of nov. 2000]and is demonstrated at vintage oval track events[milwalkee,indianapolis,etc...]

*miller-gulf chassis #1[of 2 made]was entered by gulf research and development at the indianapolis 500 for qualification 1938.driven by billy winn,the car did not qualify.
*the car was reported to have been at the oval at altoona pa.pre war..no details.
*chassis#1 restored for display but not driven,is now part of a large private collection of miller cars in the eastern us[as of nov 2000]
*a brief note on the gulf car; this is one of two 4 cyl,front engine-rear drive cars built,not to be confused with the 6 cyl fwd mid engined gulf cars of the same era....the 4 cyl cars,built in 1937, displayed such advanced features as full 4 wheel independent suspension,4 speed transaxle,pannier fuel tanks and unique miller patent 4 wheel disc brakes.

for further information on these cars and other fabulous creations of harry miller, you should add a copy of "the miller dynasty" by the late mark dees to your bookshelf...i think it's back in print and available through autobooks international....dbw