Helping a friend replace his 330 club sport with something less thirsty, cheaper on consumables.

wants it to be fun and interesting and as reliable as possible.

no kids.

4k budget, 3k preferable

my thoughts so far;

mk2 mx5
CTR
fast Reno of sorts.

anything else obvious or perhaps no so obvious that would fit the bill? Not RX8 as already had one and you should never go back

 

CTR should be fun

 

Loads of cars for that money...

Mx5 good shout. They can be made a little more masculine with tweaks
mk1 S3 if he like booooost and snazzy leather interiors (which he should coming from a CS), or a Golf Anni 180 (handle crap though until fettled)
200SX, if he can steer from the rear ... fairly reliable too if looked after.
S2000 with 100k under it's belt. might just need bushes and a TCT to worry about, bodywork later
facelift Accord Type R. Worth a look and if you sort the final drive out, it's a brilliant frantic Saloon with 30mpg to boot. reliable
172/182 as you've mentioned. Not keepers though, they're in problematic areas of their life. They eat consumables and most are thrashed.

The grandaddy ITR DC2. Sure enough, it'll need work being a 4k motor but prise a good one from a careful owner, it will satisfy your friend no end. Get him to take it on track and he'll wonder why he ever bought a 330i CS. ITR would be my pick out of any 4k car. They're not all dogs at this price, it takes time to find a good one and negotiate

There's older hatches like 106 GTi's (hard to find) or 205's rebuilt for about 3k. Reliability questionable though

 

He's been out in my old ITR and on track with me too, so is familiar, but suspec it'll be a bit too old for him, I agree with your thoughts entirely though. Same goes for 200SX.

He has a 106gti many moons ago, the ATR is a good shout, I thought about it, but dismissed as again a bit long in the tooth, but the later ones maybe. Personally, I love them! (ever since we had a taxi ride from a night on the tiles in one, got chatting to driver and he obliged with a 8k rpm all the way home!).

S3 is a good shout, hadn't thought to mention an R56 cooper S? but 4k gets you a bottom of the market one, but many are miss daisy cars really.

good start!

 

I think the S3 is hugely ignored. They have remarkable pace when remapped, its just the steering that is a bit too assisted. My friend had one with a Hybrid Turbo & remap, pushing 300 bhp coupled with a wall of torque. I have to say, point to point it was extraordinary. Although 4wd, it still only slightly understeered/pushed wide when cornering too fast for its weight. They are sleepers, however a little old on looks.

Love spending other peoples money !

 

Could get an MR2 Turbo for that, I really enjoyed mine. They have aged well IMO

 

Panda 100HP and Swift Sport on the shortlist...

It's easy when it's not your money...

 

Agree ^^^
And for that money I don't think you will get anything quicker

 

too old... quick is not really important, more fun factor than warp factor needed

 

Ah,in that case it would be a clio 182 without a doubt.the engines are pretty tough,parts are cheapish,and they handle well as you probably know.