Summer cars

danishbacon

Forgot to add too, if you look at the dimensions, engine distribution, wheelbase of a 2006 cayman, it's not far off a 70's f1 car

stickyfiddle

Caymans are awesome, especially the mk1 - best looking car Porsche have done since the 993.

Barnezy

danishbacon said:

Barnezy said:

Get the Porsche. Sports cars I've owned are Cayman, f25 M5, Aston 4.7 V8 Vanage, 991 and I've driven quite a few super cars. The Cayman is the best drivers car I've ever driven. Boxer will obviously be pretty close to it. Never had a single problem with it in the 18 months I owned it for. IMS is over hyped. You can get it swapped out petentively if you're that concerned. MX5 is likely to have it's own problems too.

Echoing @Barnezy and @octatonic a 1st gen Cayman S looks like a good buy and possible future classic. Its a superb car. Balanced in every sense (as a drivers car) and it's simply a joy to drive.

I think this review sums it up very well: 

@jerkmoans - lovely barchetta

God I miss my Cayman S! That video just reminded me how good it was. 

You feel very connected with that car in a way I've not experienced in anything else. 

I suspect there will be some absolute bargains to pick up come November time. 

danishbacon

@Barnezy it is a bit dreamy

strtdv

Looking at another MX-5 tomorrow. 

A NA version this time, seller has sent me lots of photos and apart from some surface rust on the front subframe the whole underbody looks very clean.

Paintwork isn't perfect (there's a small spot of clear coat peel on the bonnet that would be fixable fairly easily and some more extensive peel on a rear quarter panel which would require probably respraying the panel), but it looks in good condition where it matters.

Also comes with a hardtop which is a bonus as I'd be looking to buy one anyway

Hattigol

danishbacon said:

Barnezy said:

Get the Porsche. Sports cars I've owned are Cayman, f25 M5, Aston 4.7 V8 Vanage, 991 and I've driven quite a few super cars. The Cayman is the best drivers car I've ever driven. Boxer will obviously be pretty close to it. Never had a single problem with it in the 18 months I owned it for. IMS is over hyped. You can get it swapped out petentively if you're that concerned. MX5 is likely to have it's own problems too.

Echoing @Barnezy and @octatonic a 1st gen Cayman S looks like a good buy and possible future classic. Its a superb car. Balanced in every sense (as a drivers car) and it's simply a joy to drive.

I think this review sums it up very well: 

@jerkmoans - lovely barchetta

Is that review genuine or a spoof? Hard to tell.
Two of the most irritating people I've ever had to endure.

TheOtherDennis

octatonic said:

Lodious said:

octatonic said:

I've had a couple but honestly this is where motorcycles are better.
They take up less room and are MUCH more fun.
Buy two.

Its the serious injury / death part which is seriously unappealing.

The overwhelming majority of motorcyclists don't die from motorcycling.
It is riskier though- there is no getting away from that.
Worth it, I think, especially if you take it seriously and ride intelligently.

I completely agree with you, @octatonic, and fuck me I miss my bike, and I only ever fell off it once - went round a corner and hit a patch of mud a tractor had left all over the road; one high side later, I broke my thumb and had my right hand in plaster for 6 weeks. With my wife in her current condition, we would be completely fucked if that ever happened to me again. I know it can happen just by tripping up on a pavement, but I just don't want to take the chance.

Besides, I was seriously stiffed by the garage and insurance company. My bike was written off so I asked for a copy of the quote. It included 500 quid for fairing that the bike never had. In fact, no bike of my type - Honda CB500 - ever had fairing factory fitted.

When I rang the insurance company to complain, they said it was down to the garage. When I rang the garage to complain, they told me to fuck off. When I rang the insurance company to complain about that, they still said it was nothing to do with them.

Six months later I got a call from the DVLA saying "Somebody's just tried to register your bike." They'd clearly just repaired it anyway and then sold it on.

And that was Carol Thingy, supposedly the biggest bike insurer in the country.

Never trusted bike insurance since.

Still, I fucking miss my bike.

Axe_meister

strtdv said:

Provided you're over 30 and the remap is modest (say <20% ) you might be surprised by how little your premium goes up (potentially less than 10%) 

The main things to be sure of is that the engine actually is the same as the higher output one (it might be the same block and head but have forged conrods), and get it remapped by someone sensible.

I've heard of a couple of people had blown piston rings on stage 2 remaps from a particular well known tuner who I won't name who put too much extra torque low down the rev range where it can do damage. Compare that with someone like Litchfield who do a very sympathetic remap.

The engine is identical except the mapping. In the US the standard 124 is 160bhp but only 140 in the EU. The Arbarth has 170bhp (but oddly 165 in the US)

sinbaadi

strtdv said:

Looking at another MX-5 tomorrow. 

A NA version this time, seller has sent me lots of photos and apart from some surface rust on the front subframe the whole underbody looks very clean.

Paintwork isn't perfect (there's a small spot of clear coat peel on the bonnet that would be fixable fairly easily and some more extensive peel on a rear quarter panel which would require probably respraying the panel), but it looks in good condition where it matters.

Also comes with a hardtop which is a bonus as I'd be looking to buy one anyway

What model/spec/edition?

NAs are very charming and if you can get a solid one, and keep it nice and dry mostly, it will be your future car-you-wish-you'd-kept.

I had a black 1.6 import.  It was brilliant.

gjonesy

Had two Mx5’s, first Mk2.5 wrote off in first two weeks. Went straight out and bought an early mk3 and this time made sure I had the alignment sorted and new tyres all round. Loved driving both of them, both had 6spd box and it felt great. Mrs forced me out of it as she was worried I’d have an accident so upgraded to 987.2 cayman. Absolutely stunning to drive it’s not an S but I really don’t care. It’s more than enough for uk roads. Still have a soft spot for mx5s, so much so I’m still a member of the owners club! The cayman is amazing though.
oh and I’ve got a Subaru turbo For the mx5 if the tuning bug bites

strtdv

sinbaadi said:

What model/spec/edition?

NAs are very charming and if you can get a solid one, and keep it nice and dry mostly, it will be your future car-you-wish-you'd-kept.

I had a black 1.6 import.  It was brilliant.

It's a 1.6 import, not Vspec unfortunately.

Only rust seems to be a bit around the front subframe (which is easily replaceable if it gets worse)

Pretty much stock. 

Insurance looks to be absurdly cheap to get it into our multicar policy (about £140 for the year).

If it looks decent in person I'll likely buy it. Hard to know what the long term plan for it would be, I've a low mileage Focus RS which I'd like to keep the mileage down on and avoid using when the roads are salted, but obviously MX-5s rust so not ideal for over the winter.

I plan to sort out the paintwork fairly cheaply if possible and then treat the area around the front subframe and any other little spots I notice while underneath, enjoy the car for the summer and then decide what the plan is for the winter come the end of August

strtdv

And it's now bought. Couple of minor niggles in addition to the paint (slight weep around the cam cover but the seller supplied a new gasket as well as a cam position sensor gasket), and the windscreen washer tubing is badly perished but new tubing is on the way.

Other than that it's lovely. Super low to the ground, and the 1.6 unit loves revs. The guy had a lot of interest in it so I'm pretty sure I can sell easily if I decide to sell it in August.
Need to look through the service history in more detail, it looks like the cambelt was done 2 years ago.

chotu495

Congrats! Picture?

strtdv

Forthcoming once I get some of the paint restored early next week (I'll hopefully do before and after pics)

Stratavarious

I have an old ‘63 3L Rover that emerges each summer for picnics and nice days out.

Axe_meister

gjonesy said:

Had two Mx5’s, first Mk2.5 wrote off in first two weeks. Went straight out and bought an early mk3 and this time made sure I had the alignment sorted and new tyres all round. Loved driving both of them, both had 6spd box and it felt great. Mrs forced me out of it as she was worried I’d have an accident so upgraded to 987.2 cayman. Absolutely stunning to drive it’s not an S but I really don’t care. It’s more than enough for uk roads. Still have a soft spot for mx5s, so much so I’m still a member of the owners club! The cayman is amazing though.
oh and I’ve got a Subaru turbo For the mx5 if the tuning bug bites

She was scared you could have an accident in a car that sticks to the road like glue but can't go very fast but you were allowed to upgrade to a much more powerful car that desperately needs a limited slip diff so more likely to have an off at high speed

gjonesy

Axe_meister said:

gjonesy said:

Had two Mx5’s, first Mk2.5 wrote off in first two weeks. Went straight out and bought an early mk3 and this time made sure I had the alignment sorted and new tyres all round. Loved driving both of them, both had 6spd box and it felt great. Mrs forced me out of it as she was worried I’d have an accident so upgraded to 987.2 cayman. Absolutely stunning to drive it’s not an S but I really don’t care. It’s more than enough for uk roads. Still have a soft spot for mx5s, so much so I’m still a member of the owners club! The cayman is amazing though.
oh and I’ve got a Subaru turbo For the mx5 if the tuning bug bites

She was scared you could have an accident in a car that sticks to the road like glue but can't go very fast but you were allowed to upgrade to a much more powerful car that desperately needs a limited slip diff so more likely to have an off at high speed

Yep :-)

strtdv

Here it is after a little work on the paint and a new electric retracting aerial:








I cleaned up the interior and got the front fog lights working too. Next is to clean the engine bay and convert the offside reverse light to a rear fog light

Brize

My dream summer car – 30 years old and still costs well north of £100k.

prowla

Brize said:

My dream summer car – 30 years old and still costs well north of £100k.

That's a load of BS!