[tristor]

My midlife crisis is also cars. I'm in the process of searching for an honest to god mechanic's shop to buy under an LLC just so I have a better place to work on cars than my garage. I have a list of 8 cars I want to own and restomod, all of which probably nobody else cares about, and that's completely fine. There are some vehicles that just speak to my soul, and I want to experience the best possible iteration of that.

I've spent years on track, now I'm much more interested in the experience of daily driving. A car does not need to be a full track build to be fun. My mantra now is much more OEM+, you have to almost squint to realize its not bone stock. The coolest car to me is something that's well-maintained and shows care and love from its owner, not necessarily something loud and flashy. I think the GR Corolla is an excellent platform to build around, and I almost bought one myself although my current newer daily is a Mazda 3 Turbo. Hot hatches and wagons will always hold a special place in my heart.

That said, I have no desire for a particularly loud exhaust, although I'm more than happy to trade off NVH for actual performance.

[joshu]

what’s the list?

[tristor]

In no specific order, per se, but kind of this order, here's my 8:

1. 1986 Toyota MR2 AW11

2. 1996 Mazda Miata/MX-5 NA

3. 1990 Porsche 944 Turbo S

4. 1988 Pontiac Fiero GT

5. 1995 Mazda RX-7 FD

6. 2007 Lotus Exige S

7. 1994 Autozam AZ-1

8. 2013 Acura TSX Sport Wagon

I'm a big Toyota/Mazda fan, currently drive a Mazda as my primary vehicle, previously drove mostly Toyotas, and I have a love affair with 80s and 90s sports coupes, the lighter the better. I also happen to think the Acura TSX Sport Wagon is criminally underrated as one of the best wagons to build on, thanks to coming with the K24 and in a gorgeous Vortex Blue Pearl.

[joshu]

that’s a good list. i also collect japanese beaters (currently several miatas, an ae86 and an s13) and british lightweights (two vintage lotus racers and a modern aston factory race car) so lots of overlap.

i have been looking for a 944 as well. there’s a great porsche shop across from my workshop so at least it will be convenient.

[tristor]

I love all beaters, not just Japanese ones, but Japanese ones tend to be the best. The lighter the weight, the shorter the wheelbase, the more fun it is, regardless of how much of a shitbox it is.

One of my favorite cars in my past life is the Scion iQ. It's not in my 8, but one day I'll pick one up super cheap and turbo Busa swap it to make something ridiculous. This dude swapped in the drivetrain for a Yamaha R1: https://daveintheusa.com/ and it makes around 180hp (vs stock 106hp) at a lighter weight with higher revs, I think with a turbo Busa swap you should be able to do something similar and make close to 300hp.

I always had a love for the Honda CRX as well. If you make a car light enough and give it decent suspension, it doesn't matter if it's FWD, RWD, AWD, it'll drive good.

I'm hoping once I retire I'll have the time and space to learn how to fabricate composites. I've done a bit before, but I want to get to the point I can make my own dry carbon fiber panels. Like my ideal would be to restomod a bunch of my list of 8, keep them looking fairly stock-ish, but just cut weight like bananas on them. Think carbon fiber body panels but painted so its not stupidly obvious, titanium or aluminum billet components wherever possible, lightest wheels I can manage (Volk CE28Ns or similar), and /excellent/ suspension. I don't even care if I make that much more power than stock on most of these cars, I just want to make a bunch of beater go carts :)

[joshu]

my ae86 is caged and my s13 was a formula D car. they can be amusing

i have a '62 lotus 23, i am tempted to put carbon fiber body panels on it to lower the weight even further (currently ~ 900 lbs)

[tristor]

Wow, if that's a legitimate 23 and not a replica, that's a hell of a car with quite a lot of racing pedigree. Personally I'd be almost afraid to drive it due to its rarity, but I wouldn't be able to resist giving it a good run at my home track. I've always had a love for Lotus, but somewhat at a distance until they started using Toyota engines in the late 90s. Maybe more than any other car company they embody the understanding that power to weight ratio has two variables, as exemplified by the famous quote from their founder "Simplify, then add lightness", and I've always really loved that. It's very much in line with my own thinking about cars and why the lighter a car is usually the more I love the feel of driving it. The Lotus Exige S makes my list because it has every bit of that design pedigree but the reliability of a Toyota drive train :). I'm not sure I'd want to actually try to campaign any of the non-Toyota powered Lotus cars, heh.

What's it like around the track in a 23? 900 pounds is already incredibly light. Unfortunately it would be impossible to meet modern safety standards while following the same design, but if you applied modern materials science to the car I wonder how much weight you could really save. Even in the 60s on the Lotus 23 they were using magnesium alloy drivetrain components and wheels, space frame chassis with lightweight skinning for body panels, and other techniques we still rely on. I would guess you wouldn't cut that much weight using carbon fiber body panels, maybe another 40 pounds or so at maximum perhaps? You'd probably pick up more speed by modifying it to accept wider tires and increasing the track width slightly, like some of the later replicas.

I think you and I would have fun in a garage wrenching over a few beers, glad to see there's others out there that appreciate the joys of lightweight beaters :)