Top new production sporty cars for the money - under 100 K

[AMoore]

A few suggestions:

New Camaro - beautiful - good performance expected - a little heavy -  May have to buy one and hope it doesn't come with negative stigma.

New Challenger - I think a little more bland than the Camaro- Can't go wrong with a hemi- more likely to be collectable since fewer will be produced.

Nissan GTR - amazing performance even though heavy.  Looks are not its best attribute.  Interior is nice.

Corvette ZR1 - amazing performance, looks better than base model, not as good on the track as the Z06, but faster overall.

Porsche Panorama - Will this be under 100K?  Never really a fan of the Cayenne since it is not a sports car but the Panorama is more of a GT car which have been made in the past by Maserati and Ferrari and Porsche (928).  Don't know much about performance yet.

Saturn Sky - nice lines, fair performance with supercharged model, good price.

Pontiac Solstice - see above but with fewer edges - nice curves.

BMW 135 - typical BMW appearance, don't fix if ain't broke. Lots of HP for a small car. Terific performance.  expensive for an entry level model.

Any other suggestions?

 

 

 

[ccm911]

Mini - John Cooper Works edition.  Just a breathtaking car in every way.

[APXD 30]

Uh....Cayman S?

[Darren]

The 135i is THE tuner car for the next 20 years!  A friend of mine bought the 335i and spent a couple of grand to get it up to about 400 rwhp and 400 ft lbs of torque! It's the same motor as the 135i, so I'm expecting we'll see the same thing on those cars.

Not only are the numbers impressive, but look how early it gets to max torque! And it just stays there, flat curve all the way to 5500 rpm -- where at that point the HP really matters and it's just flat on from there.

There is no lag and the power makes the car take off like a jet.  Below is the dyno chart -- details on what he did to the car is here:

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=104677

[AMoore]

APXD 30 wrote:

Uh....Cayman S?

New model?

[George3]

Nissan GTR - Track Version
A bit of a porker at 3800 lbs, but a screaming machine.
Nissan is planning a lighter track version of the GTR in Jan 2009.
This should prove to be the car to have.  Right now my dealer is selling the standard GTR at $20K over MSRP.  I hate when they do that.

Lotus Sport Exige Cup 255
This go-kart on wheels has awesome handling and 255 super-charged horsepower and weighs in at only 2077 lbs !!!  That's an incredible power to weight ratio.... do the math.  Sub 4-second 0-60 times. A real drivers car. 

Z06
Only because of its superb value for the money.

[Darren]

The Elise was supposed to be a great drivers car also but I've never seen a particularly fast one at the track.  They are light but I think because of the short wheel base they rotate very easily and I've seen many of them in accidents at different DE events.  They must be a challenge to drive well.  I'd expect the same out of the Exige.

 

[Brian Minkin]

George3 wrote:

Nissan GTR - Track Version
A bit of a porker at 3800 lbs, but a screaming machine.
Nissan is planning a lighter track version of the GTR in Jan 2009.
This should prove to be the car to have. Right now my dealer is selling the standard GTR at $20K over MSRP. I hate when they do that.

Lotus Sport Exige Cup 255
This go-kart on wheels has awesome handling and 255 super-charged horsepower and weighs in at only 2077 lbs !!! That's an incredible power to weight ratio.... do the math. Sub 4-second 0-60 times. A real drivers car.

Z06
Only because of its superb value for the money.

I spoke with a Nissan Dealer this week who is receiving 2 GTR's and claims to have sold both at $50,000 over sticker.

[michael lang]

Darren those number for the BMW that you posted are pretty impressive. I would think that there will become a heavy track following in that car once they get a few years on them and some miles to drop the prices down.

I don't really follow BMWs that much but I would imagine that there are probably alot of mods out there for those cars, especially under the 'M' nominclature. I wonder if dealerships are capitalizing on that market. I have been trying to convince my dealership to open an AMG Salon. With all of the performance modifications available for the AMG cars an owner can turn a basic 'C' Class into a DTM series racecar. 

[michael lang]

Brian Minkin wrote:

I spoke with a Nissan Dealer this week who is receiving 2 GTR's and claims to have sold both at $50,000 over sticker.

I remember in 1999 the CLK first came out with the 113 engine (V8), it was a very nice car, not astonishing but a nice car. No car manufacturer at the time had anything like it. Here in Washington, D.C. Mercedes Benz dealerships were getting anywhere from 15k-20k over MSRP. I had several clients that had ordered the vehicle anywhere from 12-18 months in advance to avoid the ADM. Once the car came in, they would take delivery of the car and have it flatbedded to there house. They would then sell the car for additional 5k-10k on top of what dealers were selling them for becaue there was next to no availability of the car and people were almost desperate to own one. Absolutely nuts!! But it happened. Funny thing is that my three clients that did that came from the same circle of friends.

But to stay on topic, I think the new Dodge will do the trick for alot of people. Especially if they buy it with the Hemi. Watch out for Smart, that my friends is the next VW Beetle.