Top 10 Project Cars For $10,000
By OR Staff, Photography courtesy of manufacturers
Going quick for cheap is one of the tenants of The Octane Report. Our old Project Civic went up against Lancer Evos regularly at the track and our daily driven Project Evo 9 goes up against 600hp monsters at the time attack races. We’re all about trying to get the most out of our dollar and figuring out how to run with the big boys using a small boy budget. Sure, we and all of our readers could just go and buy 911 GT3s (um, actually we can’t – Ed.) but where’s the fun in that?
Everybody wants to build a Le Mans Prototype but has a budget to work with. Cue the birth of the project car. A project car is all about the cursing, over-your-head budget, and time spent under the hood. They’re bought used, worked on for countless hours, and then put up against competitors that cost more than twice as much. The classic David and Goliath story.
But don’t lose hope just yet. A rewarding and fun to drive machine can be built for less than $10k, if you know what you’re doing and where to look. Our list below, in no particular order, is merely to get your gears turning and your own dreams going. As most OR readers are inclined to roll up their sleeves and dig into their projects themselves, we aren’t factoring labor fees into these project car builds. Making this list wasn’t easy either, there are just too many choices out there. These are the kinds of projects that will cause your friends to gather in the garage for hours, so enlist their labor when you can. And, if you find that you don’t have any friends, these projects will prove to be so fast, you can smoke all those jerks that refused to help you in the first place.
1. Mazda Miata (LSx series V8 engine swap)
Still one of the most lightweight and fun to drive mass produced rear-wheel drive cars. They’re on the streets, horde like zombies at the track, and even pop up on the drifting circuit. Go to any city in the US and you’re bound to be able to find a good condition used Mazda Miata for cheap. And by cheap we mean anywhere from $500-$3000. Remember, Ebay and Craigslist are your crack-feeding friends. A quick search reveals about six very nice, affordably priced, manual Miatas within a half-hour radius of the OR office.
The only issue with the Miata, beyond the whole girly reputation thing, is a massive lack of power. We appreciate the low curb weight but seriously, the car is slow with the stock engine. Less than 100hp sucks. But V8 Roadsters has come up with an engine swap kit, sold by Flyin’ Miata. Any 1990-2005 Miata can use this bolt-in kit to fit an all-aluminum Chevy LSx (meaning LS1, LS6, LS9, etc.) eight-cylinder engine and six-speed transmission. One of the greatest things that American manufacturers have developed in recent years, the small block LS series is the classic pushrod V8 pushed to its modern limit. The Mazda gains less than 200lbs in the conversion with 1/3 of that weight on the rear wheels. Some will cry foul at the crossbreeding combination but 400hp and 2200lbs sounds pretty good to us.
Contact: Flyin’ Miata
E30 BMW all the way. I’d go with a turbo M50though.
You guys forgot the 300zx on this list.
I’d take that V8 Miata any day of the week.
A c4vette? Are you serious? Lackluster power, magnum pi looks and poor handling. Better off waiting for the c5 to come down in price.