Mars_302: The Mach1 is faster. This comes from guys who've raced Mustangs for the last 5 years and had Bullits, and then bought Mach1s. They're faster. I don't know why exactly, but they are.

The SS goes to BS.



The 350Z and RX8 should now be pretty competitive in the new BS. BUt if you're worried about straight line performance, I don't see how you can say yes to a RX8 and no to a 330ci or IS300. They're fairly close...

 

Miatas are great. They're hard to resist, but convertibles just aren't my thing.
Neon? I'm tempted to say something disparaging, but I won't. Okay, I can't help it!

Yeah, I can imagine they are expensive to maintain. I was just trying to make the point that you can buy vehicles perceived as expensive or impractical for less than you think, but you should expect to make concessions.

I'm not sure I'd say yes to a RX-8. I was just surprised nobody brought it up. But you are correct. I would've unjustifiably thought about it before the BMW. Thanks for setting me straight. Straight line performance isn't everything, but power in reserve is nice, huh? Of the 4 cars you mentioned the BMW sounds the most appealing. I have a friend with a new 330 with some kind of performance package. Of all things, I pine for its M3 steering wheel the most. By the way, I did check, and you can get a 2001 for around 22k. You orginally said "300Ci". Did you mean 330Ci? Or is this 300Ci some kind of technical specification?

Speaking of Nissan... The 350Z is the car that I practically have set in my mind. It has all that power, and agility to boot. I made this post because I've become too single-minded.

 

330Ci is what I meant.


You said competitive, but you didn't say WHERE you want it to be competitive. Locally, or bigger stuff. Locally, get whatever floats your boat, and if you can drive, you'll be in the running. If you have bigger aspirations, get a proven model.

I don't like 350Z's, but that's me. It's an unpractical japanese camaro without as much power IMO.... but whatever floats your boat.

 

What is it about you and japanese camaros?

 

hush you!

 

Is a M3 a Bavarian Camaro?

I figured I'd get a lot more suggestions than this. Anyone else have any input?

 

How about an Australian Camaro?
http://autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?car_id=178713839

 

You said it yourself.

plus tons of aftermarket support, including extremely well engineered suspension options, great powertrain...

You know what I would pick

 

You said "COMPETITIVE". That limits the choices greatly. If you want a fun coupe in your price range, that's a different ballgame, but you said competitive. There are only 9 stock classes. And within each of those, there's only usually at most 2-3 cars that are really competitive. And then you further narrowed it down with it having to be in a certain price range (byebye SS), non-convertible (byebye AS, CS, ES), RWD (byebye HS, GS), and less than 4 years old(byebye BS). You're only 2 choices are DS and FS, and those I gave the top cars in each of those classes that coincide with your criteria.

If you don't like the choices, maybe then you should post in the general chat section.