From: Burns, James B. <James.Burns@jhuapl.edu>
>A co-worker is looking for a pre-1975 project car. Pre-'75 will allow him
>to register it as a historic car in Maryland and not worry about smog and
>other inspections. He wants something pretty quick, with handling a higher
>priority than power, but is also concerned about the cost of restoration,
>donor car availability, reliability, and factory and aftermarket parts
>support. Plans to use it a general fun toy car for commuting on nice days
>and maybe some autox and track days. Here is a list I came up with. Any
>other good suggestions?
>6. Sprite/Midget (tiny and slow?, getting expensive as collector cars)
Spridgets are not getting that expensive. The "Bugeye/Frogeye" body-style
is the one that is getting the "collector" treatment. Spridgets have about
the best steering in any car. Watch out for rust, as these are among the
first monocoque roadsters. You may need early-model seats regardless of the
year car, to be able to fit, especially if you put in a roll bar.
>7. Spitfire (same comments as #6?)
Never liked the rear suspension in these things.
>8. Triumph TR6 (another one of my personal favorites)
The IRS is interesting. It has some problems with binding under power, and
the camber changes are annoying. I decided to get a TR4 because the
Hotchkiss rear end is simple (Simple? It's bloody primitive!) and I'm not
interested in stalling a 30-ton press to change wheel bearings. A local
britcar expert built a TR250 with a TR4A solid axle suspension for these
reasons. Other reasons I went with the TR4 were that: My wife wanted a rag
top, and I didn't feel like cutting the roof off the Lotus. I wanted to get
not older than 1975, but older than 1965 to meet the requirements of the
MSRA so that we could go to the Saturday-and-Sunday-night Classic Cruisers
downtown and also the huge Back to the Fifties (yeah, I know the math looks
weird) weekend at the fairgrounds. Would you believe an event with 10,000
cars? Spridgets that old have side-curtains, and Sue wanted roll-up
windows. A nice TR4 came along at substantially less than 10K, and it fit
the requirements.
I plan on doing some autocrossing in Street Prepared. If you wanted to do
track days, you would likely need a roll bar in either the TR4 or TR6.
>I'm sure there are others such as some Alfas and Fiats, maybe even some old
>Toyota Corollas and Celicas, but I don't know much about them. I
personally
>would probably choose the 240Z or 2002, but it might be tough to find ones
>that aren't rusted out.
Don't get too much of a project. Get the best car you can afford. It will
cost less in the end. You still will find things to fiddle with...
Phil Ethier Saint Paul Minnesota USA
1970 Lotus Europa, 1992 Saturn SL2, 1986 Suburban, 1962 Triumph TR4 CT2846L
LOON, MAC pethier@isd.net http://www.mnautox.com/
"It makes a nice noise when it goes faster"
- 4-year-old Adam, upon seeing a bitmap of Grandma Susie's TR4.
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