A Porsche 911. These have been my dream cars since I was old enough to drive. I recall thumbing through magazines in the late ’60s when the Porsche 911 was fairly new. It’s straight line performance paled in comparison to the muscle cars of the day, but I loved reading about how well it handled in the twisties. To me, driving on curves at high speed, back and forth through the twisties, accelerating hard and breaking hard sounded like a lot more fun than driving fast in a straight line. I still feel that way. And it’s fun to drive a car to the limit which today, with all of the electronic gizmos on board, is virtually impossible on city streets.
So we come to my second car — a classic Datsun 240-z that can be had, well-restored, for considerably less than $100,000. And I’m not talking about the 260 or 280 of later manufacture, but the 240 that first came out in 1970. It was shorter and not as powerful, but it allowed you to drive closer to the limits of the car. The same could be said for the likes of a Triumph TR-6, an MGB and even the first generation Mazda RX-7 of which I’ve own a 1979 and a 1981.
Some drivers don’t car much for the early Mazda RX-7’s feeling of “rubber band” power inherint in the rotary engine. With such a small displacement - 1.3-liter – it didn’t have the low end torque to come off the line, but wound up once the rpms picked up. To me, that’s what made it fun, as if a turbo was kicking in, yet it didn’t have the breakdown problems of this era’s turbochargers. And, as you can see in the adjacent advertisement, it was compared to early MGs, Corvettes and the Datsun 240-z. What set the RX-7 apart from the others was a nice large rear hatch that easily held my golf clubs.
For a classic car, how can you beat a 1957 Corvette? All it needs is the 283-cubic inch V-8, which was fast enough in a car this size, allowing you to drive near its limit. 
But, to me, this is all about looks with the single headlights, contrasting color side coves and optional “bubble” hardtop. I salivate just looking at one. The problem is, a lot of folks love these cars, too, which means you’ve got spend about $100,000 to buy a perfect example. (I found them online for $55,000 to $110,000.) That’s a lot of money for a 52-year-old car, but it would make me extremely happy. And, of course, it would have to be red with that red bubble top as pictured here.
By all means, this isn’t the end of cars I’d put in my dream garage. Soon we’ll visit newer cars I’d buy with 100 grand. In the meantime, check out the fastest cars for under $100,000 as listed in Forbes Magazine.
1 Comment
March 31, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Good piece.