Educate me about small vintage cars (MGs, Triumphs, etc)

[Fenixgoon]

Originally Posted by ballmode

just get any miata and save yourself the headache

miata is fat by comparison

[JCH13]

Originally Posted by Fenixgoon

miata is fat by comparison

Look up the curb weights. You might be surprised how a 2,100lb NA Miata stacks up. My turbo Miata weighed in at 2,080lb with a hardtop on it and a roll bar.

[Meghan54]

Originally Posted by Zap

Speaking of small vintage cars... I saw two last few weeks in San Diego.

First one was an old Mini Cooper with a sticker on the back window that said something like "Yes it is RHD." Yup, right hand drive. It had some more modern looking aftermarket wheels on it.

Second one was just yesterday morning. It was a Volkswagen of some kind, also RHD. It was 2-door, boxy and had a trunk, and looked vaguely like a BMW 2002 but maybe smaller. It had more modern wheels/tires, and was slammed.

Wonder if the VW you saw was a Type 3 notchback. Not really the most common VW in the U.S.

[Fenixgoon]

Originally Posted by JCH13

Look up the curb weights. You might be surprised how a 2,100lb NA Miata stacks up. My turbo Miata weighed in at 2,080lb with a hardtop on it and a roll bar.

i thought miata was closer to 2300? hmmm

from my autocross forum, the my sense of everyone's responses is "you will definitely need your own garage to constantly work on these things" but "they are also hella fun"

[_Rick_]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_Romeo_Spider

*walks off whisteling innocently

...I wonder if on average those are worse or better than the British roadsters

[JCH13]

Originally Posted by Fenixgoon

i thought miata was closer to 2300? hmmm

from my autocross forum, the my sense of everyone's responses is "you will definitely need your own garage to constantly work on these things" but "they are also hella fun"

Depends heavily on what year and options. The 'book' weight on a no-options Miata is 2,116lbs. A fully optioned Mazdaspeed Miata is around 2,450lbs.

I believe a base NA Miata can be lightened to around 2,000lbs or less with no real sacrifices to comfort. Lighter wheels, a lighter SS exhaust (also eliminates heat shields), remove some unneeded manifold braces, clean out the trunk, and you're good to go.

[JulesMaximus]

Originally Posted by _Rick_

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_Romeo_Spider

*walks off whisteling innocently

...I wonder if on average those are worse or better than the British roadsters

The Series 1 Spider Duetto is an absolutely beautiful car. Much better looking than the square back Spiders of later years. I covet those like you wouldn't believe but good luck finding one.

[oldsmoboat]

Originally Posted by JulesMaximus

The Series 1 Spider Duetto is an absolutely beautiful car. Much better looking than the square back Spiders of later years. I covet those like you wouldn't believe but good luck finding one.

Live the dream

[JulesMaximus]

Originally Posted by oldsmoboat

Live the dream

Nice!

I went on autotrader classics, ebay, and craigslist this morning and tried to find one for sale anywhere in the U.S. I found 1 in Los Angeles, asking price is $11,750 and it is in need of a full restoration. Poorly repaired damage on the nose, missing parts of the grill, dull paint, it desparately needs a new top, it has tan seats but red carpet and some of the carpets are missing, body looks fairly straight and the ad says it is in good mechanical shape but who knows for sure.

[lakedude]

Originally Posted by ballmode

just get any miata and save yourself the headache

^this

Most all of those vintage cars had reliability issues when they were NEW. Do you think the passing of years has made them better?