Fast car / sports car thats manufactured in Thailand / not outrageously expensive

[BuffaloRescue]

Ive got 300k - 1m baht to spend on a car.

Im looking for something fast. I was looking for Subaru wrx and Lancer evos of 12-20 years old, for this money.

 

I tried to find out if there are any hot hatch or sporty cars that are actually manufactured in Thailand and therefor available for a reasonable price. Im not looking for a rally car necessarily. Id prefer to have something more modern with ABS etc. Looking for 250+ horse power

[Henryford]

Why do you want fast? my average speed around Pattaya is 14mph.

[shady86]

You can get the 8th gen Civic FD and drop in the Type R engine or the Subaru, Lancer.

[Dagnabbit]

3 hours ago, Henryford said:

Why do you want fast? my average speed around Pattaya is 14mph.

It's not the top-end speed - but acceleration.

 

You know - getting to 14mph as quickly as possible...

[mortenaa]

Its popular to rebuild older BMW's with Supra-engines. Eg E30 or a newer E46. Cost of the engine, gearbox and rebuild should be around 2-300K. 

 

My friend did this with a 5-series. Its crazy fast!

[Techno Viking]

1 hour ago, Dagnabbit said:

It's not the top-end speed - but acceleration.

 

You know - getting to 14mph as quickly as possible...

A 10 year old Vigo with a built twin turbo 1UZ will sort the acceleration issue and be well within the OP' budget !!

[mortenaa]

2 hours ago, Techno Viking said:

A 10 year old Vigo with a built twin turbo 1UZ will sort the acceleration issue and be well within the OP' budget !!

A Vigo offers absolutely no characteristics of a fast car / sports car.

[Techno Viking]

Just now, mortenaa said:

A Vigo offers absolutely no characteristics of a fast car / sports car.

And yet I was reply to a comment about acceleration. thanks for your misguided input though.

[giddyup]

Nissan Patrol outguns Porsche 918.

 

 

 

 

[connda]

Just what Thailand doesn't need: fast sports cars to accommodate the highly aggressive driving habits of its natives.  

[thaiguzzi]

Buy a motorcycle....

[HooHaa]

10 hours ago, Henryford said:

Why do you want fast? my average speed around Pattaya is 14mph.

indeed.

perhaps your experience is not universal.

[tandor]

11 hours ago, Henryford said:

Why do you want fast? my average speed around Pattaya is 14mph.

...any faster, all the bar girls will look the same.

[JAS21]

We have a gassed Mazda Lantis ... I guess if you light the back bit it will go like <deleted> 

[giddyup]

2 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

Buy a motorcycle....

..and live on borrowed time.

[CLW]

New top end models of Subaru or Civic Type R

[Roymac]

Another guy with a small winkie, shame !

[canthai55]

Not made here, but available. Ticks all your boxes. Friend had one in Canada. Quick.

Called in the West 3000 GT VR4 - twin turbo V6 AWD

 

http://market.doorot.com/EN/new-used/car/mitsubishi/3000-gto

[LivinLOS]

15 hours ago, mortenaa said:

Its popular to rebuild older BMW's with Supra-engines. Eg E30 or a newer E46. Cost of the engine, gearbox and rebuild should be around 2-300K. 

 

My friend did this with a 5-series. Its crazy fast!

This.. 

 

E30, SR20DET or 2JZ.. Skyline diffs.. And its fast, if not that special.. 

 

Dress up Pandem / Rocketbunny or M3 panels are not unusual. Theres a very nice salmon orange v8 one running around bangkok. 

[4MyEgo]

My wife has that 250 + exhilarating horse power and will get you there in no time, but she's not for sale, giddy up !!!

[Jimbo in Thailand]

8 hours ago, giddyup said:

..and live on borrowed time.

So true giddyup, but that applies to all of us putting our lives in Buddha's hands driving whatever [fill in the blank ] vehicle here in LOS. 

[giddyup]

30 minutes ago, Jimbo in Thailand said:

So true giddyup, but that applies to all of us putting our lives in Buddha's hands driving whatever [fill in the blank ] vehicle here in LOS. 

I do feel a bit safer behind the wheel of a pickup than I would do on a motorbike, and you only have to take a look at road deaths in Thailand to see who's the most vulnerable.

[mike324]

Your best bet would be a 10 year old WRX Sti which can be found for around or under 1 million. Or older WRX models for around 600-800 and throw in more money to tune it to 300-400hp. I would just get a wrx sti and be done with it, there are garages specializing in WRX, so fixing isn't really a problem as well.

 

I don't recommend you rebuild a car unless you have a spare car and will be here long term, there will be many problems but if you don't mind fixing it yourself or bringing in to the garage, then go for it.

 

But it really depends what you want other than 250+hp, its more of what type of car shape you like. You can easily make cars go 250hp with an engine swap.

[Shiver]

Before I got here I was itching to get an F355.  The moment I got here and saw the roads that dream died.

 

Now I'd prefer to be more discreet than when I was testosterone laden, and thinking of a Focus that nobody would look twice at, but since it's turbo and you can remap the ECU here, it could still get you out of trouble.

If you were considering an old Honda Type R then I would go Integra rather than Civic, similar performance but OMG can you have fun drifting it on corners.

 

Sure there must be some Skylines around here if you want a project car.

[Techno Viking]

3 minutes ago, Shiver said:

If you were considering an old Honda Type R then I would go Integra rather than Civic, similar performance but OMG can you have fun drifting it on corners.

 

Aren't they front wheel drive ?

[Shiver]

1 hour ago, Techno Viking said:

Aren't they front wheel drive ?

Yeah, FWD, but you can get it to drift (weight is on the front) with steering more than throttle only (that is to say; you use throttle so the front keeps up rather than rear throttled where you do the steering). The Civic understeers like most FWD do.  I'm talking about maybe 2000 model or similar year.  Civic to me just didn't feel alive (even though it was one of, if not 'the' quickest stock hot hatch at the time If I recall).

 

Integra wasn't the quickest car, but it was a lot of fun.

 

Since the above thread I looked at SuperChips website, and that'll take a Focus 1.5 to ~205hp and 303Nm torque which kicks in around 1500rpm and goes near vertical.  Tiny engine so would imagine it spins up easy enough, and can be a family car when you want it to be..

 

It's a shame they don't make any 'interesting' cars here, they have to be imported.

[Techno Viking]

32 minutes ago, Shiver said:

Yeah, FWD, but you can get it to drift (weight is on the front) with steering more than throttle only (that is to say; you use throttle so the front keeps up rather than rear throttled where you do the steering). The Civic understeers like most FWD do.  I'm talking about maybe 2000 model or similar year.  Civic to me just didn't feel alive (even though it was one of, if not 'the' quickest stock hot hatch at the time If I recall).

 

Integra wasn't the quickest car, but it was a lot of fun.

 

Since the above thread I looked at SuperChips website, and that'll take a Focus 1.5 to ~205hp and 303Nm torque which kicks in around 1500rpm and goes near vertical.  Tiny engine so would imagine it spins up easy enough, and can be a family car when you want it to be..

 

It's a shame they don't make any 'interesting' cars here, they have to be imported.

Yeah sounds boring, drifters are rear wheel drive.

[Shiver]

9 hours ago, Techno Viking said:

Yeah sounds boring, drifters are rear wheel drive.

One time I recall the owner of the Integra sliding it around a motorway roundabout in the rain above motorway speed limit with Police on the inside and him saying "not to worry, this isn't classed as part of the motorway". Sure enough they didn't do anything.

 

It's just a different technique that's all. You just come into the corner faster, stomp the brake momentarily and turn inward to get it off balance, the put the wheels where you want them to be and swing-a-roo right around it.  I say it's not quick (in terms of power) but as a point to point car it took some beating at that time.

 

 

 

[jay1980]

I had the same problem, I wanted a car with the performance of a fun hot hatch that would be affordable in the west, but because of the tax structure for imports is  overpriced and rare in Thailand.

 

In the end I could find nothing suitable in my budget, so I swapped out the stock engine and gearbox in my standard 2005 Mitsubishi lancer for a very free revving JDM spec Mivec Engine with a manual close ratio gearbox and LSD, swapped the suspension for coil-overs and upgraded the brakes.

 

My main aim was to make a fun car to drive, not a monster only good for the drag strip  so I did not go for a full Evo spec engine but if I had wanted that it would not have cost much more.

 

I had all the work done at an independent garage in BKK  who specialize in Mitsubishi's.

 

The car cost me 200K a couple of years ago and I did the conversion earlier this year all in (including putting in a new clutch, all new belts etc) for a little under 100K.

 

I now have an almost stock looking car that is fast enough to be fun, is practical for every day use, so far has been totally reliable, does not draw the wrong sort of attention and most importantly is fun to drive.

 

Anyone who says it is not worth having a fun sporty car in Thailand needs to get out of the cities there are some great driving roads in Thailand!

[Techno Viking]

This has potential to be a fun fast car.

 

Ralliart Tarmac Pro 4g63t engine in a 3rd Gen mazda 3, currently FWD but I believe the Thai guy that owns it will be doing an AWD conversion as well.