Jump to content

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


Recommended Posts

18 hours ago, Shiver said:

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

 

That made me laugh.  I had the same idea about a 458 until the wife told me she wants to learn how to drive.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites


7 hours ago, jay1980 said:

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!

Sounds like a great result.  One of the benefits I guess of living in BKK is that you can have competent engineers. 'up north' I don't know anywhere that could do a job like that.  I assumed I'd have to do it myself, though I'm not tooled up (and it isn't my main skill set either).

GF wants to learn to drive, and I'd really like her to be able to use a manual gearbox, but they seem to be dying out these days.  I did say to her "you *will* crash your first car, so why not make your new car your second car?"

"Me? The 13th Duke of Wynburn? at a French maids finishing school? 3 o'clock in the morning?  with my reputation?.......Bingo!"

Isaan version "I want a new car not and old car,  I'm up levelling".

 

I guess that means if it's going to be new then it'll be auto parking, auto warning, auto changing, auto vicinity alert, auto servicing and bluetooth text2speech for LINE.....and a cushion for the boutique dog.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 7/18/2017 at 1:41 PM, Dagnabbit said:

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

 

For me it is about the driving and the cornering g-force. Everything else is secondary. A true "sports" car is about the complete experience not simply light-to-light straight line acceleration. Better to look good than be good only woks for skiing!

 

Not related to g-force or true sports cars but if the OP is interested in anything Volvo then I know the guy for the job. C30 with parts from an 850 turbo wagon? If the high spec T5 ever came here it had 230 hp from the factory. Even the wagon has 230-250 hp from the factory.

 

Edited by VocalNeal
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Been there...done that! Also fast is relativ and the perception changes quite a bit. Like drive 150 in an S class or a Mini...trust me the Mini "feels" faster and fun.

 

I have two fun cars: A Mini R53 JCW GP, special edition, 218hp and manual gear. It's a bit more hard-core than my other fun car a Citroen DS3 150THP, which uses a Mini Cooper S turbo engine in different tune. Also manual coz fun without manual is hard to achieve and you don't need 400hp for it.

I am tempting to sell one of them but not in a hurry or 100% certain I want to. Mini around 1.1m and DS3 680k....

Edited by frankphuket
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.








×
×
  • Create New...