Soul Coughing

I built an EG hatch in 2011, and had so much fun doing the body work, engine swap, renewing all the suspension and interior mods. Unfortunately it was flattened during hurricane Sandy, but I ended up getting a R53 Mini and feel it's a more solid, safer, hatch. I've seen at least 3 or 4 AWD K2* swaps on R53 forums and at local meets. Seems you could get a platform that weighs only a little bit more, but can still be built into almost anything you like.

TheDonEffect

Quite the quandary, let's go down it.

McClaren. From what I'm told the mp4 is not the one to get, 650 and 620 sure. They are reasonably well built and all that, but does require some of the exotic car maintenance. Not as bad as the Italians, but it ain't no vette. From what I'm told they do everything pretty well, which means they eventuality get boring. They sorta lack the soul they Italian competition have, and aren't as pragmatic as porsches. You eventually move on from then which may explain their so so resale values.

Gt4 rs. You can get these at msrp but it requires leg work, I know a guy who manages to snag one. I dunno, yeah last ice cayman etc etc and with its price tag it'll always impress the c and c crowd, but for me it's just... overpriced? I loved the gt4 so I'm sure I'll love the rs, but neither car inspired me to do more with my life to afford one or make a dumb decision for. You strike me as a built vs bought guy, the rs screams bought vs built. Porsche literally sells every last personalization piece you can think of on that car so literally adding anything will just "ruin" it. That's the problem with owning collector editions, your sorta pressured to keep it collector grade.

TTRS, great car, fantastic even, but it just feels like you're buying a spec sheet than a car. Unless it was a car that got a chord with you, pass.

NSX which brings me to that, you're sorta also forced to keep it collector grade or follow the trends to keep its best asset in tact: resale value. If it didn't look the way it did no one would care about it today. The s2000 is arguably the better car, and even if you disagree the fact that it's in the conversation just shows you how the nsx as a car, but an icon, aged. Don't get me wrong, love the car, but the reasons I like it aren't the reasons you're looking for, this car is seriously for it show and shine stuff.

86. Like you said you'll be at it on your own. I like this choice alot as it's something I'm considering one day. You'll need to build the entire drivetrain to meet your goals and it still won't have awd. At which point why not do a built gc8?

Because what you really want, Mr eg, is an eg. Now for me, i would back off some, because you don't need a ton of speed to make that thing feel exciting, so I'd sacrifice some of that speed for reliability and usability, kinda like how bizimoto approaches his cars. I think it's sick what you're trying to do, and you like wrenching, if you build it right honestly it's not any less reliable or whatever as owning alot of those exotics. Seeing a clean eg these days in a sea of oversized jelly beans is borderline exotic, like seeing an air cooled Beatles or Morris mini back when we were growing up. Thing is though you really gotta zone in on your focus because if you are planning to do anything competitive, full builds can really get away from you, always better to build a car to a race spec than build a car to your liking than adjust it to race spec. And for the price of that McClaren you could build the eg abs get the c6z to boot! Yeah probably the best dollar for dollar performance bargain, that and the c7. I believe you owned the c5z like me, and they're great cars, but like you said they drive very big and therefore give off a totally different vibe. I love them, of I had to go to race wars that's what I'm taking, but these days I find myself looking the c6gs more. Stock speed after a while you get acclimated. Engineers do such a great job at making these cars so fast yet they don't scare the crap out of you, it's really astonishing. At some point you gotta draw the line and determine where you can have the most fun. Follow me through this clunky metaphor, one of my guilty pleasures is watching street outlaws, good times but it got to a point that they were all just professional race teams with promods that bordered on full fledged dragsters. You saw it in their energy it wasn't fun anymore and the show became unwatchable. Now they're back to actual street cars again and the show is better. In some ways buying hyper cars or building a crazy world beater just gets away from what fun to begin with. In any rate, its amazing what people have been building with the k series and running them fairly reliably too. Seems like everyone build those motor and there's a ton of recipes for turbo setups, and a good number of tuners too.​​​​​​​

WolfpackS2k

Why not a Cayman 4.0 GTS?

Also how is an GT4 RS overpriced at MSRP? It just trounced a Huracan at C&D's Lightning Lap.

Saki GT

It sounds like you want to tinker on something and you might as well go with the Honda.

Everything else is just harder, more complicated, and more expensive.

TheDonEffect

Yeah objectively, the GT4 RS is priced fine especially when you consider the collectability of it. But for me anyway, at that price point, just feels like some other element is missing. The juxtaposition of it though is that on the one hand I'd like it to have more theatre, but on the other hand Porsche's charm is that they're actually very usable.

Jub

I think I'd knock the 86 out of contention unless you just have to have that chassis. To me, they're much like building the S2k to a power level that is multiples of what they were built to be. They also have the disadvantage of costing what a new car costs and I highly doubt the engine is as stout as a stock S2000 and I doubt it can be built to be, within reason. I tend to not trust Subaru engines, even if built, and I don't think that's completely a bias. Pretty much every one I've ever seen do multiple autocross seasons in a boosted one has thrown a rod bearing, even if stock and not even campaigned that seriously. My buddy who I could never get to do autocross for fear of breaking his car threw a rod < 40k miles on a completely stock WRX driven only on the street. Basically, the engine would either need to be massively built or swapped out and I don't even trust the built ones. The 86 trans has also not been known to take power very well and, unless something has drastically changed with the new car, would need to be swapped out if you were building an 86 to the extent of the hypothetical EG. I think the 86 diffs are stronger than S2k diffs but I'm not sure how they'd hold up to the power level you're discussing. Attachment points for subframes and what not do not seem to have been a problem when massively upping power in the S2k chassis but can be in others. I'm not sure how the 86 fares in this regard. If front engine, RWD economy based cars are not your thing, I see no reason to entertain this one unless there's an irrational desire to the platform. The whole drivetrain needs to be ripped out of a brand new car to get to the level of the hypothetical EG.

TheDonEffect

Well, the same can be said about alot of the Honda full builds as well. For instance, did the s2000 suddenly grow bulletproof differentials and transmissions? AP1s still regularly crack retainers and such as well. Not to say the twins have stout, or more stout drivetrains than the s2000, no argument there, but when the desire is 300+whp, all of these cars have failure points.

I'd take a K series over any other four banger if I were to build it out, but at those power levels you're needing some serious build up to be reliable. The boxer orientation just makes things less pleasant to work on, but if the goal is for a fast rwd lightweight car, you could do worse now that, at least for the first gen, you could buy built engines, transmissions, etc.

But EG wants AWD, and light, pretty hard to argue against the EG route when the end game is to not have a DDable street car. But I'll say again maybe a GC build could also work.

I wish I lived in a non smog state, I'd love to do an SR swapped rps13 again and not worry about laws.

Nil-S2k

I don't really have much to add to the conversation except I know a couple of folks around me that owned Mclarens and they wound up getting rid of them pretty quick. They're not the most reliable things in the world.

d16tof22

Get an EG or EK hatch with a simple B series swap to scratch that lightweight high-school itch and then a C6Z. The problem with sinking so much money into a civic is that you're left with something that you don't really want to put miles on because it's either uncomfortable, loud, compromises with no ac/ps/etc., uses special fuel, embarrasses your partner, or can't have a regular mechanic work on if something breaks and you don't feel like doing it yourself. The C6Z does drive big but is only ~3100 lbs, is a comfy cruiser, sounds great, and is relatively cheap to maintain and repair. Budget like $20K to the civic and $40K to the vette and still be way under the cost of an exotic and way less stress.

bruthaboost

It appears you're looking for a project. Tuning by Nick (youtube channel and Canadian tuner) built a 991 k-swap "kit". More power than stock everywhere and the k is cheap enough you can beat on it recklessly. He's taken it to track days and it held together. It has the honda mill for an easy power progression trajectory, and the porsche chassis for creature comforts/curb appeal. He's also working on a Kayman swap, but I haven't seen any updates recently. I'm waiting on the Kayman swap: mid engine, light, and relatively inexpensive. He's using the K engine and trans so if you want a sequential for the K, that's also an option.