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Somebody beat me to the big property I was working towards, so I've decided to sort of stay put for a while. I'm slowly sort of starting to have a little more money to play with. The Vette is NOT in good running condition right now, it's irritating, and I'm definitely in the phase of life where something is either advancing or it's gone.

It has a cam knock (I hope that's all it is), a clutch that doesn't always disengage fully, brakes are all spongy as hell, interior is pretty tired, and paint is pretty shabby. None of these are huge deals, without doing anything fancy it could probably be pretty nice, relatively speaking, and running well for under $5k. This would be the cheapest thing to do and I'd have something fairly unique.

Or, I could sell it, probably take a hell of a beating on what I put into it, sell the Protege and get something totally new to me and different. Basic parameters are must be reliable, and into the 40k range or so. Wouldn't spend more than that any time soon. My two top candidates are either a C6ZO6, or a Turbo Porsche, if I could find a good condition late model one in that price range. The Porsche has the appeal that it can be a genuine all around, every day, cities, traffic, weather, and still a hoot to drive.

I vote for the C6Z, because I want one. And well, ive seen them in the low 30's for a while now. One at 29.5. The only thing that concerns me with the Z is the valves in the heads, but other than that, I'm very jealous.

It's probably about the best value out of the box used sports car going. And since you can find ones that haven't been prison raped, you can get a pretty decent ride for not a lot of scratch. I don't know anything new in the 30s that even close. My only demerits for the C6Z are that it would be another GM, not exactly rare (neither is the TP) and I'm sort of getting whinny about stick shift for traffic. Mine is heavy and it's annoying after a while. Especially combined with poor warm start idle seek weirdness, which doesn't help.

I love love love the 2015 Turbo Porsche. But that's just a tad more.

Get rid of the “old stuff” and buy the Porsche. You’ve wanted one for a while so, if you can afford it, do it. Yes, the other cars have good memories attached to them but it sounds like they’re turning into nightmares. Don’t let your last words about the Vette be: “Damn, I’m glad that’s gone.”

What about a GTR? I know a few people who bought one in the mid 30's. Heavily modified too.

The thought has crossed my mind, but I assume generally anyway, that heavily modded GT-R in the 30s would have been beat on pretty hard and like the TP, not so cheap to work on when they need it. That's one big upside to the old Vette. Relatively cheap to tweak on. Not Mustang cheap, but a lot less than them foreigners depending on the work needed.

Since you've been wanting a Porsche for quite a while I'd go for it. The only issue as you mentioned is working on it. You know a lot of folks that can help out with your Vette or even C6Z but I doubt you'll have that with the Porsche. Although you probably won't need it with the Porsche.

Lies, this is motorgen, he is afflicted with the same curse as we are.

They will all need work eventually. Which is why I'd stay with the Z. Yes it's light years more advanced than yours, but everything can still be done in a garage.

I don't think it's possible for anyone to have the curse as bad as you and I. Especially you.