Alright, I am meeting a guy who is appearently going to have his bank check ready to buy my Explorer so I have been looking at local classified for anything that caught my eye, anything cheap until I can get the EVO. I found a 1997 Eclipse GS-T, 5 spd, new paint, 75k, silver for $6,800... I thought it was a good price so I called, it has NEVER been modded in any way, owned by two females... Though I swore I would never buy a female owned car I think there are pros to it in this case, no young guns to beat on it.

I worry about crank walk however, the husband says it is in perfect condition and is not really even driven, it just is not practical for them any more, it is her car. I would like to have it but as I said I am worried about the issues that are possible, and CW is not fun... it seems to be a car cancer for the 2g and there are a few solutions but this car would stay close to stock and would just be something nice for me to bomb around in for about a year until I get my EVO, I have also considered some $5,000 cars, used Civics, Integras, N/A DSM etc etc, not to be fast but just something good on gas, stick and something I won't have a hard time selling to get into the EVO, something that will sell pretty quick... this one caught my eye.

I'd probobly end up with a TBE, CAI and some cosmetic things... though if I got really ambitious I could turn that car into a project, I will have a large load of cash comming out of training, which I was initially going to put down on an EVO but the same powerplant should mean similar gains... I could take that $3000-$4,000 and put it into an 80,000 mile 2g Turbo DSM, I could get a fast car with the... HKS 272 cams, TBE, CAI, SAFC-II blah blah blah. Well that is a whole other monster, right now I want to focus on weather or not this car should be safe.

I have a friend with a 420hp MR that had a very fast TSi previously, he should be able to give me a good assessment, is there a mileage range where if it has not happened it probobly won't??? I just really do not want to adopt problems and pay for them.

 

Get the civic, dont dump anymoney into it, and when you get the money buy an evo. Not worth dumping money into a 2g gst IMO for a couple reasons that I do not feel like explaining. Crank walk is made out to be like evo clutches... but it really doesnt happened to everyone.

 

My ultimate goal is the EVO, whatever car I pick up now is just a stepping stone from my Explorer, the reason I was selling the Explorer is because... 1. I don't need 4 wheel drive 2. I don't NEED the space 3. Most off, I do not need to pay what I pay for gas... all in all I am spending more than I need to spend for transportation and driving down to the track with buddies down right sucks weather the car I will have will be reasonably quick or not it's better than going down in an Explorer. I thought of Turbo DSM because it's cheap, quick and it looks sweet for now... I have thought of Integras, Civics, Celicas, Turbo DSM etc etc, something fairly quick/ fun to drive, something that would hold its value and something $6k or less, no need to dumb a load of cash on the cost of the car when it will be sold in a year.

 

Dood you could buy a 90-92(early model) 1G FWD for close to peanuts, maybe $1,500

No issues with crankwalk, and if you take care of it maintenance wise it'll last forever. Best part is, you wouldn't have to sell it for the Evo because it's so cheap..

I bought my 1992 Talon Tsi AWD for $2,000, drove it home, been modding it here and there for a few pennies. Two years later, I buy my 05 Evo RS. I still have my Talon, and now it's my racing project. Can't go wrong having two cars just in case either.

Edit: BTW I bought a 1990 FWD Eclipse GS-T about 4 years ago. After I did some maintenance and a tune up(timing belt, spark plugs, wires, a couple sensors, new tires), it ran 14.0 at 99 mph with only 17 psi and nothing done to it. FYI, my Evo ran 14.1 @ 98.5 with about 1500 miles on it.