Most Reliable Cheap Race Cars Options

[twistedsymphony]

I have an automatic news aggregation setup on the forum for my local car club... it grabs stuff related to the 240SX from a number of different websites.

it recently pulled a REALLY interesting article from Jalopnik
http://jalopnik.com/5450420/results-of-the...ble-500-beaters

if you've never heard of the 24 hours of LeMons it's like the 24 hours of LeMans but for junker cars... people mock them up like demo derby rigs and it's mostly to see which old junkers end up being the most reliable.

they run them about once a month and Jalopnik basically compiled all the data from the last 2 years of races to figure out which cars ended up being the most reliable.

I was really happy to see that the 240SX ended up 5th overall... and when you consider that they don't sell Alfa's in the US of the cars available to me it's the 3rd best overall, and the 2nd best out of the RWD options available...

#1 Volvo 240
#2 Alfa Romeo Milano
#3 Saturn S Series
#4 Alfa Romeo Alfetta
#5 Nissan 240SX


Anyway, people looking for a dirt DIRT cheap performance car that will survive the torture test... it's a really worth while article (even include a downloadable spreadsheet so you can play with the data yourself)

[jesterrace777]

Being a former Saturn owner I have a hard time buying that anything that they made fits under the "reliable" list. I'm not sorry to see them gone.

[twistedsymphony]

everyone I know personally who owned an SL2 has raved about how reliable the power-plant is... I don't know about their other vehicles.

of course there always exceptions. the 240sx is up there... the Nissan KA24 has a good reputation as a super-reliable 300K + motor yet I've got one friend who's blown 3 of them and without doing anything to them other than commuting.

This post has been edited by twistedsymphony: Feb 17 2010, 08:38 PM

[StrictPuppet]

I've got one friend who's blown 3 of them and without doing anything to them other than commuting.

Maybe thats the problem.... you have to change the oil once in awhile....

[SniperKilla]

Being a former Saturn owner I have a hard time buying that anything that they made fits under the "reliable" list. I'm not sorry to see them gone.

Really? I have a 95 SOHC SL1 automatic as my daily driver/winter beater... 220,000 miles and still going strong. 40mpg on the highway still, no complaints here.

Sure it doesn't have much of an oil ring left in cylinder 4, fouls the plug every 10k or so and burns a half qt every 1,000 miles but whatever