Photo: Facebook Marketplace
Happy Friday, everybody. The days are really starting to feel shorter now — I can look out my office window right now on a city darkened by shadows, as the sun nestles behind buildings on its way down to meet the horizon. The midday heat has cooled from the blistering mid-90s to a more pleasant mid-80s. Fall is coming, and soon winter behind it.
But summer isn’t over yet. The days are still beautiful, the nights are still warm, and the time is still here for automotive activities — wrenching, off-roading, track days, whatever your heart fancies. But, of course, you’ll need a suitable vehicle with which to rage against the dying of the season. Maybe something from this list will do — one of this week’s Dopest Cars.
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
I know we’re talking summer vibes here, but this Starlet is truly a car for all seasons. It’s a hatchback, for carrying bags out to your spring vacation; it’s rear-wheel-drive for summer track days; it’s red and gold for autumnal flair; and the interior is candy cane striped for winter. It’s the perfect all-around vehicle.
I briefly toyed with the idea of importing a Starlet in my youth, but it never made sense to go. Maybe for you, though, a manual RWD hatchback does work — especially since you don’t have to import it yourself. Plus, c’mon, you know you want that steering wheel.
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
Is the best version of the worst car good or bad? Do those extremes average out to a car that’s good, bad, or a car that simply is? These are the great questions of our time, questions that may only be solvable through experience. You need to go out and buy a badgood goodbad car, like this modified Caliber SRT4, and tell us the answer.
The seller of this Caliber claims a dyno-tested 400+ horsepower, upgraded suspension, and a custom audio system. The car also has color-matched interior plastic, a Viper logo, and the interior out of a 2008 Dodge Caliber. Is this good or bad? Who’s to say?
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
Yes, you read that right — 180SX, not 240SX. This is the second JDM import on our list, after the Starlet, but this is likely most people’s mental image of those vaunted three letters. Low, wide, aftermarket body kit, Bride seats, Enkei wheels. It’s JDM at its finest.
This is quite possibly my favorite genre of car, really. Take your ‘90s JDM, add some road rash and drift stitching, crank up the boost, and just send it. Have fun. That’s what this car is built for, to be used rather than preserved. Love that in a build.
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
My toxic trait is thinking the MR2 Spyder should be as beloved a track car as the EK Honda Civic. I know this doesn’t make any sense, but think about it: They’re both lightweight, sporty, reliable Japanese two-wheel-drive cars powered by transverse four-cylinder engines. There’s a throughline here.
Folks are even putting 2AR Corolla engines in these, the way everyone and their dentist is shoving K20s into their EKs. We know, from Formula Drift, that the 2AR can handle some real power. Someone build an absolute track monster out of one of these cars, and I think we’ll start to see them taken a little more seriously.
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
Everyone should, at some point in their life, own a deeply sketchy tuner car. Something with a massive turbo, aftermarket gauges that block the stock ones, mismatched wheels, and a rebuilt title. It should be a rite of passage, like those countries that make you do a year of military service when you graduate high school.
This Beemer could be your ticket to sketchy tuner glory. The Marketplace photos show the car with its front bumper, headlights, crash bar, and engine removed, which gives us a hint as to how the car was likely totaled out — a front-end collision. Sure, the ad says “minor dents and scratches,” but they all do.
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
Or, if you want to be boring, I guess you could buy a beautiful S2000 with tasteful aero effects and a nearly-new crate engine. You’d still get high revs, the exciting horsepower, and a chassis that can likely out-handle the driving skill of most non-professionals out there. Maybe even some of the pros.
But is that better than the sketchy BMW? Sure, this Honda will start every time you ask it to, and can be registered in every state, but is that not just a loss of character? Can something be good if it isn’t also bad?
Yes. Yes it can.
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
Do you remember when 2003 350Zs were five grand? I know we like to talk about how expensive GT-Rs, Supras, RX7s, and S2000s have gotten, but these Nissans have nearly doubled in price since I last shopped for them. An ominous sign for all in need of drift missiles.
Even at $9,000, though, what else would you buy for an exciting rear-driven coupe? A Miata loses out on practicality, an FR-S on power. The Z may not be the prettiest car ever penned, but that doesn’t make it bad in any way — the drive is worth the early-aughts face.
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
Okay, I know we’ve been heavy on hatchbacks, but hear me out. Late summer is perfect project car season, when it’s not too hot to spend hours in the garage wrenching away. Why not pick up not one but two project Rabbits? It’s the first of the month, after all.
Head into the garage with your two new projects. Put on some newly-released, day-appropriate music. Vibe with your new Rabbits. And, if you’re lucky, maybe fix them a little too.
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
I’m only now realizing, going through and writing all these blurbs, how close we came to an all-hatchback installment of Dopest this week. Maybe that’s something to hang on too for a future gimmick, a full slideshow based around a single body style. Could be fun.
But, what could possibly top this, the hatchback to end all performance hatchbacks? This is a true, imported, original, JDM, EK9 Honda Civic Type R. The ad doesn’t give much detail beyond that, but do you really need anything else? C’mon now.
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
A Civic and a Land Cruiser in rapid succession — Dopest is back, baby. Concussion who? I don’t know her. I am healed, my pores are cleansed, my crops are watered, I am capable of standing up quickl- hoo boy nope okay maybe not. We’re sitting back down now. Baby steps.
If only I had something as cool, as comfortable, as this Land Cruiser to sit in. The seller claims this Toyota was purchased from a Land Cruiser enthusiast, then stored in a climate-controlled garage. It’s clearly been used — the scuffs inside the cargo area can attest to that — but it’s also clearly been cared for. Good truck.
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
I love the idea of a vehicle this old that’s still being regularly used. We’re talking a 76-year-old Jeep here, and it’s just casually parked at the gas station like a five-year-old Corolla. Someone drives this — likely regularly, given that they replaced aesthetically pleasing sealed-beam headlights with ugly-but-functional LED units. It could even be a daily.
Can you imagine dailying any other 76-year-old machine? A computer, a phone, even a bicycle from that time? We’ve had so many leaps in technology, in manufacturing, yet this Jeep is still just trucking along.
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
Sure, this Ninja may not have pesky little things like “lights” or “mirrors” or “a title.” But y’know what it does have? Safety wire. Slicks. Full-body aftermarket fairings. Does your decked-out Multistrada have those? No, I thought not. Score one for the track bike.
The seller claims this track day special was owned by a race instructor, which is realistically probably the best person to buy a track bike from. They know what they’re doing when it comes to building and maintenance.
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
This 944 is listed as a 968, for some reason, and the seller claims that the car “start making noise from the flywheel.” That’s about all the info we have to go on, so I’m going to assume the rest of the car is immaculate. No rust, no paint damage, not a crumb on the interior. If the only issues are mechanical, why not replace the mechanics?
Someone, please, K-swap a 944. I haven’t seen it done before, but I think it’d be such a fun car to drive by the end of the project. Don’t think so? Wanna prove me wrong? There’s only one good way to do so.
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
Have you ever carried anything, anywhere, on or in or via a vehicle? Have you ever even wanted to move a thing from a place to another place? If you said “yes” to one, or more, or even none of these questions, you should buy this electric cargo tricycle.
There’s wind protection for your legs. Cargo room under the seat. A motorcycle front end. What appear to be space-saver spares on the rear. I don’t really know what this thing is, but I do know that I want to see one on every block. Why are we not all driving these?
Photo: Facebook Marketplace
I’m not much for convertible cruisers — I like small, nimble cars that can weave their way through a mountain pass. But this Mercedes is making that preference look foolish. Here I am, sharing a world with this 560SL, and I’m not supposed to want it? Be for real.
The paint reminds me of a Rickenbacker, the steering wheel is Giorgietto Giugiario. There’s a remote haphazardly attached to the wheel, to control the stereo that’s approximately one foot further from the driver. Incredible. Impeccable period piece. I need it.
Keyword: Toyota Starlet, Honda Civic Type R, Kawasaki Ninja Race Bike: The Dopest Cars I Found For Sale Online