Cheap Thrills: Best 5 Aftermarket Performance Car Values
Brian: What's the retail on one of those? Ferrari Driver: More than you can afford pal. Ferrari. Dom: [turning to Brian] Smoke him.
Let’s face it, most of us don’t have an unlimited amount of funds to fuel this automotive passion or addiction (speaking strictly for myself) of ours - but it doesn’t always take a vault's worth of money to get the job done. The great thing about the aftermarket is that you can add basic upgrades to make an otherwise “good” performance car a supercar killer. Picking up a pre-owned car is one of the best ways to get the most bang for your buck, especially if you’re looking into something that’s fairly new and within the sportscar/performance realm. Let the previous owner take the hit, as soon as he drove that new car off the lot – it depreciated. Use the money saved for some bolt-ons, and you’ve got yourself an excellent toy to go hunt down unsuspecting Ferrari owners with. For the purpose of the feature, I’ve added some basic guidelines:
- The car has to be less than $50K (yeah, still pretty expensive but an article on Turbo Honda’s has already been done...kidding)
- I’m leaving American Cars out (awaiting Mustang mullet hate mail)
- I’m leaving old school Import Tuner cars out as well: Supra, 3000GT (Mustang mullets rejoice)
- The car has to have at least one aspect that can be compared to an exotic (looks, performance, etc)
Ready, set, go.
1. ANY 55/63 AMG Mercedes Benz
Go scoop up any SL, E, CLS, S or C with a “55/63” at the end of it, get some software, hit the gas pedal and hold on. Mercedes has really become the “hot-rod” company for European cars with engines that are tune friendly and provide torque for days. Merely the addition of basic headers, air-filter and exhaust will give you a decent gain. Roll-up to a Ferrari at a stoplight and use one hand on the wheel - then video the guy’s reaction as you pull on him and he’s looking at the back door of your sedan.
2. Lotus Exige/Elise
Exotic looks, exotic handling with a reliable Toyota Motor — did I mention it’s basically a shifter cart with doors? Tough to find, but a great performance value. You won’t be winning a lot of stop light races, but you’ll be turning heads and anytime you can get into a set of twisties, you’ll be gone. Power to weight, its a basic formula that makes this car great.
3. 01-03 Porsche 996 Turbo
All wheel drive, Turbo…say it with me again. AWD, Turbo. Oh, it’s a Porsche too. Already a “performer”, opt for the factory X50 kit or a tuner software upgrade and you’re ready to go chase down some Italians. Amazingly, it’s also easy to drive, push through corners and looks the part as well.
4. 07-11 BMW 335-335is
BMW’s return back to twin turbos in 07’ had the aftermarket chip tuners hungry from the get go. An excellent motor for upgrades, in addition to the traditional BMW handling and daily driveability — the 335 coupe is easily one of the best performance tuning buys available. In 2011 BMW released their own “is” variant with an overboost function, exhaust and suspension to match — close to 50K brand new actually, so current pricing falls well below our guideline.
5. Nissan GTR
For the life of me I couldn’t find one of these (even high mileage 09’s) in the 50K realm, most were in the low 60’s…but I can’t justify not having it on this list because of a measly 10K! With the 2nd fastest production time around the 'ring on street tires…yeah, we’re talking HYPERCar beater here, not just exotic car beater — the GTR is an insane spec machine…stock. Next, take your pick of ready and waiting tuners that will push the GTR even more, simply making it THE performance value vehicle.
5 different manufacturers, 5 different vehicles to choose from — all ready and willing to bum out that guy in the Ferrari that just pulled up with his trophy wife. All under 50K (well, almost)... so break that piggy bank and start searching for your best performance value!
