- When we're bored,
there's a few things we car guys and car gals,
have a tendency to do.
Okay?
First off and foremost if you haven't,
we have a tendency to rewatch Top Gear UK,
just to relive,
you know relive some of our old lovely memories
that that show actually brought us.
Two.
We organize the same toolbox we've had for
about seven years
that doesn't close the right way anymore
because we're too cheap to buy the expensive one.
I don't understand how Snap-on is so expensive
but I'm not doing it.
Three,
we scour the marketplace
to see if there's any cool project cars out there
that just might need a home.
After all,
our reliable dil- daily driver doesn't have,
to stay in the garage,
it can survive outside and be replaced
with a rolling chunk of metal
that leaks more than a bag of ice
on a July summer day.
I really miss summer,
it was like 42 degrees up here
and I had the windows down
and I really want to put on shorts.
Okay anyway,
so you start looking
for project cars and you find a lot.
The question is,
is which one do you actually buy?
Which one is the perfect level of cool,
fun,
cheap, yet also a pain in ass
that likes a bit of a tease
that has you coming back for more
because you don't actually know any better.
Honestly project cars are
like our first relationships,
red flags truly don't matter,
honestly.
I'm Alex, Alex.fi on Instagram
and today we're gonna be talking about just that,
the cars that deserve our hearts
even when our brains,
really are trying to tell us,
no, at every waking moment
We're talking about today,
the best project cars to buy.
And if you haven't heard from us,
(hands claps)
Hi.
We're Fitment Industries,
we started because we wanted to make it easy to find
out what wheels, tires,
and suspension fits your vehicle.
Contrary to popular belief,
That's hard as (beep)
Okay.
If you don't have a place to actually look
because forums are terrible
and there's always some guy named John,
that distracts the forum sideways.
So, if you haven't
yet check out our massive car gallery
that has all the specs laid out for you
so you can pick up whatever you want,
and you'll know if it fits.
For wheels,
for tires,
for suspension.
Fitmentindustries.com.
You know what I'm saying?
When we look at project cars, we started the search
for us based on like the following couple
two or three things, because everybody's going to talk
about the basic project cars
but here's what we wanted to look at.
Availability. Can you actually get your hands
on one without blowing your entire budget?
We're not gonna be talking about R34s
or Mark 4 Supras or RX7s.
We don't have $40,000.
Okay. Modificationability.
Not a word, but I made it one
but does the community exist?
Where doing things
to the car is actually an option for people.
And then third fun/difficulty.
If it was easy, everyone would do it.
That's that's what it is.
Okay. So what platforms provide a level
of difficulty without being overtly painful, to spend time
on you want something that's a little bit
like a puzzle piece.
It's just a little bit of a struggle bus
a car that likely would spend some time on jack stands.
Less focus on daily drivability, but more
of a car that you would want to build the right way
that gives you some items that would result in a
not really being the best daily
but being a fun car to take out every once in a while.
Sorry. Toyota Camrys. You're just too good.
Oh. And we didn't want to pick some super obvious ones.
So here's just a few of them to get out of the way in terms
of if you really want a project car that is like good.
Okay. Mazda Miata, Civic Si
BRZ, FRS, GT86, 4 engine GTI.
Any Passat ever, the S4, v6 or v8
A Focus ST and RS are some banger options.
Now the video is not 20 hours long.
So instead we're going to start
with a car that you actually probably really
didn't see coming, something that is going to
make Gels turn around because he doesn't understand it.
The Mazda RX8.
Okay. Last time I talked about this, some people
in the RX8 community were not too happy
about the fact that I said it brought
up some difficult upbringings at launch
and that the car wasn't as bad as the world sees them as
but I'll leave that up to Gels to figure
firsthand as he goes to modify his RX8 next month.
Subscribe to watch that build it's actually
going to be pretty funny.
But either way on the reliability perspective
the RX8 is a pretty fun car to be a project car.
Now, key word on that is project. They're available.
They are priced well.
They have an interesting platform that isn't
terribly difficult to understand once you get a hold of it
but they're different enough to have fun with.
It still has got some really good
weight distribution on the platform.
And the platform I think is something that is
starting to age a little bit like a fine wine.
Even though there's about 9,000 triangles
the car actually does look pretty dang good.
These cars look great with some squared 18
by nine and a half plus 22 function, style wheels
with some Toyota tires, or maybe some artisan Titans.
I'm going to put that plug in there because I want to
The toughest part of this platform is though
is that there's a little bit of a learning curve, especially
with the platform, which makes the difficulty
scale a little bit taller than others.
But if you want something that you can truly jump
into by learning and building, the RX8 will
teach you because it will force you to learn.
Or it will end up being a paperweight until you LS swap
which is gonna make a lot of people very angry.
But remember folks we're talking about project cars
and project cars need to give us a little bit of a hard time
so that we can learn to give it a little bit of love.
Another one that may be a little bit easier
on the difficulty skill for replacement
to a slightly higher price point that isn't modified as much
as it should be for people like you and people like me.
(Deep inhale)
Hear me out
C5 Corvette.
Okay. Now the C5 was a massive improvement
over the C4 with a new engine, Frank transmission location
and updated stylings. The C5 also had enough goodies
to be useful as a project car to this day.
Okay? The base model can snag at 345 horsepower
a six speed transmission
and a four and a half seconds, zero to 60.
Not only that, but do some fun things
with the suspension, grab some high offset wheels
because for some reason
Corvettes love high offset wheels
from Cray or Velgen.
And you got yourself a lowered bad-ass domestic
with pop-up headlights.
That is a pretty insane amount of reliability.
Now I know we all love JDM
ladies and gentlemen, I hear you.
Okay. TikTok doesn't give a (beep) if it's not,
an R34, but I am telling you
that the 15 year old domestic cars are some
of the best value you can get for some pretty bad-ass power.
And they're fun.
I'm telling you, sure the interior can be a bit of love
but you're going to swap seats, steering wheels
and radios out anyway.
So what's it actually matter?
Oh, and did I mention that the parts
in the community accessibility is absolutely massive.
It is huge.
You can literally just go to like Copart
or like anywhere and buy whatever you want.
And it was just, it's almost like it's almost too easy.
It's almost too easy.
I'd give the hats off to another car platform.
That's got a little bit easier to get a hold
of and actually makes it a little bit
of a quality interior for people that actually
want that, for people that need their car to
give them the ride of a king.
Okay. And that's got to go over to the E55 AMG sedan
particularly the 03 and 04 years.
Now, sure. You're starting to climb a little bit
on the budget side of things
but you get everything you could possibly want outside
of a manual transmission, including, but not limited
to 450 to 500 horsepower and torque, European interior
that makes you feel, like, cozy, ya know?
An exhaust note, that screams
and enough tech that keeps you busy
with just enough unreliability to make it go on
jack stands every once in a while. These cars are nuts
and the cars do great as platforms for power
with a TCU ECU tune, water, meth, injection intake
pully headers, and exhausts all the good things
that make a project car fun.
Plus, if your aromatics still works
and you don't swap it over to coil overs, you can go
with some niche or Rahana 18 by nine and a half, 18 by 10
and a half setups with some chunky tires, like some Nitto
NT555s and put it on lowering links and you get just
enough subtle aggressiveness that makes the car stick
out a just a little bit.
Now, rear wheel drive can keep you on your toes.
And if you don't like the dated front end of the E55
you can actually just swap over to an E63 front clip
which is a fun process as well.
And it's going to give you everything you
could possibly want for the platform.
Now, the community is decently sized
and active enough to almost always be able to ask questions.
And the platform is new enough where you can dine parts
for just about, just about everything.
And it's a little smaller but it works.
You know what I'm saying?
Sometimes, small's OK. All right?
But what about JDM cars? Huh?
The cars that seem to be carrying a pretty insane amount
of bro-tax right now. No matter where you go
there seems to be a pretty substantial bill
on any car that could potentially even be remotely
associated with Japan, because we throw around the word JDM
but it's not actually JDM.
But there's still a few hiding around that you could pick
up and have a fun project car with.
And one of them that I'm going to say
hopefully it doesn't bite me in the ass,
would be the 3000 GT SL or VR4 model.
All right.
Does it got the Bro-tax? No.
But is it a JDM-ish car? Also yes.
Will it break your heart?
Probably. Does it make for a great project car?
Yeah, I think so.
3000 GT's seem to have been hidden
from like the massive JDM tax hype, which either means it's
on its way to being piped to the moon or people didn't
like them enough to pay $30,000 on.
Either way, it makes for a perfect platform
for people like you and people like me
that are looking for something to stare at
in our garage for nine months out of the year.
Now, I'm bringing SL's into this
because some people need to stay there to start.
SL's are nice, decent horsepower, five speed
and some decent goodies that you can make
look good if you're on a budget.
Now, if you have $10,000
you can snag an early generation VR4.
And that's where the term project car truly comes to life.
These cars were packed with crazy stuff
like active suspension systems,
all wheel drive, all wheel steering,
active front and rear air,
an air conditioning unit that still
beats most new vehicles, and enough tech that just
barely keeps it running 30 years later
which makes it a bad-ass fun car to turn
into a project car.
It's just gotta have just something that's just
like an Achilles tendon, OK?
You throw some Volks on there.
Any tires, BC coils with some sleepy eyes, restore
the paint, exhaust intake and a few reliability
goodies, stay away from manual boost control,
and you are set for a fun project car that keeping you busy
still checks the box of having a JDM car.
Lastly, E36. I don't even need to talk about it.
But what do you think is the best project car?
Remember, it's not always about what's easiest.
It's about what can be the most rewarding.
If you just recently picked up a project car
let us know below and tell us how it's going.
And of course, if you're looking for aftermarket wheels
tires, or suspension
be sure to hit us up over at fitmentindustries.com
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries, and we will see you later.
Peace.
(cup being knocked over)
- [Offscreen Voice] Aagghh! Not my Coffee!
No! Aagghh!