Ooof that looks good.

Get the Miata instead.

I wonder if it’d been a Miata with the naturally aspirated engine if it’d have been easier to control while modulating throttle in a slide.

Just don’t film that quarter panel. My effects guys can make that look new anyway. Fix it in post.

Allow me to be the 800th to say that you Orloved it!

I’d go with what I just got (not my car shown here.) A Volvo V50 T5 wagon with a 6-speed manual. They’re also available with AWD. Mine is an ‘05 with high miles, and even after the random and expensive repairs for some maintenance the PPI missed it’s still under half of his budget. Could get a nicer one than mine…

Depending on the config of that C63 you can do pretty damn good tires for well under $800.

That’s a great and very low cost all-season tire. Fuck Pirellis.

There are plenty of relatively inexpensive flow-formed aftermarket wheels that work fine. (RPF1, etc.)

I’d rather have a smashed window than a cut top.

Yeah, I was running HTR P01s and P02s on my Versa (and on my Miata when I was dailying it, though now its just on Nitto NT-01s for track and Dunlop ZIIs for rain), and now that my daily is a Volvo V50 T5 with a bit more power/weight/sportiness I went with the HTR ZIII summers...so far not too shabby.

There are some excellent cheap tires out there, but you need to your research. Sumitomo in particular has some awesome cheap tires that I think exist purely for midlife crisis buyers of 911s and Corvettes. When they get to the first tire change they get massive sticker shock and then pick up the Sumitomos which…

I really like Thunderhill. As a Miata guy I like the West course and 5-mile a lot because it gives me a chance to outrun the horsepower guys. But the 3-mile is a blast too. Turn 1 at west is an all time favorite for me...in the Miata you basically slide the car through it.

Yeah. Gray part good, must hit. Other part bad.

This car, though small and European like the Mini, and also a throwback design, has its instrument cluster in the normal place. But you might crick your neck turning your head to follow the sound of the muffler-less “Abarth” version.

Even that depends on situation. For example, in CA if you get 5 cars behind you (or more) you’re legally required to pull off and yield, regardless of the speed limit.

Eh? I don’t want to be in front of a guy that wants to go faster than me on any road. Speed limit doesn’t factor in at all in that case. It’s irrelevant.

Where I run (groups at Laguna, Thunderhill, Sonoma, etc) the main requirement for open passing is a certain number of days experience.

Yeah I’d do the same thing you’d do, pull off and wait, if I were there just to have fun. Where I’m coming from is that I commute and drive to and from home on a lot of roads like this, but also enjoy driving...so slower traffic is keeping me from having fun AND from getting home. I’ve basically come to peace with it…

I do my daily commute on similar curvy driving roads and am regularly coming up behind the Friday sportscar and motorcycle guys that are there for fun. Drive a road everyday and you get pretty fast on it haha.