I’m hoping to avoid the BaT premium and stumble upon one locally. As they say, hope springs eternal as all I’m really doing is watching the prices on the nice 3rd & 5th gens go into the stratosphere.

Yep, a complete circle, from elevation to street level with a split at 270°.

One fine day I was enjoying a 360 degree decreasing radius exit off I4 in Orlando, fully aware of the Mustang GT hugging my bumper as I sped into this challenging curve. Watching him plow off into the black muck of a recent rainstorm in an impressive wave of shame was an early Christmas gift. The 3rd gen Prelude Si…

I have PTSD regarding Corollas. Only the AE86 will ever get a nod from me.

We bought ours w 70k miles for $7 grand and the last 10k miles have been uneventful. Here’s hoping our experience is unlike yours, but so far it’s been a ton of fun. We also have a C4 Corvette w 6 speed that is perhaps not as much fun to drive as the Abarth? It's a close call. 

Here’s your light weight sports car alternative that somehow was not mentioned in this article as a competitor. WTF Jalopnik, asleep much?
I’ve got a Fiat Madness ECM on mine, good for up to 200hp in this tiny car. It’s a hoot, I can’t recommend this car high enough - if you don’t mind front wheel drive.

The ‘90 C4 convertible w/ 6-speed parked in my driveway and bought at the trough of that model’s value curve very much agrees with you. Re. its long production span, it might’ve look similar during that time but there were amazing improvements along the way, not the least of which was the ZR1. I’ve always been a fan…

A better photo without the retarded watermark:

“The Leaf does a great job of insulting the cabin from a large amount of wind...”

Don’t forget to bag on their lame interiors too, which look like the progeny of a furniture rental store that grudge F’ed Broyhill’s factory rejects. I’d wager it would cost about the same to decorate RVs in nice colors, fabrics and modern veneers but they don’t. Mystifying.

A rare example of an interior done well:

Nice sir! Those Centerline wheels work aesthetically on few cars, but yours wears them well . Our cars were VERY similarly sorted, here’s the text from my Imgur link:

To be fair, while the RX7 GSL-SE was / is my favorite (attainable) car of the early 80's, I’d also put the Mustang SVO, 2nd gen Supra, Omni GLHS, VW GTi and especially the polarizing C4 Corvette as close runner’s up for that time frame, all of which I really liked as a kid.

Honestly, I don’t remember any other cars from 1984, only the GSL-SE.

*IF* this was a cobbled together kit then sure, CP all day. However it’s not. It has actual provenance being a dealer option that was well crafted. Best of all it’s an ‘88 with the acclaimed Lotus suspension revisions.
The person looking to buy a Mera isn’t cross-shopping against anything else. So considering the…

If anything, he's tarnishing the reputation of Germany with those lame Instagrams.

Don’t forget to join your local British Car Club. It’s nice to have a support group.

How about I strafe your house with train horns at 3am?

Well since we’re on the subject ...

You’re right - $7500 is too much. Yes the 2 door is rare and really cool looking but still, his ask is too high. That said, here’s ours. New timing belt, 150k miles, cold AC, shiny blue paint and it comes with Lexus ES300h rims + the original set of you don’t like the new ones. All for $3750 - the no haggle price.…

There’s another work-around that combines the flexible battery power of a hybrid with a turbo without any turbo lag: the hybrid electric turbocharger. I’m truly astonished that none of the big 3 are using this tech (yet) as it’s poised to revolutionize powertrains.