Happy Friday, friends. How’s your summer going? Has it had all the drama and excitement you hoped it would? If so, good on you, I hope the good vibes continue apace. If not, well, I may be able to help.
Maybe you just need something to add a little thrill. Something with some wheels, and engine, maybe a seat if we’re feeling particularly fancy. In other words, you need one of this week’s Dopest Cars.
I’ve long said that the Datsun 280Z is an underrated car. Among S30 variants it’s the least loved, with its bigger bumpers and heavier weight. But bumpers can be removed, weight can be cut down, and at the end you’ll still be left with the best-looking silhouette this side of the Toyota 2000GT.
This particular Z comes with gorgeous paint, a clean interior, heinous wheels, and an automatic transmission. Look, two out of four ain’t bad. They can’t all be winners in every way unless you wanna spend $60,000.
I love when the disparity in value between car and wheels makes you really wonder if the latter are real. Then, you start to notice other details, and suddenly you’ve got way more questions than you ever expected. This EG Civic sits on Volk TE37s, but do those spokes bend in at the right angle? Are they too sharp? The Bride seats in the interior, are those bolsters quite right? Is the Momo steering wheel legit?
Those floor mats look like a popular JDM option, and the wheel’s on the wrong side, and all those parts are easier to get ahold of over in Japan. What’s real? What’s not? There’s no way to know until you see the car for yourself.
That EG may have had plenty of race car accoutrement, but this Volvo is the real deal. Full cage, full livery, fully stripped interior and full suite of extremely racecar-looking gauges. This Volvo is set up for genuine SCCA work, and the work required to get it there shows.
The seller claims the car has been sitting since the ‘80s, which means you may want to go through and update some of that safety gear.
Philadelphia, meet your new god. This is a genuine honest-to-god fire truck decked out in colors and graphics for your teams, covered with TVs, and with what appear to be beer taps. It’s perfect, basically.
The listing advertises this as the “ultimate tailgating vehicle,” and I sure can’t imagine a better one. Maybe this, but with awnings for the sun? That’s about all I can think of to improve it.
Not into tailgating, and the Volvo sold out from under you to a faster-acting Dopest reader? Well, you gotta be quicker than that, this slideshow is the single most important and influential collection of car listings in the world. This is true, probably. Please don’t fact check it, my ego needs this.
As thanks for not crushing my delusions of grandeur, enjoy this track-ready 3-series. Like the Volvo, it’s been fully stripped out and purpose-built for track use. Unlike the Volvo, this car has been actively developed up until 2023 — suspension design has come a long way in 40 years. This is likely the better handling of the two, if I had to guess.
God, I love Subaru owners. I can judge, I’ve had two boxer engines to my name. This is a mid-engined roadster, built to use WRX or STI running gear, but here it’s been built up with the holy grail JDM EJ207 motor — a bit of STi kit we never got here in the states. And, after all that work to get a Japanese engine and ECU, this supercar killer makes... 330 horsepower at the wheel.
To be clear, that’s nothing to sneeze at. It’s just, I’ve driven a 475 wheel horsepower STI. Folks are pushing 550 often. I knew a tuner whose personal Hawkeye could spin all four wheels at 60 mph when he stepped on it. The USDM engines can make truly heinous amounts of power, so why go out of your way for the 207?
Speaking of affordable all-wheel-drive Japanese performance, here’s a Galant. You may be thinking that this is a VR-4, given that intro, but you know what happens when you assume. This Legnum may have the V6, but not that V6.
Yes, Legnum — this is no USDM Galant. It’s right-hand-drive, and done up with an interior fabric print that’s far too interesting for U.S. audiences. Why don’t OEMs ever give us the fun options?
This T-Rex combines so many of the worst things on the road that it loops all the way back around into greatness. We’ve got an open vehicle with aftermarket Bluetooth audio, LED headlights, an aftermarket exhaust — all things that’ll make oncoming traffic loathe you.
Were you to slap boat speakers, blinding lights, and an earth-rattling exhaust on a Harley, it’d be a war crime. They’d send you to the Hague for that. In the T-Rex, though, somehow the absurdity all fits. This is better than stock.
Ads like this are maybe the worst thing about doing Dopest. Here we have a beautiful Toyota Corona, seemingly excellently maintained, with absolutely horrible photography. Then we get to the ad description, which I’ll quote here in full:
Springfield Massachusetts.
I am begging you, car sellers, include some info. I want nothing more than to write a thesis on this Corona, but I’ve got no info to work with. It’s red, the bumpers are satin blacked out, and it’s in Springfield — that’s it. Tell me more! I, and your prospective buyers, want to know!
This ad, however, is everything a buyer could want. Not only do we have a Cefiro here, it’s a rare Autech with an up-spec RB20 under the hood — an inline six with displacement matching the boxer in that Factory Five from earlier. You read all the slides in order, right?
The seller here is upfront about the car’s condition — good, especially considering its age, but far from perfect — yet undersells how cool this Cefiro is. Scroll through the photos and tell me you don’t want to buy this, refinish those seats, and give it the most tasteful lowering you ever did see.
This SW20 MR2 is not the Turbo you’re hoping for. Let’s get that clear out of the gate. It’s the base 2.2 liter engine, it has a concerning number of unlabeled switches crammed under the radio, the shift boot appears to be made of potato sack, and the hood — famously not where the engine is — has an intake. It’s imperfect.
What a platform, though. Modernized headlights, updated suspension, and a wing that seems to just barely clear the roof. That’s the perfect height for a wing — ostentatious, yet not quite crossing into comical. I would daily this MR2 and love it.
Motocompos have really gotten too expensive. Putting one in the back of a Phoenix Yellow FK8 Type R Limited Edition, with a host of Mugen mods, just shows who the target market for these scooters is now — Honda fans with money.
That was never the intent of the Motocompo, though. These bikes were built to be humble, little last-mile transportation to get you from your Honda City in the cheap parking lot to your office where you worked to pay for the cheap parking lot. Give the Motocompo back to the proletariat, Honda fans.
The seller of this Corvette, with Greenwood Sportwagon conversion, claims it’s “one of less than 40 built.” I’m inclined to believe that figure, because the appeal is so narrow — it’s for a buyer who wants a sleek performance car, with two seats, but is unwilling to sacrifice practicality in the pursuit of that dream.
Shooting brakes are already rare, but converting a car into a shooting brake with aftermarket bodywork is a job for the kind of automotive perverts with deeply niche interests. Y’know, Jalopnik readers. One of you needs to buy this.
Remember when Subaru brought the STI Type RA over to the U.S., and buyers collectively wondered “Hey, are you really charging $50,000 for a car with five more horsepower than the standard model?” This happened because American enthusiast buyers are by and large spec-sheet shoppers, who will endlessly compare and nitpick spreadsheet figures before going and buying the cheapest turbocharged 90s car on Facebook Marketplace. It’s not our fault we’re broke.
Luckily, there’s an RA for us, and maybe it’ll give us all the chance to appreciate STI tuning properly. It’s not about the power — Type RA cars get unique gearing, added ventilation, and weight reduction over the base model. They’re cars that don’t make much sense until you drive them, and for under $20,000, you might actually be able to climb behind the wheel of this one.
Listen. Sometimes it’s not about speed, handling, or sound. Sometimes you just need a car with three colors, soft seats, hard angles, and some truly bad five-spoke wheels. If eighties Americana is what you’re looking for, look no further.
Why does a Massachusetts car have a Vermont plate in the window? Irrelevant. This is a Caprice made smaller than its predecessors, that still somehow manages to look longer than the average Boston Whaler. That’s freedom, baby.