Happy Friday, friends. A very happy Friday indeed, because today you get your holiday wish: Dopest Cars as a single page, no slides to click through. Every listing, all on one page, like you’ve always wanted. Happy holidays.
How will that work with Kinja’s ads? I’m genuinely curious to see, myself. Here’s hoping this is actually the improvement we all want it to be, because — and you likely don’t expect this — a single list like this is actually more work for me than slides. I do it for you, because you deserve the best. The highest quality. The internet’s Dopest Cars.
This Miata is rare. Not because it’s a red NA, those are a dime a dozen, nor because it’s in clean shape for low five figures. No, what’s rare about this Miata is its seller is a claimed second owner.
See, people generally have a good sense of how the owner before them treated a car. Not always, but when something’s as clean as this Miata it’s a solid guess. If this really is the second owner, they’ll know this little NA’s whole life story — and they can tell it to you. Mods, intricacies, bits of character; you can learn it all.
I know, I know, this Ford-based bus will never quite match Dusty’s Barn Burner. That was a GMC, and no matter how much work you put in here it just won’t quite be right. No E350 will ever be the best modified short bus, but maybe that’s OK.
Without the ability to even aspire to Dustydom, you’re freed from his paradigm. You can do what you like, modify this bus to fit your life. the bus wouldn’t have made you Dustin, anyway.
The Audi 80 was marketed as the Fox for a bit, which just strikes me as somehow wrong. It’s missing a syllable, it sounds like the rhythm has been abruptly cut off. Maybe it’s my trochee fixation, but I want another unstressed syllable at the end there. Y’know, like “Audi 80″ has.
This particular Audi Fox, however, I’ll forgive. Its clean body lines and lightweight-looking aesthetic are met with damage — dents, rust, and mechanical issues. It’s lived its life, and there’s nothing better you can say about a car than that.
You know me, I love a Datsun Z. I have more time for the 280s than most, given how easily they can be converted to the sleeker 240 aesthetic spec, and this seems a great one. Rebuilt engine, resprayed body, good wheels. It’s almost too good for the price.
Well, that’s because it is. The Z’s title situation is questionable to say the least — both lost and not in the seller’s name. Some states won’t issue titles for cars of this age anyway, so it may not be an issue, but that’ll depend on where you live.
My favorite part of this Minicab is, obviously, the fact that it’s a kei fire truck. That’s my hole, it’s made for me, et cetera et cetera. But my second-favorite thing, something unique to this specific Minicab fire truck, is the first word in its ad: “Decommissioned.”
I want to see someone sell a commissioned fire truck on Marketplace. Kei, American, any kind — someone sell me a real, functioning, active-duty fire truck.I can be trusted with a fire truck that is in current operation from a working fire station.
John Darnielle changed Jenny’s bike from a GPZ900 to a GPZ750 Turbo for “Jenny From Thebes,” which of course means I’ve been searching Marketplace endlessly for the fastest in production as of 1985. This isn’t it, but it isn’t half bad either.
This is a non-turbo GPZ750, which gets you much of the aesthetic of Jenny’s bike without making you spend quite the cash that a real turbo costs. Sure, it needs some yellow, but her bike’s a custom Kawasaki anyway. With the stinger on the back.
The seller of this Volvo claims it was intended to be a drift car, but accidentally ended up as a comfortable and fuel efficient daily driver instead. That’s an absolutely fascinating path for a Volvo wagon to take, and I absolutely love it.
I know there was that one drift Volvo, that some blog made a t-shirt out of in coordination with Blipshift, but did that spark a trend? Are people drifting hither and yon in the boxiest vehicles ever assembled by Swedish hands? Please tell me they are.
This RSX is not pretty. I’ll say it, it looks ragged; the questionable clear coat, the ill-fitting wheels, the fading carbon hood. Its windows are too tinted, its hatch is too haphazardly filled with too much subwoofer. I admit all of this, and yet I put this car in this list anyway. Why?
Because looks don’t matter on track, and this RSX ought to be a blast on a closed course. It has a K24 block with a K20 head, freshly rebuilt and mated to a new six-speed gearbox. That’s a good combo, and one you should get to drive. Just yank the subwoofer out.
I am not a Corvette person. I’ll say that out of the gate, I don’t love them. I do, however love this: A beater Corvette. This was built to go sideways, to turn wide rear tires into smoke, and that’s not a sport that requires clear headlights — so, of course, the headlights aren’t clear.
If you noticed the rust on the rotors and started to wonder if this ’Vette is mobile, let alone fast, I commend you on your attention to detail. No, the Corvette does not run. Something about a security issue according to the owner, but surely something that can be bypassed to take full advantage of the angle kit and dual Wilwood calipers. Slap a switch panel in the dash and call it a day.
What’s the deal with Sportsters? The stereotypical Harley dealer hates them, the stereotypical Harley owner looks down on them, and yet I see Sportsters more than any other Harley on Marketplace. Are owners ditching them because they’re so unloved? Or, maybe, are the stereotypes overblown?
Are Sportsters, maybe, just good bikes? There are precious few truly bad bikes out there — a day on two wheels is better than one on four — and it just might be possible that Sportsters are, in fact, still motorcycles. Further research may be needed.
I used to go to car meets with someone who owned an M3 just like this. This color, this number of doors, though its wheels were white rather than a silver Volk TE37 ripoff. It also ran on five whole cylinders, and its hood latch was a piece of wire sticking out from the grille. This one seems to be in better nick.
New motor and transmission mounts, new short shifter and clutch, upgraded stereo, KW coilovers — this M3 is just nice. Nice enough to daily drive, if you’re so inclined. If you aren’t, I think a day of driving this E36 might just change your mind.
I love when an owner cares about their car. To show you what I mean, here’s an excerpt from the listing for this Ford Fairlane:
This is my dream car, and it breaks my heart to put her up for sale, but she’s just not getting used and sits in the garage looking sad…she needs someone with more time on their hands to dote on her and continue the restoration.
Cars deserve to be driven, and they really do just look sad when they’re sat parked. It’s sad to let a dream car go, but it’s nice to know that your beloved car will stay on the road rather than being locked in a cage.
This 4Runner has a claimed 355,781 miles, which 4Runner owners know as “break-in mileage.” That’s nothing for a Toyota, and particularly for a body-on-frame SUV like this. Long after humanity has perished, 4Runners will roam the Earth.
I do shudder to see a car from 1987 described as a “vintage collectible,” but I suppose this 4Runner meets the legal definition of one of those. Collector status is in the eye of the beholder.
Two kei trucks? In one Dopest? Well, it’s a special occasion. I thought you all deserved a double helping of the greatest cars on Earth, and as always my word — both on what goes in this list and on which cars are the best — is iron and immutable.
This Carry is tall, it’s a different color in every photo, and it’s your new best friend. Look at that little face and tell me you don’t want to hang out with it. In it. Get thee a kei truck, you won’t regret it. At least until some shady organization bans its registration.
I hesitate to admit this, but I’ve been on a Gixxer kick recently. Not only have I been watching all these MotoGP reruns, but I’ve been actively shopping. I may do too much city riding for a true GSX-R rider triangle, but maybe that GSX-8R. It’s so yellow, it calls to me.
While I may not have the living situation for true clip-ons, I’m hoping you do. This GSX-R750 is too beautiful to languish on Marketplace, it deserves an owner to whip it through canyons like its designers intended. Bring out your inner Joan Mir.