Need some serious help choosing a car for a new project.

[BAN WS6]

I've never been so confused when it comes to choosing a new car. I currently own a 2001 WS6. I was toying with the idea of tearing into it and really making it my own but it's just in too good of condition to do so. Plus with the death of Pontiac and a very probable future without Trans Am I've decided to just maintain it and see if the price for such a car appreciates as much as it's predecessors.

Anyway I've decided to get a different car and start a new project. Something that I can really tear into and build up. My knowledge of cars is decent but I'm not a mechanic by any stretch of the word. This next project I take on is going to be the excuse for me to learn everything that I've always wanted to know about building up and customizing a car. I plan to do everything myself unless it's necessary to have it done elsewhere. I've also decided to broaden my criteria for a new car. The only problem in doing so is that I can't seem to narrow down the type of car I want. The original plan was to go with an old Mopar of some sort, the one thing I've always wanted was a blown Charger, Challenger, or Superbee. I've also started considering Grand Nationals, getting a bit more towards the tuner side but still keeping it American. The only real problem I run into is cost, 69 Mopars of nearly any model pull some pretty hefty prices, even if it's just a shell. So I started looking at the imports, I've always thought older Eclipses and Impreza's were cool but not quite what I wanted, not a big fan of all wheel drive and front wheel drive. To help me decide I've dug out all of the movies I have with cars in them to see them in action. Naturally with tuners, ricers, whatever you want to call them, I turned to the original Fast and the Furious, and of course the Supra in that movie is the star. Overall from what I've researched so far I like what I hear about the Supra. The only real complaint I hear the most about it is that it's heavy, but since I'm used to bigger V8's I don't imagine that will be a problem.

The main thing I want to know is how do the late 80's Supras stack up to the mid 90's. I personally like the styling of the late 80's a bit better, the mid 90's are a little too rounded for my taste. If the potential for performance is better for the newer Supras than the older ones I'll go with it but if it's negligible and you can build an older Supra with the stock engine to compete with a newer one, I'll go with it, especially with the price tag they're offering on some of them. I am also curious to know what the internals of a non-turbo Supra is like compared to a turbo model. I was considering picking up a non-turbo model for next to nothing and throwing a turbo on it to hold me over while I built the engine I truly want to put in the car. I also didn't know if other than a possible difference in engines, there were any other differences between the turbo and non-turbo cars. I should also mention that I'm not really a straight line drag kind of guy. I like a car that can handle and love a car that drifts well. I can drift in my T/A but feel the car isn't exactly the best choice to do any drifting. Chock it up to not enough skill behind the wheel or just the wrong choice of car, I feel I need something a little more lightweight and forgiving, at least until my skills improve. I've had a few too many close calls, so I'm done with drifting in my T/A for now.

Well to stop myself before I write a book, I'm just looking for an overall summary of those two generations of Supras. I'm a pony car guy with friends who own Mustangs, Camaros, Trans Ams, etc. I've got no place else to turn for info and would really like to branch out and get a different type of car. Lastly, if anybody knows of a good source of info for Skylines, I'd appreciate it.