Thanks for all the replies, guys!
Denny - I had been talking to my brother-in-law about doing an engine swap and he sent me a link to a car he saw on engineswapdepot.com. Just coincidentally it was your car! I told him, I know that guy! Your car is awesome. I like the oddballs like that. I would love to do something like find a clean Vega and dump a LNF and 5 speed into it. Not sure how hard it would be to switch it from DI to low pressure.
Anyway, that brings me to replying to everyone else's questions comments:
The asking price for car E is $12k. I edited my first post to reflect that.
I've had two fourth gen F-bodies already, one LT1 convertible and one LS1 hard top. They are kind of a been there, done that thing for me now. I would consider a 3rd Gen F-body a hard lean more than a sure thing. My mind is still open to other possibilities. I don't have time, patience or equipment to do my own engine swap but am not against paying someone else to do it. Bolt-ons, heads/cam, etc are not a problem for me to tackle, though. I don't need or want a race car as anything I buy would only occasionally be driven to (and hopefully from) the track. Something in the 12 second range would be perfectly acceptable as I also don't want to put a roll bar in anything.
I don't want or need a show car as I don't want to feel guilty putting a few thousand miles on the thing each year. That is what makes car A so tough. It's a beautiful car that is too good of shape that I would almost feel bad about modding or driving but is waaaay to slow for me in its present state. I'm also not worried about anything I get being a future collectible as I mostly want to enjoy it and not worry about it. I do want a clean, rust free car with no body work required, though. It just doesn't have to be spotless.
I don't want to do a Syclone or Typhoon clone, I would want the real thing and Syclones I was looking at 2 years ago for around $20k are going for $35-40k now which is too rich for my blood.
For newer LS1 cars, I would consider a GTO, G8 or CTS-V. Would love a CTS-V wagon but they are also still too rich for my blood. A Saab 9-7X Aero might be considered as well but probably not interested in its Trailblazer SS brother. Once upon a time I thought I might want a Corvette but I have been leaning away from that route towards 4 seaters w/ the exception of the previously mentioned Syclone.
That said, riche's Corvette does pique my curiosity, though. Please send me a PM with some details though as I mentioned in my initial post, I probably won't be in the market for a couple more months (just in time to put it away for the winter)!
The Grand National would be awesome. I've always loved them and I talked my Dad into buying a used one in the early 90's but if it is clean, I would guess it will also be more than I would want to spend. I have not really set a budget yet, though. My purchase would be the result of cashing out an investment and my wife and I still need to decide how we want to divide up the profit.
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