Get a Metro GTI, (dont laugh), make sure the shell is good, maybe spend £300-£400 on a MOT fail. Head to scrappies and get a 1800 K-Series (loads about), if you get one with VVc, scrap it and put normal cams in (VVC have bigger valve sizes). Get the ECU sorted to run, and you could have 140 odd bhp. Visit motobuild, get suspension sorted, then with rest of your money, do basics, such as paint, brakes etc. With this you will cause a lot of surprises on a track or road. This conversion is easy to do, and leaves you with a very surprising q car. This is what I would do, if I was building a track special/weekend funcar. Forget the image problems, those who know, all say these wee cars are massively underarated, look at a few old CCC mags if you dont believe. K-Series is the new crossflow, easy to tune and not to pricy. This type of thing interest anybody else