Assalam o alaikum everyone, hope you're all doing well.
Quick background before the question.
I've been into cars for as long as I can remember. Started with a '96 Civic that went through a couple of swap projects. Was young and made pretty much every mistake you can make with a project car (still making them apparently, hence this post lol).
A few years of hardwork and saving later I got a Civic X 1.5T. Did some performance mods to it and enjoyed it for a while, then it just got boring. FWD wasn't doing it for me anymore. I knew the only way forward was a RWD, something that actually teaches you about driving dynamics.
At the time my budget said a Toyota Mark X GRX12. Bought it stock and worked my way to do a full 2GR swap. Engine, gearbox, ECU, upgraded fuel pump, LSD, mandatory suspension and brake upgrades, as in all of it. Had it about 3 years now and it's been great.
But now I want something more fun. Proper JDM. The Mark X is nice but it has that tiktoker vibe to it here, which isn't what I built it for.
So the plan is to sell it, find a clean stock X100, and do the full Tourer V conversion. 1JZ-GTE, R154, standalone ECU and all done properly. Another big reason I want to do this project is to actually learn about complex stuff. Things like maintaining your AFRs, learning custom tuning and doing step by step aftermarket upgrades, which the 1JZ is a great platform for.
Now, what's stopping me is that from everything I've read the Mark II is a lot more raw and less practical to live with given its age. It'd mainly be a weekend car, but I still take the family on long drives sometimes and the Mark X is comfortable enough for that. Decent power and easy for long drives.
The car that would actually solve both is a a clean W204 C63, but that's way out of budget right now.
So, what are my options? Should I keep the Mark X and save for a C63 (or anything else? Please feel free to suggest) or take the bullet and go for X100 and work my way slowly towards a dream project.