Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: $10,000 Sports Cars That Won’t Be Cheap Forever

Everyone knows that the classic car market is on an upswing at the moment. The pessimists are fond of saying that there’s nothing left that’s cheap and worth owning or that has any chance of appreciating in the future. We say: BS. Here are five that you can still buy for 10 grand or less and that have an upside:

1. 1975-78 Datsun 280Z: The 280Z’s predecessor, the 240Z, has already taken its long-anticipated increase in price. The dirty little secret is that the 280 is actually the better car. The 240Z made do with a set of antiquated side-draft carburetors that were actually license-built pre-war British SU carbs. They were fiddly to keep in sync and when emission control laws started to get strict, drivability went into the toilet. The 280Z was essentially the original Nissan S30 sports car with modern Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection. The ungainly 5 mph bumper that the car grew was the only downer. The last nice under-$10,000 280Z will probably sell somewhere in the U.S. in 2015.

2. 1990-96 Nissan 300ZX: The 1990s was the second golden age of the Japanese sports car, with the 300ZX, Acura NSX, Mazda Miata and the third-generation RX7 all in the marketplace. NSX’s have always been pricey as have nice RX7s, and an upside for the Miata might have to wait for the herd to thin a bit, but the 300ZX seems like a car whose time is coming. Few cars of the era look better and it incorporated numerous advanced features like the Super HICAS rear wheel steering. Nice ones still can be had for $10,000.