Lancer EVO 6 RS and EVO 7 RS, Though you will win the GSR versions, the RS's are lighter weight. They only tune to about 525HP, but that will be more than enough for your purposes.
Another option is the "other" Vette. (the blue one) At just over 40K you can add a racing tranny and tires and be instantly competitive.
Now if your budget is only 50K total, you want to start with either a Lancer or the Camaro Z28. You won't have the "baddest car on the block" but with a few of the right races you can make enough cash to build up to the baddest car on the block.
A properly tweaked Camaro on Full mods, will easily top 200MPH. If you are a skillful tuner, you can also get better than "acceptable" handling from it.
Further, you won't be able to run the amateur cup with only one car. There are races that require a certain car or type of car.
Your best bet is to run the Euro series, the German touring car series, and the American car series, using the "save/reload trick" to win the Vertigo, the Opel Racer, and the Camaro Racer. You can either keep them (I would keep the Vertigo for the German touring car cup) or sell them, putting you up by 795,000cr + the 67,500 for winning all races and the championship bonus for the Euro cup, the 80,000 for the German touring car cup, and the 67,500 for the American car cup. By my math, that's right at 1,000,000cr for about an hour's worth of races.
Those three series, alone will put you in power to buy and mod any street car in the game, and more than a couple of the race cars.
Also, don't overlook the option of driving any of the above series four times, using the "Save-Reload" trick to get all of the available cars from the series. Check the Home page for which cars are available from which series. You can pack away a good deal of spending money whilst winning some interesting cars.
The euro cup can net you an R34 Skyline, a Lotus Elise, a Mini Cooper, or the Vertigo.
The German touring car cup can net you the Ruf R3400 (Boxster), the Beetle cup car, the Lupo race car, or the Opel Racecar.
Out of those eight cars the Skyline can be modded and used for the Red emblem races, the Boxster can be used for the roadster/spyder cup, the Beetle for the beetle cups, the Elise for the Elise cups (though I have better luck with the race version) and it's a good car for the Trial mountain enduro on t3's or t4's as it is very easy on tires. In the hands of a truly skilled driver, it can win the PD cup with little fanfare. The Vertigo is good for FR races, and you can take it back to the last series in Beginner, and wipe the track and win a very quick 150,000cr and with the Save-Load trick another Skyline.
Check out Der Alta's compendium for some ideas what cars to run to take you thru GT3 in a fairly enjoyable, and competitive fashion.
? MUSTANG COBRA?
