Honestly, when I first asked what the was, I was expecting a sea of rusty Nissan 240SXs and BMW E30 4-doors that "needed a little work. The cars you picked out were genuinely surprising, to say the least. Here are the ten best modified cars you can buy on eBay for $10k:

How do you make the car that originated the hot hatch trend a little more sprightly? .

, but an early MKII Golf, with a turbo and a manual transmission. How could you go wrong!? Could use more plaid seats.

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9. 1964 Plymouth Barracuda

This is one of the cars that started the muscle car era. A small-ish car with a huge V8 at the front made for many a fun night for car enthusiasts. .

This! Add oval track springs from mopar performance (relatively cheap)

Add good shocks

Install goodies it comes with

Glorious oversteer!

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8. 1992 VW Corrado VR6 SLC

This car is on my short list of "cars I would love to own because they're so damn quirky." It's like the Golf's bigger, sleeker, and faster brother. .

It's a VR-6 modified to hell and back again for $7K (I'll bet you could get drive off for $5500 cash though).. and it's got a roof-mounted wing so you know it means business.. (or the owner like to tow kite surfers or something)..

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7. 1994 Honda Civic Si Turbo

Here's how to do a Honda Civic right: Take a body that weighs nothing, de-clutter the engine bay, and add a huge turbo and you have something that will eat Corvettes for breakfast and poop out MPGs before its next serving. .

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6. 1970 Volvo 145 Wagon

. Here's an excerpt from the auction description:

Engine: A bit of a mystery. I traded a good car for the engine. All I know is that it's very high compression late B20.. '74 I think, very nicely ported and polished head, my best guess (based on measuring lift) is that its got a R-grind cam. Double valve springs, steel timing gears. I added the Weber DCOE 40s, though it'd probably prefer 45s. The head is shaved.. er.. maybe chopped, significantly. As in, I've never seen so much meat removed from a B20 head. Low elevation might be a problem. I don't know. It runs great here, but we're at 5000-8000 feet. Definitely overbored to 2.1 or more. Might be stroked. I don't know.

And since the car is deeply below budget, there are a few choice modifications one reader would apply:

This plus $8,000 worth of hookers and blow.

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5. 1960 Triumph TR3 w/327 Corvette V8

Think of it as a bizarro-world Shelby Cobra, but instead of having a Ford Powerplant in an AC body, it's Chevy powerplant in an equally unreliable British car. Same thing, really. .

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4. 1969 BMW 2002ti Turbo Vintage Race Car

This thing is so damn cool that it's a wonder it hasn't been sold yet. It's a BMW vintage race car that obviously needs some work (zip ties and duct tape), but for a . It has an in-cabin brake bias valve. NOT EVEN A MAYBACH HAS THAT!

But beware: If you do get this car running, it may attract any local roaming Bill Caswells, and it's mating season around this time.

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3. 1932 Ford T-Bucket Roadster

Here's what you're looking at. A >. All for under $10 grand. Plus it looks a little like the car from the Munsters (a timely reference, I'm sure). It also weighs 1400 lbs and puts out 400 hp, which is about the same power to weight that you get with a freaking Bugatti Veyron.

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2. 1978 Nissan Cedric

but I gave it a pass because holy crap, JDM. I can't imagine getting body panels would be easy to come by, but it's worth it with its uniqueness alone.

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1. 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT with 400ci V8

This one was a bit of a foregone conclusion. It's a car that's the base for everything from kit cars to homemade turbo projects. . It's not my taste at all, but that's the point with modified cars - they're deeply personal and reflect a sense of individuality above all else. I'm sure this would make a cool cruiser or burnout machine for anyone with a few bucks to spend on a unique car.

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If you want more great eBay performance values, check these out:

Last week, I asked you frugal, aspiring millionaires what the best supercar under $100k was, and as

Yesterday. I asked the financially responsibly lot of you about what supercars you would buy on…

is the founder of and writes about on the internet. He owns the world's cheapest , a , and he's the only Jalopnik author that has never driven a Miata. He also has a real name that he didn't feel was journalist-y enough so he used a pen name and this was the best he could do.

There's a difference between being cheap and treasuring value per dollar spent. One is knowing…