Keep in mind what you plan to do with it. Do you want a show car? Do you want a drag strip car? Do you want an autocross car? Do you want a well balanced daily driver to play with? Second, pick something that you like. I liked the 99-00 Civic Si, so that's what I bought. Then I went about turning it into a fun daily driver that I could autox or drag, not that it's especially great at either one. Third would be the price range you want to stay in. I have seen some clean 99-00 EK Civic hatches with 90-110K miles go for 5-6k. Looking back I would have probably bought that. I just didn't care much for hatchbacks. Or you can look for a 92 civic hatch, it's light, there's tons of stuff that can be done to them, the road has been paved for mods, and you can pick one up for 1500-3k depending on how nice it is or what's been done to it. Next thing to do is READ and RESEARCH, no one has all the answers and anyone that tells you they do is full of shit. I have several little ideas that I want to eventually pull of but right now due to my budget I can't do it yet. A late 80's to early 90's BMW 325/318i can be an extremely fun little car. They're rear wheel drive, respond to mods, there are quite a few resources for go fast goodies, turner motorsports being a big one. Just look around, see what makes you go "ooh I like that" and decide what you ultimately want to do with it and go from there.