New car and insurance recommendations

[KrisSibson]

Hi guys, new to this forum and new to Lexus life in general. I'm picking up my 2002 IS200 SE on the 13th of October and will be looking for suitable modified car insurance for it then.

The Lex is coming from a mate who's used it as a runabout for the past year, completely standard and unabused. It's got 155k on the clock so assume it's been about a bit but never had any major greif with its MOT's, and seems pretty rust free. Long term I'm looking to do a VIP+Drift build, so long term plans are a 1JZ-GTE engine swap and Air-Ride, immaculate paint, a sensible shiny exhaust and some stancy wheels, lock mods, a TTE body kit plus a few luxury bucket seats and a VIP table with all the other trimmings etc once I get a better job and a new daily.

However for now I'll deal with the 1G-FE, lower her 40mm, get some nice wheels, a shotgun backbox delete pipe, wind deflectors, a proper diff, LEDs and HIDs, tints and all that usual modified IS200 goodness.

I'm coming from owning a heavily modified Mazda MX-5 which was/is on a classic car policy with all my mods declared, however I'm really struggling to find suitable insurance for the IS. Brentacre won't touch it as it's "not going to be modified enough" (oh believe me, it will, just not straight away 😂), my current insurers don't seem interested as it's not a classic, and the other specialists that have quoted me are saying ludicrous prices compared to the Mazda (22y.o, 3y NCB, 1 non fault windscreen claim, average neighborhood, employed as a coach builder in the public transport industry). What really boggles me is that the heavily modified MX-5 is £50 cheaper to insure than the Lex, and I only had my license 2 years and only had 2 years NCB to use on that. The only thing I can think of is that the Mazda has a whole 10hp less than the IS200?

So any recommendations on insurers, parts suppliers, other modifications to do, or any build threads to follow would be massively appreciated. I'll keep updating when I pick up the Lex, and all the stuff I do to her. Cheers 😊

 Pic of the Mazda is my current car

Pic of the Lexus is the one I'm getting next month