Car and Driver has a pretty fun sounding idea going on... Battle of the Beaters, the Craigslist Cup

the idea is that 3 to 6 buddies all pony up a couple thou, buy some cheap identical cars as far as make and model.

Pick some destination to road trip to, and see if they cars will make it.

Once the road trip is over at the destination, then beat on the cars some more, drag race, gravel pit race, rally race through old tow rut roads, or whatever. Make a day of it, make some memories.

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/battle-of-the-beaters-v-the-geo-metro-craigslist-cup