personally, if i wanted something I could thrash and not care about, but also plan to keep it reliable (and affordable), i would get an N/A POS and give zero f**ks.
There is a Mazda 121 bubble in Vic that runs semi's and a half cage. The guy who runs it is always the happiest at any track day. May not be the fastest on the straight, but the thing just keeps chugging along and is fun.
Personally, I would do the civic route. light, heaps of aftermarket bits (a lot of them cheap), decent on fuel, tyres dont cost a fortune and neither does general or major servicing. Anyone who has done a major service (diffs+gearbox fluid) on a late Evo usually has a small tear build-up in their eye whenever they have to talk about it.