What about the old american favourite, the Decathalon. Nice benign handling good power and a taildragger for those conversions. A bit more sprightly than the T67. The bulldog is a worthy contender with similar performance to the T67 (700fpm as I recall). A 260hp T67 is quite sporty.
The CAP10 is a good tip. What about a yak 52, cheap and reliable.
And theres the cessna 150 aerobat, anyone should be able to maintain that.