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The B2 Quantum has always been an interesting car to me. As my first car was an Audi 4000CS quattro, there were aspects of its Volkswagen sibling that I really liked. First, while I wouldn’t say that the Quantum was more handsome than the 4000, it was certainly more distinctive looking. There are some downright odd angles on the Quantum, but somehow the design pulls it off. It’s also more rare to see them, or at least it felt so when I was driving around in the 4000. Then there were more practical things; for example, unlike Audi who ran the odd 4×108 pattern for slightly larger brakes, the Quantum stuck to smaller stock and retained 4×100 mm wheels. That made upgrades a bit easier and gave the Quantum a signature look with the GTi-sourced snowflake wheels. You could also get the 5-cylinder in front drive sedan configuration with the GL5; it was something Audi offered early on but had dropped, instead having only the Coupe GT be the front drive 5-cylinder. But the real trump card for the Quantum was undoubtedly the Syncro Wagon, as there was no Audi B2 wagon available in any configuration:
The low mileage Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3 we featured at the end of last year has resurfaced, not having covered much more mileage but showing a slight price increase. Will the slight uptick in values for the 190E Cosworth have a positive effect on lesser W201s?
The below post originally appeared on our site November 30, 2014:
The Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16 is still one of the best bargains for eighties speed hunters. Sure, it’s well known this isn’t the fastest sports sedan of the era, but with Cosworth tuning, a tasteful bodykit and that dog-leg 5-speed manual gearbox, it’s the stuff of dreams for enthusiasts. It also has a colorful touring car race history in its portfolio. As such, many of these 190E 2.3-16s were run hard and put up wet. Every now and then, we’ll come across a really well preserved example, such as this example for sale in Florida. With just over 50k miles, this one is a minter.
One thing I really love about writing up these 10K posts is a odd combinations pricing allows me to come up with. For today’s post, I decided to do something a little different. Instead of maximizing the budget, I decided to look at it from the perspective of what was a classic 1980s car that you could buy and maintain well under $10,000. Obviously, if you’re willing to shill out much more, there are countless classics you can jump in to turn-key; but under $10,000 means with almost certainty that the car you’ll be getting in to today will be at least in part a bit of a project. Is there anything wrong with that? No, I think there’s an inherent appeal to trying to save and resuscitate a car that was in part neglected or just needs attention. Certainly I’ve tried to do that several times with 1980s cars – with mixed results. Today, I grabbed one classic from the 1980s (give or take, we’ll see…) from each of the major manufacturers – which is the one you’d like to save?
The BMW M6 is quickly becoming the M bargain of the 1980s, replacing the M5 as the go-to Motorsports product from the company. There’s some irony in that, considering that in the period it was the premier product from Munich and until quite recently was considered the most valuable. However, as the M3 prices have soared and recognition that finding a clean E28 M5 is becoming quite difficult, the slightly more plentiful M6 is suddenly a more reasonable proposition. That said, prices on M6s are all over the map – from the low teens to well over the $30,000 mark. Today I have two similar looking 1987 models to look at; I usually focus on the updated and better looking (in my opinion) ’88s, so this is a slight departure for me. Besides the shining exteriors, where does the difference in these two models lie and are the asking prices in line?
