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While it’s nice to look at imports from Europe that we didn’t get here, when it comes to the Volkswagen front we got at least one of the most desirable 1990s VWs that wasn’t sold in Europe – perhaps, one of the most desirable all around Volkswagens ever made – in the 1990-1992 GTi 2.0 16V. It wasn’t really the best at much of anything compared to the competition; the engine was thirsty and noisy, the upright shape of the Mk.2 Golf was old and on the verge of being replaced, the expensive wheels bent at the mere sight of a pothole, the transmission self-machined occasionally and the electronics were the work of a high school tech class. If you wanted a fast, economical, awesome handling hatch that actually worked all of the time, you bought an Acura Integra GS-R. But all of these faults didn’t detract from what was for the the most desirable GTi package Volkswagen produced. You got the iconic chunky shape of the Golf with extra wide flares. It sat lower, and though they were soft those BBS RMs were gorgeous. Inside were the spectacular Recaro Trophy seats and little else – these were no-frills cars compared to the more luxurious GLi models. And to top it off, under the hood was the screaming 16V in 2.0 form. Good for 134 horsepower and vibrating the entire car (and your eardrums) at highway speed, this car moved beyond look and into entire sensation:
The promise of the all new Corrado was great, and on paper the specs sounded fantastic. A new and modern chassis was paired with a supercharged inline-4 and active aerodynamics. Volkswagen fans around the world united in collective salivation. But even at launch, Volkswagen was behind the 8 ball. Performance was lacking compared to the competition and the price for this attractive coupe was quite high, as generally all Volkswagens were at the time. Then the problems of running the G60 long term started to rear their heads. The G-Lader supercharger in particular was a finicky bit of kit, and coupled with notoriously poor Volkswagen electronics in the early 1990s these remained fan favorites, but also cars to stay away from – with many opting instead to get the more robust and better driving SLC model that was launched in 1992. Modern solutions have arisen to help the G60, including turbocharging instead of supercharging, but still there aren’t a glut of these cars left. Today’s example, though, certainly looks pretty spectacular and has gone the next level by swapping in a 2.0 16V from a Jetta GLi – and then turbocharging it!
The automotive ‘Field of Dreams’, it seems these days that if you post it, they will come. Potential buyers (read: mostly tire kickers or keyboard warriors who pontificate about what they’d buy with when banks finally allow them to cash their internet checks) play the roll of Ray Kinsella, cutting through the field of vanilla cars, driven by a ceaseless desire to find their magical dream team. Playing the roll of ‘Topless’ Joe Jackson in today’s lineup is a 1990 BMW M3 – a car you could have gone to the driveup in to watch my topical movie. Now, truth told I’ve previously spoken about how fast convertibles don’t really make a tremendous amount of sense to me, and I have to point towards the E30 M3 Convertible as one particularly odd topless choice. What BMW did was infuse your normal 3 series with race-bred DNA, winding up the motor with the revtastic S14 and stiffening the suspension to handle all of your curb-hopping, door pounding action. And then, they chopped the roof off, adding 400 pounds to reinforce the chassis and utterly transforming the car from a potential podium to a potent pocketbook. Alright, that’s a huge exaggeration, but still, it just doesn’t make sense to me. It does, however, make sense to those who are happy to part with a fairly substantial chuck of change to jump into this pristine example:
There’s been a fair amount of talk on these pages about M branding, as BMW has moved towards slapping badges on seemingly every single model regardless of their sporting potential. Can you blame them? Perhaps, but obviously they’ve done their market research and just as Audi and Mercedes-Benz have similarly increased the breadth and scope of their limited run production, BMW has offered the public an ever increasing and diverse range of M badged products. It’s as if these three are cowboys on the range, fearful of each other’s steeds and stoking the fire to brandish their labels on the rear ends of their flock in a futile attempt to establish dominance and feign individuality. But, in all honesty this isn’t a new trend. As far back as the mid 1980s, BMW was offering badge engineering on some of its finest products, and the M535i is the best example of this. Essentially this was a 535i with a M Technic body kit and no real performance changes outside of an optional suspension package. Does that make it less desirable?
It’s been a good week for European specification BMWs here at GCFSB, with the ultra-clean and original E28 and unique E34 the other day. Today is a more desirable model to many, because beyond offering the slimmer bumpers the rest of the world enjoyed, through the mid 1980s if you wanted any real performance from your BMW the Euro versions offered a substantial bump. Through 1984, the top of the heap on U.S. shores was the 633CSi – power had steadily improved since launch, but only slightly – from 176 horsepower in the 630CSi to 181 in the 633. Running concurrently in Europe, however, was a hotter 635CSi. With 218 horsepower on tap from the enlarged 3.4 liter displacement, coupled with a lower weight, these sharks offered much better performance than the U.S. bound models and it was quite popular in the early 1980s to import them. However, in 1985 BMW brought it’s own semi-neutered version of the 635CSi to the North American market, meaning the flood of European models slowed to a trickle and it’s fairly rare to find any post 1985. Today’s example is from that changeover year, and looks splendid in black over tan with BBS wheels:
