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1984 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI

Published October 20, 2024 by Carter

While not the fastest or the prettiest car Volkswagen ever made, the GTI represents the ethos of VW’s 1980s philosophy of cheap, fun-to-drive, and eminently practical cars for consumers. As they did when new, the first generation GTI also represented a car which gave much faster cars a run for their money. True, the 90 horsepower under the hood won’t scare a supercar. But what this car lacks in straight-line performance it more than makes up for in value.

Over the past few years we’ve watched the fan-favorites and driver’s cars from the 1980s increasingly price themselves out of the range of most enthusiasts. The esoterics are also forged in unobtanium today, and while there was a period where you could snap up cheap 80s products in Europe and import them, they’re going away, too. Sure, the M3 and 911 led the charge, but today a clean 190E 2.3-16 or Quattro will set you back some serious bucks. And then when you do get one, you need to worry about collector insurance, expensive and hard-to-source parts and whether you bought in a bubble.

The solution is still the giant-killer GTI. Find a clean one, and you’ll have a car that can be driven at 10/10ths still today and generate plenty of smiles, yet is relatively cheap to buy and very cheap to run. You’ll get thumbs up just like the 911 driver will. Maybe even more, honestly, because when was the last time you saw an A1 cruising around?

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Single-Owner 1990 Audi Coupe Quattro

Published October 13, 2024 by Carter

Time to consider another Audi icon – the Coupe Quattro. Of course, it was quite hard to follow the original act, but in Europe alongside the RR Quattro 20V was the all-new B3 generation S2. Performance was about par between them, but they had intensely different characters. The new car was safer, quieter, more round, and a lot more practical – while the original Quattro had always looked like it had a hatchback, it was the successor that actually had one.

Of course, in the U.S. we didn’t receive the S2. The Coupe Quattro made due with a thoroughly upgraded 2.3 liter DOHC 20V motor – the 7A. Deep in the middle of the recession and not fully recovered from Audi’s 60 Minutes debacle, the very expensive Coupe Quattro sold slowly. A total of approximately 1,700 of them were imported at over $30,000 each. Considering the cost, the performance was rather soft; the heavy Coupe sported only 164 horsepower. Though smooth and reasonably quick on the highway, off-the-line performance was lackluster. Still, though the internet fora would have you believe otherwise, the performance between the U.S.-spec Coupe and original Quattro was pretty similar.

Options on the Coupe were limited to the Cold Weather package, 8-way power seats, and Pearlescent White Metallic paint – two of which are seen here on this Pearl ’90. 1991s also had the upgraded glass moonroof rather than the early steel panel, though they lost the infamous “Bag of Snakes” tubular header early models carried. 91s gained rear sway bars and are also the rarest of the bunch, with only 364 sold in the model year and 58 traded as leftovers. However, it’s this ’90 we’re talking about, and this one not only looks great – it’s supposedly still with its original owner:

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Caught Our Attention! GTI, RS6, 924S, M3

Published September 29, 2024 by Carter

Some interesting and rare-spec cars caught my attention this past week, so I figured I’d share! How about this RS6 to start? The pinnacle of the C5 was, of course, the twin-turbocharged all-wheel drive version you see here built by Audi’s skunkworks, quattro GmbH. With assistance from VAG-owned Cosworth Engineering, the resulting BCY motor cranked out a peak 444 horsepower at 5,700 rpms and an impressive 415 lb.ft of torque between 1,950 rpms and 5,600 revs. The body, brakes, wheels, and suspension were all upgraded by quattro GmbH, with plenty of technology to transfer the power to the ground and keep the RS6 planted. Though it was saddled with an automatic transmission only and tipped the scales at a massive 4,050 lbs, the tenacious all-wheel drive, computer programming and massive power resulted in a 4.4 second 0-60 sprint, besting both the contemporary M5 and E55 AMG. The RS6 had 14.4″ front brakes, dynamic ride control, and meaty 255-section Pirelli P-Zeros to control that speed. Lowered ride height, flared sills and fenders, giant gaping intakes and exhaust, and signature honeycomb grills set the stage for how these cars have looked since.

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Caught Our Attention! E500, M1, e-Tron, M4 GTS, 911, and more!

Published September 8, 2024 by Carter

Time for another round of what caught my eye this past week! Although the M1 had an inline-six like other Bavarian creations of the time, little outside of the block shared any architecture with a series production model. The basic M30 block was modified into a racing unit with dual overhead cams and became the legendary M88/1 by fledgling skunkworks BMW Motorsport. But while Giugiaro’s design was the perfect eye-catching home for the motor, he wasn’t prepared to produce the M1 in series, nor was BMW, so the company commissioned Lamborghini to produce the fiberglass bodies and assemble the cars.

The late 1970s saw Lamborghini nearly close its doors and BMW was forced to coordinate body production from Italdesign, a tubular chassis from Marchesi and Company in Modena, and partial production at the Baur Karosserie and BMW Motorsport.

By the time the delay-fraught production was completed, the race series the M1 was intended for was gone, leaving BMW to envision their own one-off Procar Championship series. Despite missing the mark with its racing heritage it was, at the time, the Ultimate Driving Machine.

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