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If you ever think the world of E30s has gone a bit wacky in the past year or two, it’s nothing in comparison to what’s happening in the world of early Porsches, and particularly the 911 model. Just this morning, RM Auctions posted their results from their most recent event and several early 911s were pushing $150,000 to $200,000. Granted, they were in top condition and low miles, but still that was money that used to be reserved for supercars. The simplicity and elegant, classic styling of the 911 has proven to be a strong motivator for many a classic car enthusiast. However, it’s important not to get caught up in the market; park two seemingly quite similar 911s together and while one will be worth close to $200,000 in today’s market, a later run car will be worth only about 1/10th of that amount. This hasn’t stopped sellers from trying to capitalize on the crazy pricing trends; just take a look at this Copper Brown 1974 Carrera 2.7 to see:
We enjoy the 912 here at GCFSB. These cars capture the contours and beauty of the original 901 design and marry it to a fairly basic drivetrain. During their production the 912 was Porsche’s entry-level car. It appeared nearly identical to the higher-priced 911 but utilized a 1.6 flat-4 rather than the 911’s flat-6 and initially saw excellent sales. Today, prices on these cars remain relatively low, though we’ve noticed that they’ve slowly crept up, in part from the rapid appreciation of the long-hood 911. Still, for a ’60s Porsche the entry cost is typically reasonable. The example featured here is a 1-owner Ossi Blue 1969 Porsche 912 located in California. It predominantly retains its originality and comes along with just more than 82K miles.
It takes a bit for me to be interested in writing up E30 M3s. Maybe it’s the popularity, or the expensive-and-rising values, but the topic seems a bit overcooked these days. Today’s is an interesting package though, matching the common S52 swap with the E46’s 6-speed manual, all wrapped in a very clean and stock body with a cleanly redone interior. Pretty complete for those who don’t care about the technicalities of being all-original but love ///M with a passion. This is about the most attractive modified E30 M3 I’ve seen in a while, and it’s price is accordingly ridiculous.
Every time I go out on the web and browse around for a BMW E36 M3 sedan, the selection is usually a bit underwhelming. A lot of these four-door M cars were automatic and while it certainly doesn’t make it a terrible car, it does nothing to sate the appetite of the enthusiast. There’s also a lot of higher mileage examples out there which can potentially scare off the novice M car buyer. This M3 sedan, however, is a 5-speed manual and even with 125k under its belt, still looks the business.
While the BMW faithful and converts have flocked to the E28 and E30 as the next collectable and drivable classics, nearly ignored in BMW history are the E21 and E12 predecessors; cars that both revolutionized the small luxury sport sedan market and set the stage for their more sought after replacements. If you’re not in as much of a hurry and don’t mind the more 70s, less 80s approach of the earlier cars, finding a clean example is a much cheaper proposition than the market stars that everyone is looking for. Truth be told, finding those clean examples – especially the E12 variety – can be difficult, but today there is a mint condition, lower mile 1979 528i example on Ebay: