Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
Hang on for the ride, folks. I have not one, not two, but six Mk.2 GTis to cover here. Like all good Mk.2 GTis, none of these cars is stock, so you’re going to have to pick you poison. From engine mods to suspension, interior and exterior mods, we’ve got it all here – but don’t judge a book, because I don’t think they’re all bad. Let’s start with the one I think it the strongest example – a neat grey example with a VR6 swap:
Mercedes coupes have always been an object of desire for me. Sure, they lack a little of the carefree fun factor of their open roofed counterparts, but a lot of the classics coupes have blended the conservative style of the sedans with a bit of verve you would expect with a personal luxury vehicle. A two-door vehicle of this size may seem indulgent, but for me, they are oh so right. One of our favorites here at GCFSB is the C126, more commonly known as the 380SEC and later 560SEC on these shores. For a decade, this car carried the large coupe torch for Mercedes-Benz fairly unchanged and was one of those cars of the 1980s people would instantly associate with the wealthy.
First, let’s take a look at this low mileage 560SEC for sale in New York.
It might be hard to tell, but I actually have a strong preference for the Slantnose Coupe over the Slantnose Cabriolet. The cabriolets, however, tend to pop up for sale more often and as a result those are what we feature. Though perhaps it should be said, there isn’t unanimous agreement amongst those of us here at GCFSB with regard to Cabriolet vs. Coupe. But I digress, here we have another 1988 Porsche 930 Slantnose Cabriolet. This car is distinguished from the Grand Prix White Slantnose featured previously in that it comes with a few additions out of the Ruf parts bin. Most significant of those additions is the Ruf 5-speed-manual transmission, an upgrade that is sure to please buyers interested in driving this car, though I’m not sure whether it will appeal to collectors. Regardless, this is a very low mileage 930 with both aesthetic and mechanical additions that set it apart from most others.
It’s been a while since we saw Paul’s near perfect Silver Euro 450SEL 6.9 during V8 week last fall. These super-sedans established a trend Mercedes-Benz continues today; stuffing the largest V8 they can find into the largest sedan they can build. For many, it’s a winning combination – while the 6.9 was no slalom-assassin, there was simply nothing else that came close to this combination in the 1970s. Remember, this was the time period where the fastest Audi had around 113 horsepower in Europe. Then there was BMW, producing the 733 which made the Audi look downright slow but was still nearly 100hp shy of the Mercedes. But 1979 signaled the end of an era and the start of a new one, with two turbocharged sedans introduced signaling the future: Audi would release the 200 5T Turbo and BMW the 745i Turbo, and while both still couldn’t come close to the power output of the 6.9 they were much more efficient, modern motors. It wasn’t just the era of the giant motor that was on its way out, either, as the aging W116 was also on the verge of being retired in favor of the newer and more stylish W126 – a car that subsequently has become such a legend even in its own time. It’s easy therefore to discount the importance and significance of a car like the 6.9, but what it did was show us what would happen when engineers dared to let their hair down. Today there’s a lower mile example on Ebay:
I’m not a conventional person by any stretch of the means. This is probably why I’m turned on whenever I see a large luxury sedan equipped with a manual gearbox. Like this BMW 730i for sale in Potsdam, Germany equipped with a 5-speed manual gearbox. This was the first year for the E38 7 series, and while we saw this engine and gearbox in the E34 530i, this 730i model was one that never made it here.