The 911, for good reason, has developed a reputation as a difficult car to drive. Much of this has to do with the rear-engine layout and subsequent dynamic imbalances from the resulting rearward weight distribution. In its early years, these effects were actually more pronounced due to the 911’s shorter wheelbase. A shorter wheel base produces greater agility and provides for easier right-to-left transitions, but in a car with its weight shifted towards the rear those nimble qualities can quickly get out of hand. For the 1969 model year Porsche sought to improve the 911’s overall stability by lengthening the wheelbase, making the short wheelbase cars somewhat of a historical footnote. The car we have featured here comes from those first few years of 911 production: a long-time garaged 1966 Porsche 911 Sunroof Coupe with a mere 14,620 miles on it, located in Oregon. It doesn’t wear its original shade of Light Ivory paint, but still looks very sharp here in Red.
Month: April 2014
If you missed last week’s awesome Westfalia that Nate wrote up, you missed a great example of the breed – as Nate put it, all you could ask for in a Vanagon. But if you don’t need the kitchen and awesomely cool pop-top, you can save a bunch of money and still have the Vanagon experience. Granted, you could argue that a large part of the appeal of the Vanagon is those camper Westfalias, but there’s a neat simplicity about the non-camper version. Today there is a stunningly clean version of the regular Vanagon GL on Ebay:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1991 Volkswagen Vanagon GL on eBay
5 CommentsAbout a month ago, I wrote up a 2002 M20 Turbo built by a company called Manofied. Well, the Manofied folks have been at it again, this time with a 535i. They’ve fully built the car in the style of the Alpina B9, replete with plenty of Alpina parts, some Euro bits, and what appears to be a fantastic individual throttle body engine. The downside? As with the 2002, the price for this build is quite high for a non-original car. But before you jump to conclusions, take a look:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1988 BMW 535i Alpina Tribute on eBay
Comments closedIf yesterday’s low-mileage and high-dollar 993 Turbo was out of your price bracket or simply not the sort of Porsche that you are in the market for, then perhaps the car featured here will be more appropriate. An Ocean Blue 1998 Porsche 911 Carrera S with Cashmere leather interior, located in New York. With its wider rear and stiffer suspension the C2S delivers nearly perfect contours to go along with 282 hp driving the rear wheels. While not as effortlessly powerful as the Turbo, the C2S still provides its owners plenty of power and, outside of the unobtainable Carrera RS, represented the best of the naturally-aspirated road-going 993s.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1998 Porsche 911 Carrera S on eBay
1 Comment“They don’t make ‘em like they used to.” How many times do we hear this in passing? Perhaps in this age of instant communication and mass produced goods, it rings more true than ever. For the most part, new cars are more reliable and offer technology one could have only dreamed of a scant ten years ago. For some, new cars have lost a bit of that special feeling that came with design driven by passion rather than committee and accountant. Step into a car today and even the most extravagant models will have some parts from a central supplier or share switchgear with lesser models in the parent company portfolio.
This nicely presented 560SL comes to us from our friends at Sun Valley Auto Club in Idaho and is a stunning example of one of the most iconic Mercedes designs of the last few decades.