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Recently we’ve had a wave of lightly modified, good condition A1 GTis. Always a popular platform for tuners and back yard mechanics, the GTi for a long time was cheap, modifications were plentiful, and they mostly lived a hard life. Today, finding clean examples will yield you a highly sought after prize; with so few left, the price has been driven up and nice examples are coming out of the woodwork to test the waters. Today we have two modified but clean GTis – will either be to your taste? Let’s look at the cleaner and more original of the two:
Okay, so you can’t get the Euro-spec C4 Audi S6 here in the U.S. yet. That means the awesome 6-speed, interiors, V8 engine options, better bumpers and wheel packages remain across the pond, just out of reach of enthusiasts. Bummer, right? Well, don’t forget that nearly the same version of the Euro-spec car came here for 3 short years in the form of the S4/S6, long a popular favorite in the Audi tuning crowd. Capable of monstrous levels of power, the snap of torque in chipped versions of the 3B/AAN motor is downright addictive. You’ll quickly find your self repeatedly slowing down, a gear up from where high-revving BMWs would be calling, and planting your foot deep into the carpet to ride a giant wave of torque to illegal speeds. But the C4 is also a comfortable cruiser capable of tackling long trips with luggage for the family in any weather. It is, simply put, one of the best packages Audi has ever produced – and they don’t get much better than this one:
The 1990s was a time of transition at Mercedes-Benz. Model nomenclature evolved from numbers at the beginning of each model to a letter, Porsche was commissioned for a super sedan in the form of the 500E/E500 and AMG, the engineering firm responsible for a lot of Mercedes-Benz motorsport success and performance oriented street vehicles became a subsidiary under the Three Pointed Star umbrella. Their first official vehicle was the W202 based C36, a compact sports sedan intended to battle for enthusiasts’ wallets right in BMW’s Motorsport backyard. Right before the C36 appeared, an AMG oddity appeared, something that would grab the attention of the burgeoning SUV market: the G36 AMG.
This pumped Geländewagen appeared some years before Mercedes-Benz would flood the US market with G500s, G550s and AMG tuned examples that have become so popular with the rich and famous. With a breathed on 3.6 liter inline-6 under the hood, this G-wagen would give off-roaders a bit more juice when tackling those steep hills with this truck’s renowned three locking differentials.
There has been a decent bit of discussion lately concerning the current prices for air-cooled 911s and whether they’re being over valued. Much of that discussion has been concerned with a variety of rare variants that have seen very high prices. We might then wonder about the standard 3.2 Carrera and whether those prices too have shot up. The short answer is yes. The car featured here should provide us with a reasonable barometer of the current market for a classic 911 from the ’80s. Here we have a Black on Black 1989 Porsche 911 Carrera, located in New York, which has seen 57,000 miles. The value of this particular 911 should be buoyed by a couple of factors: 1) it comes from the final year of classic 911 production so it will be as refined as these cars get, including possessing the very desirable G50 5-speed manual transmission and 2) it has the factory sport seats.
If you missed Paul’s MerCamino earlier today, I’ve got another strange conversion for you. The 1980s were a heady time for “tuners”, some of which made some downright odd creations and others of which took existing really good cars and just…well, made them worse. One of the best ways to wreck a good car is to chop the roof off, and making cabriolet or roadster versions of coupes seemed to be a sure tuning bet in the 1980s. We got convertible versions of the Quattro, Porsche 928, BMW 6 series – heck, even the Ferrari Testarossa wasn’t immune. But if you wanted luxury and sun for 4, of course you needed a Mercedes-Benz 500SEC convertible. And while you’re there, why not throw in some AMG bits. “What?”, you say, “But I’ve never seen one!” Search no more: