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When I think of someday branching out beyond cars from 1988, one of the first that comes to mind is the business-class rocket E39 M5. What they lack in rarity they make up for by being one of the best sport sedans ever made, with the total package of comfort, speed, power, and handling. Today we have a low-mileage example with essentially no description, but hints pointing towards it being a loved weekender. I dig the M-stripes on the front spoiler mixing up the otherwise-stealth black on balck. A carbon lip appears to be the only modification, and is a subtly good-looking one at that. I’d like some more info before I bought and you can certainly find E39s cheaper, but less than 70k miles and good care would make this worth close to its asking price.
In yesterday’s post on a 1978 Porsche 930, Rob asked “What happened to Guards Red“? Well, I have a similar question – what happened to all of the front wheel drive Audi 5000s and 100s? Occasionally we see some turbocharged front-wheel drive 200 models come up for sale, but even they’re a rarity; yet, in the 1980s it was those front-wheel drive models that provided the revenue stream for Audi, who struggled to sell vehicles increasingly towards 1990. The 5000 and 100 were actually pretty popular, too – competent, quiet highway cars that looked much more updated than the rivals from Munich when they launched. Sure, they weren’t the best performing cars in their day, but they were a reasonable alternative to the Mercedes wagon, which was the only other big German wagon at the time. Despite that, there just aren’t many left – especially not in this condition:
The 1997 Mercedes-Benz SL320 we featured earlier in the month is back up for sale once more, just in time for someone seeking a looker for the summer months.
The below post originally appeared on our site April 19, 2014:
When I’m not writing for GCFSB, I’m a history teacher at the local Community College. As a history teacher, it’s my job to help to explain to students different points in history – nearly all of which I haven’t lived through, obviously. Now, in a course like “Western Civilization” you’ll be lucky to get to the present times, or even break through the Vietnam War – but while most time periods and historical trends I can explain, I have a very hard time explaining the 1980s. This is semi-ironic, since it’s the one I grew up with, the formative one in my personal history; yet, I often find myself baffled by some of the trends. Were they really the result of counter-culture, a reaction to the equally bad taste of the 1970s? Was it the proliferation of the music video, electronic gear, new gaming experiences, and the ever present threat of nuclear holocaust at the hands of the Russians? We got personal computers, cellular phones and digital everything – heck, even the dashboard on my Audi is digital! Yet the one trend I have the most trouble explain is why everyone insisted on chopping the roof off otherwise perfectly good cars:
As any Porschephile knows, the marque loves to produce special edition variants, especially of the 911, to signify various milestones in the brand’s life. So when it came time for the 250,000th 911 to roll off the line, Porsche surely couldn’t let that milestone pass by without recognition. Built in 1987 as a model year 1988 car, the Commemorative Edition 911 (also referred to as the Jubilee Edition) featured Diamond Blue Metallic paint on the exterior, with matching Fuchs wheels, and a Silver Blue Metallic interior with Porsche script on the headrests. Other than a short-throw shifter, the Commemorative Edition was mechanically similar to a standard 3.2 Carrera with G50 5-speed transmission. The example featured here is a Cabriolet, located in Miami, and has seen a very reasonable 37,198 miles.
