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While we only saw a few special edition Volkswagens in the 1980s – mostly Wolfsburg Editions – the amount of special edition VWs available in the European market was staggering. Whether it was a fashion designer or a tribute to a particular sport, it seemed there was a trim package for just about every taste. This particular one, a Cabriolet Bel Air, is one that I haven’t seen before. These Bel Airs were available in three colors, Diamond Silver, Ruby Red or the Blue Pearl we see here, all with color matched Avus wheels and color matched trim. This low mileage example is for sale by the same dealer in Germany that had the BMW L7 we featured last month.
It’s a bit of a Euro-spec day here at GCFSB, and both of the featured cars are rare to see on this side of the pond. In the case of the earlier 420SEC, it’s rare to see them because there weren’t many produced and stateside we have the 560SEC that ran at the same time; in many respects, the smaller motor is a curiosity and a neat side note, but offers no real advantage to U.S. buyers. However, this example is very different; a Euro-spec 1994 M5. While the M5 left U.S. shores in 1993, it soldiered on for a few years in Europe with a revised and enlarged motor. Dubbed the S38B38, the new motor gained 25 horsepower but importantly 30 lb.ft of torque – it was now only 17 horsepower shy of 100 more than the U.S. spec E28 M5’s S38B35. That made up for some extra pounds that adorned the E34 chassis versus the earlier M cars and the M5 was even more of a flyer once again. A few of these 3.8 cars and motors have made their way stateside but they’re still quite rare to find. Usually, they have some neat oddities that we didn’t get here, such as this example’s Hurricane cloth interior. All in all, it makes for one tidy performance package that’s still quite discrete:
The W126 is still considered by many to be the pinnacle of Mercedes-Benz’s combination of luxury, style, affordability and longevity, and it’s no wonder why. It was a huge sales success when new and the stout over-engineered design means that today there are plenty that are still available in good shape. It’s pretty amazing, actually – it’s quite rare to see a good condition E23 or C2/3 Audi in good shape today, but it’s almost rare to find SELs and SECs in poor shape. But at least on these shores, most of the later examples are the big-engine 5.6 V8 U.S. models – while there are some early 5.0 European market cars that were imported, it’s rare to see the later cars on this shore. That’s especially true of one of the lowest production number variants of the W126 – the 420SEC. With only around 3,600 total produced, they’re a fairly rare sight anywhere:
The Yellow over Black 1964 Porsche 356C we featured back in July is back up for another reserve auction. Given some of the particulars detailed below I would not expect this one to go for top dollar so we’ll have to see if the reserve has been brought into more reasonable territory.
The below post originally appeared on our site July 29, 2014:
Even though it’s the best part of 70 degrees today in balmy New England, the forecast is unavoidable; in some areas of even Massachusetts, they are predicting snowflakes will be falling as soon as this weekend and temperatures will plummet into the 30s. Even while we’ve been enjoying this “Indian Summer”, I’ve been thinking about getting the snow tires ready to roll – and just because it snows doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun and be an enthusiast. I’ve taken this Wednesday Wheels post to round up some of the winter wheel/tire packages I found on eBay; all of them look like pretty reasonable deals, and some of them are pretty extraordinary! Those M3 wheels, for example, make me wish I had an M3 handy….but even if I bought them, I probably still wouldn’t drive it in the snow!
Happy Motoring, even in the white stuff!
