Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
I had to do a double take when I saw this 1995 BMW 840Ci for sale in California, as Carter had featured a strikingly similar example at the end of last month. Sure enough, this Oxford Green Metallic 840Ci is a different car altogether, but one which has almost 80,000 less miles. With the lower running costs of the V8 engine over the V12 and such low mileage, this could be one of the ultimate 8 series opportunities that we’ve come across here at GCFSB.
It seems we often list multiple cars from the same seller; in some cases, that’s simply because they have the best examples that are available. EAG and Sloan Cars are great examples of this, amongst many. However, there’s a second tier of cars that we feature – eye candy that lies abroad and would be more difficult to procure. Such is the case with dealers like 4Star in England who seemingly has an endless supply of incredible examples of cars we all want. I think, however, that we need to add “ExoticCarsJapan” to the list, since this is now the third successive Alpina and fourth BMW I’ve written up from them. However, unlike the two previous E28 5-series B9s, today’s example is quite a rare example – a 1982 C1 2.3 E21:
E30 fanatics (am I automatically considered one for using alphanumerical platform codes?) love digging deep for special editions and casually name-dropping things like “Sport Evo,” “Cecotto,” and “M-Tech 1” or even “M-Tech 2!” Today’s right-hand drive Sport Edition is a new one for me and was available in Europe, Japan, Australia, and South Africa. If you like shifting out of “Park” with your left hand and enjoy constantly wondering where the double yellow lines are, this special-edition 325i could be yours for just a bit more than a standard E30. That’s right: as bonus feature, it has a rebuilt Sport slushbox! The 325i Sport’s autotragic was way before its time, incorporating BMW’s now-ubiquitous and seemingly-endless shifting options in the form of 3 settings – choose your adventure! Redlining the M20 isn’t just for clutch-capable teenage hoons anymore, Americans! With moderate mileage and the subdued Delphin Grey, you can confuse children in a car that appears to have no driver while appearing to enthusiasts like just another dude in an E30 with a mediocre bodykit and some rust bubbles.
It’s hard to believe it’s almost been a full decade since the first generation of the reborn MINI Cooper has passed. Four years ago I made the fateful choice to sell my 2007 Mercedes-Benz C230 Sport for a low mileage 2006 Cooper S. I haven’t looked back. It’s been a fantastic ownership experience and a car that suits my needs quite well. I choose a 2006 Cooper S because it was the final year for the Brasilian sourced Tritec supercharged engine. The first time I got behind the wheel of an R53 Cooper S I was hooked. The engine was punchy, had torque in every gear and, oh, that whine from the blower under the bonnet. In an age where a lot of newer cars seem to just blend together, this little car had serious character.
For the R53’s final year, MINI would introduce a special run of 2000 Cooper S models, with the John Cooper Works package labeled the “GP.†This was a very focused, track ready beast built in Italy by Bertone, sans rear seat with some other weight savings measures and a higher output motor. The sole color choice was Thunder Blue with red door mirror caps, carbon fiber rear wing and unique four-spoke alloys. This Cooper S JCW GP for sale in Miami has done just over 40,000 miles and is ready to tackle any curve you could throw at it.
Though personally invested, I’m still skeptical of the recent prices we’ve seen E28 M5s being listed for. It seems like reasonable examples were going for high teens just a few months ago, yet all of a sudden it seems any clean sub-150k mile example is going for over $30k. Today’s example is one of the rare Canadian models with the all-black interior, which is a fun idea but much less appealing (to my eyes at least) than the tan interiors present on the other 99%. It has just 124k miles and appears to be in good working order, but it’s not like the shockingly clean examples we’ve featured recently. It’s lived through 4 owners and the maintenance history is disappointingly lacking. The E28 community seems to express a collective “meh” when black-interior cars are brought up, but some like the color and rarity. Have E28 M5 prices really gone up 100% over the last year?