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Month: January 2016

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Tuner Tuesday: 1990 Volkswagen Corrado 16V Turbo

The promise of the all new Corrado was great, and on paper the specs sounded fantastic. A new and modern chassis was paired with a supercharged inline-4 and active aerodynamics. Volkswagen fans around the world united in collective salivation. But even at launch, Volkswagen was behind the 8 ball. Performance was lacking compared to the competition and the price for this attractive coupe was quite high, as generally all Volkswagens were at the time. Then the problems of running the G60 long term started to rear their heads. The G-Lader supercharger in particular was a finicky bit of kit, and coupled with notoriously poor Volkswagen electronics in the early 1990s these remained fan favorites, but also cars to stay away from – with many opting instead to get the more robust and better driving SLC model that was launched in 1992. Modern solutions have arisen to help the G60, including turbocharging instead of supercharging, but still there aren’t a glut of these cars left. Today’s example, though, certainly looks pretty spectacular and has gone the next level by swapping in a 2.0 16V from a Jetta GLi – and then turbocharging it!

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1990 Volkswagen Corrado 16V Turbo on Hartford Craigslist

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1994 Porsche 911 Turbo S Flatnose

Naturally it took me very little time to decide whether to feature this car after I came across it. Here we have a 1994 Porsche 911 Turbo S Flatnose. 1 of 39 produced for the US market, and 1 of 93 total Turbo S produced worldwide. The 3.6 Turbo S was the final iteration of a variety of 964 turbos Porsche produced beginning in 1991 with the basic Turbo, which carried over the 3.3 liter turbocharged flat-six that had served the 930 so well for many years. In 1993 a turbocharged version of the 964’s 3.6 liter flat-six finally was readied and as a final send-off Porsche Exclusive took hold of the remaining Turbo chassis available to produce a Turbo S based off of that 3.6 liter engine. The majority of the 93 cars produced (66 in all) featured the 968-derived flatnose and that nose remains the car’s most identifiable feature. Other notable features are a unique whale tail, Speedline wheels, quad exhaust, and rear air inlets to help feed air to the engine. And of course, they had more power – 385 hp – all delivered to the rear wheels. These were the last of the purely rear-drive Turbos Porsche would produce outside of the GT2, which raised the insanity even more. The 964 saw a pretty large number of limited production models and for its combination of performance and refinement the Turbo S remains one of the best.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1994 Porsche 911 Turbo S Flatnose on eBay

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Now Legal for Import: 1990 Volkswagen Rallye Golf

Continuing with a theme I touched upon last week, I’m going to take a look at a few cars this week which are now legal for importation to the United States. It’s hard to believe more than 25 years have already passed since 1990, but that opens up a whole new portfolio of vehicles that weren’t certified by the US Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency for US sale. The Volkswagen Rallye Golf almost made it to market in the US, but sadly, an executive at Volkswagen of America trumpeting this vehicle’s cause perished in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing. With that, yet another homologation special slipped away from the grasp of the US consumer. This Rallye Golf for sale just a bit north of Stuttgart, Germany is one for the serious VW collector, having covered just over the equivalent of 20,000 miles. This is also one of the few I’ve seen with the rather tasty partial leather interior, featuring a variation on the GTI plaid in the seat inserts.

Click for details: 1990 Volkswagen Rallye Golf on Mobile.de

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Tuner Tuesday Forbidden Fruit: 2012 Audi RS3 Sportec RS550 and 2013 Audi A1 MTM

I’ve been taking a look overseas over the past few days at a few older treats that never came here, so today we’ll look at a few newer Audi products that also were prohibited from U.S. shores. One of the biggest disappointments for many four ring enthusiasts was that the 8P RS3 model wasn’t imported here. Basically a 5-door TT-RS, it was a Golf R on even more steroids – but today’s example upped the power a full 200 more than stock to 550. Similarly, I have one of the 333 8X A1 quattro MTM models produced a few years ago, and while it doesn’t share the monster performance of the RS3 it’s sure an appealing package. Which would you love to have here on this Tuner Tuesday?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2012 Audi RS3 Sportec RS550 on Classic Driver

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1994 Mercedes-Benz E500

The Mercedes-Benz W124 500E/E500 is one of those cars that we hadn’t quite seen from Mercedes-Benz and probably won’t see ever again. A product of cooperation between Porsche and Mercedes-Benz before AMG was absorbed as an in-house tuning arm, this sedan packed a powerful V8, suspension enhancements and subtle styling tweaks to be one of the most potent four-doors of its day. Now that AMG is responsible for all go fast Mercedes-Benzes, I look back on this outlier, what some consider the first true four-door Porsche. This final year E500 for sale in Atlanta is one of only seven 1994 E500s painted in Polar White. Given this is such a popular hue these days, this one is bound to catch some attention, as pedestrian as it might seem on the surface.

Click for details: 1994 Mercedes-Benz E500 on eBay

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