I’ve written up a lot of Mercedes Sprinters, and have been especially excited when I find cool survivors from the old O309/0319 era. This, however, is a new one, a Spanish-built N1300 that served as the smaller counterpart to the full-size 309 vans, and it’s covered just 20k miles in its 37 years. The quality is so spectacular – and flush with ’70s style for better or worse – that it looks like one of those over-the-top VW restomods we’ve seen. The big roof-mounted luggage rack and chrome visor make it look ready to do runs from the airport to the hills in Guatemala (these were primarily used in the South American market) while the interior looks basic but very nice. It even has a little wooden table between the train-style seats doing its best impression of a Westy’s fold out surface. It’s too nice (and barely big enough inside) to convert to a camper and the 85hp from the OM615 diesel four will make highway speeds achievable only on the flats, so this isn’t going to leap to the top of dream adventure vans. Whatever you decide to do with it, you’ll have one of the most interesting looking vans on the road.
Month: February 2016
The Slate Grey Metallic 1991 Porsche 911 Turbo we featured in January remains up for sale and the price has been reduced by a little bit from $120K to $115K. I thought the original price was relatively reasonable, so as it comes down this 964 Turbo becomes just that much more appealing.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1991 Porsche 911 Turbo on eBay
The below post originally appeared on our site January 22, 2016:
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It’s a rare day when I’ll talk about a Porsche 911 on this forum, as my fellow contributor Rob has spent a lifetime devoted to this air-cooled sportscar. When we hang out together, one question has arisen from time to time: “if you had to have one 911, which one would it be?” That’s a tough one, considering we have a model portfolio of 50 years to choose from. But one 911 stands out as the holy grail for me: the 3.2 Clubsport. To me, this is what the 911 is all about. Light weight, no frills and a pure driving experience. This 1987 911 Clubsport for sale in Germany was sold originally in Sweden and found its way back home in 2009. Looking for something a bit more unique in the 3.2 realm? Read further…
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1987 Porsche 911 Clubsport at Jan B. Lühn
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Nate’s look at the E34 and E39 Dinan M5s over the past week is a poignant reminder of the factory-backed performance available in these super sedans. In the best style of “Q-Ships” – World War II merchant ships that hid surprising armament behind their docile exterior – they’re turned up but never outrageous. When it came to the E60 chassis though, with 500 horsepower on tap how did one increase the already world-beating performance? In Dinan’s case, there was no replacement for displacement, as they punched out the 5 liter V10 to 5.8 liters. The result was an additional 100 horsepower and around 80 lb.ft more torque while still maintaining the stratospheric redline. Yet that insane performance was available in a wrapper which looked no different than a standard M5:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2006 BMW M5 Dinan 5.8 on eBay
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Most younger readers won’t immediately think any of the German marques were well established in single seaters prior to recent Mercedes-Benz domination in Formula 1. And to be fair, as individual manufacturers that is nearly the case, although Porsche did develop a pretty impressive single race winner in the flat-8 804 of 1962. And, let’s not forget that it was both Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union that had really spurred the development of modern single-seat racing in the pre-War Silver Arrows. But far more prevalent has been German participation in single-seater construction as engine providers. From Volkswagen’s spec racers right through the mighty screaming Williams BMW V10s, there’s a long and storied history of German power. But oval racing? That’s another story, right? Well, actually the Germans have been there right along, too – with Mercedes-Benz taking part in the inaugural Indy 500 through the mega-dominant Ilmore Penske PC-23. Porsche, too, has been tied with the Indy 500, running turbocharged V8s in March chassis in the late 1980s. But the more interesting story was the car that never ran – the 935-powered Parnelli/Interscope Racing entry from 1980: