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Month: May 2018

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1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet

I almost feel like I’ve taken a hiatus from classic 911s of late. So I shall return to them with this Guards Red 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet, located in Massachusetts, with 46,900 miles on it. We see Guards Red pretty frequently on the 3.2 Carrera, less so on the 964, and then even less on the 993. After that? It almost seems to disappear. We do occasionally see red Porsches still today, especially as a PTS option, but it’s certainly a color that seems much less in style than it once did.

Here in the District we’ve been mired in an interminable cloud of rain with plenty of lightning and wind thrown in for good measure. It has been the sort of rain that doesn’t even allow for the barest hint of the sun’s existence. It has me dreaming of the days when blue sky and bright sunshine will return and that has me thinking about Cabriolets again. In the meantime all we can do is plan and wait and try to stay dry.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet on eBay

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1995 Mercedes-Benz E320 Estate

About a month ago I checked out a 1995 Mercedes-Benz E320 Estate up for sale in California. It was a really clean example in a nice color combination but the asking price of $9,500 gave me a little pause considering the 156,000 miles. I understand that wagons demand a premium and those that want them usually will pony up the cash for the right example. The seller did lower the price by to $8,500 a week later, but still that seemed a little high to me. Today, we have another 1995 E320 Estate from California but this one in checks in with just a little under 60,000 miles and a laundry list of repairs and maintenance. The price? You can probably guess it isn’t going to be cheap.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1995 Mercedes-Benz E320 Estate on eBay

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1990 Audi 90 quattro 20V

Update 5/18/18 – After failing to sell last year at nearly $8,000, this sweet and rare 1990 Audi 90 quattro 20V with some fantastic period-correct BBS RS wheels is back on eBay with an opening bid at only $4,000!

Just as they had with the development of the 10V Turbo for their top tier products, Audi’s work on the Group B, Sport and later RR 20V Quattro (along with the creation of the original S-series cars soon after) trickled down into the rest of the range, but only in a very limited fashion. The 7A 2.3 liter 20V motor was the beneficiary of that racing work, and it was at the time a pretty impressive unit. Out of 2.3 liters, Audi squeezed a very reliable 164 horsepower with a screaming 7,200 RPM redline. While it’s true this was down on peak power to racing motors like the M3’s S14, the adding of the second cam and a modern EFI engine management also yielded nearly 160 ft.lb of torque.

So why does everyone claim that this car was under-powered?

Weight. The luxury-oriented B3 was most popular in Coupe form, where at 3,300 lbs in 1991 it was in need of a diet. It was 30 horsepower down on the BMW, and weighed 500 lbs more, with a more frontward weight bias. A performance car this did not make, and the result was that the expensive Audis leisurely gained speed. Despite the near 50% power increase over the outgoing Coupe GT, a stock B3 Coupe Quattro shared near identical 0-60 times and cost $10,000 more.

But if you were a clever buyer, you could get slightly better performance out of the 4-door variant of the naturally aspirated double overhead cam inline-5. That’s because concurrent with Coupe production, the motor and drivetrain was offered in the slightly lighter 90 quattro 20V:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1990 Audi 90 quattro 20V on eBay

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2015 Porsche 911 Carrera S Coupe

It has taken me a while to warm to the 991’s design. I’ve always found it too flat and that’s coming on the heels of the gradual flattening of the 996 and 997. It has sort of a stepped on beetle look. I still prefer the more upright windshield of earlier 911s, but ultimately aerodynamics seems to have won out.

There wasn’t any particular turning point in my perception of the 991; over time I suddenly found myself walking past them and admiring their looks. Simple familiarity I suppose. I wouldn’t say it’s become my favorite 911 design or anything of that sort, but I have finally begun to enjoy the styling. The performance, obviously, always was easy to appreciate as each iteration of the 911 tends to improve in that regard. There’s no particular reason for leading with these thoughts, though I do wonder if others have found themselves feeling similarly.

It does help explain why a 911 like this, which I might have previously ignored, now seems so appealing to me. This is a Sapphire Blue Metallic 2015 Porsche 911 Carrera S Coupe, located in Pennsylvania, with 15,350 miles on it. It has the manual transmission and sport seats. It looks phenomenal!

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2015 Porsche 911 Carrera S Coupe on eBay

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1985 Volkswagen GTI

In a recent post about a 1986 Volkswagen GTI, I covered the changes and what made the early 8V GTIs unique from the Golf lineup. But I made a mistake, and I’m happy to admit it. In my defense, so did Volkswagen, though. I stated in that post that early GTIs were limited to Mars Red LA3A, Black L041, and Diamond Silver Metallic L97A. That information is backed up by Volkswagen’s official GTI brochure.

Here’s a white one.

The 1990 up GTI 16V had Alpine White as an option, but I struggle to remember seeing one earlier than that, and all the catalogs don’t list it as an option. Yet here it is and it seems to be original:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1985 Volkswagen GTI on eBay

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