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Month: January 2019

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1964 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman

There are few cars I geek out over more than the Mercedes-Benz 600 and all of its crazy variations. There is just something about the ”money is no object” philosophy with these cars and the seemingly endless options that were offered. One of those options was the factory Pullman body that turned this sedan into a limousine. Wildly popular with celebrities, industrialists and heads of state, these offered the best the automotive world had to offer with seating for six. Today’s car, a 1964 Pullman for sale in Germany, was built for and used by the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe: Siemens AG.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1964 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman at Hemmings

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2000 BMW Z8 with 4,602 Miles

It boggles my mind that the Z8 design is now 24 years old. First penned in 1995 and shown at the Japanese Motorshow in 1997, the Z8 looked outrageous and the recipe sounded perfect with internals were borrowed from the E39 M5. That meant the S62 quad-cam double-VANOS 4.9 liter V8 cranking out 394 horsepower and routed exclusively through a Getrag 6-speed manual transmission driving only the back wheels. Coupled with Henrik Fisker’s sumptuous lines, the Z8 managed to both channel the history of BMW’s landmark 507 and be a cutting-edge design at the same time. It was the halo car that helped to lead BMW into a new Millennium. Sold for sometimes upwards of $160,000 they were instantly collector fodder, but these cars also caught headlines almost immediately due to problems with their aluminum space frames deforming in the shock tower area.

Between collectability, the up-front expense and fear of destroying the chassis, a fair amount of these cars appear today with very low mileage. So why look at this one? Well, it is well below average mileage, but mainly – the color. Only 5,703 Z8s were produced, putting it roughly on level footing with the E24 M6 in terms of scarcity. Worldwide only 325 were selected in Topaz Blue Metallic, and of those this is one of the 131 produced for the 2000 model year and only 30 sent to the U.S., 21 of which had the Crema interior of today’s example:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2000 BMW Z8 on eBay

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Wednesday Wheels: Speedline JDD Twin Tyres

I’m sure you’ve heard the old ”we aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel” in some useless meeting at one point in your life by a guy who is trying to justify his existence at your company when all everyone wants to do is just get back to work. Today, we have an example of someone not trying to reinvent the wheel, but rather slice it in half. Back in the 1980s, a guy named Jerry Juhan came up with the idea that two narrow tires would be much more useful in wet and sloppy conditions than one wider tire. So he put that theory into reality by literally putting two smaller tires on a single rim. He convinced wheel marker Speedline to build him a bunch of sets and went to UK tire manufacturer Avon to produce the tires. Did this work? Well, there probably is a reason why we all aren’t out there driving on eight skinny tires on our cars but I wouldn’t say it was a total failure. I think of it more as a never caught on type of deal. Naturally, a few sets of these wheels still bounce around the internet from time to time as a relic and this set up for sale in Hungary looks to be in decent shape with its original Avon TurboSpeed tires still mounted. They aren’t cheap by any means, but if you want to wow everyone at RADwood 2019, here is your shot.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: Speedline JDD Twin Tyres Wheels on eBay

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Tuner Tuesday: 1975 BMW 3.0CS Alpina B2

As BMW turned firmly towards sports car racing and aimed its cross hairs directly at Stuttgart, it was the Big Coupe – the E9 – that would first carry their fledgling Motorsports division to the victory circle in large-scale international racing. While the 2002 had been champion in support series – Dieter Quester in ’68 and ’69 Division 3, for example, the E9 moved BMW up to directly challenge the fastest sports cars in the world. Victory laurels in some of the most significant races followed: The European Touring Car Championship (’73, ’75, ’76, ’77, ’78 and finally ’79 – some years out of E9 production!) and class victories at Le Mans, Spa and Daytona. These racing efforts had coincided with the growth of some of BMW’s most significant tuning partners; Schnitzer Motorsports and, of course, Alpina.

At the launch of the E9, Alpina would still be a long way from becoming the factory partner and full-fledged manufacturer we recognize today. However, prior to their first official model launch, like AMG the company was active in producing aftermarket parts – especially, motors – for the BMW range. Early Alpina-modified cars are hard to come by, and often lack the full documentation of the later VIN-specific models. However, once in a while a very original and significant one pops up such as today’s late production E9 apparently with all its ducks in a row. Originally a 2.5CS, this car underwent thorough modifications in the 1970s including installation of one of their hottest motors:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1975 BMW 3.0CS Alpina B2 on Hemmings.com

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1997 Mercedes-Benz SL60 AMG

I know everyone might be getting just a little sick of all the silver R129 Mercedes-Benz models I’ve been covering as of late, but I promise this one is worth it. This is a 1997 Mercedes-Benz SL60 AMG up for sale just outside of London. The backstory on the SL60 AMG is a little murky but I’m going to try to explain it the best I can. These cars were officially sold through Mercedes as a SL60 from 1993 to 1998, meaning when you run the VIN it comes back as a SL60 and not just as SL500s that were converted after the fact like we see a lot of times. There wasn’t much fanfare or marketing for these; they made somewhere between 1000 and 1500 with all of them being sold anywhere but North America.

The modifications are what you might have guessed: the 5.0 liter M119 converted to a 6.0 liter that made a conservative 381 horsepower. The rest of the stuff depended on the year and what the AMG factory felt like putting in the car. I don’t have any explanation as to why some cars were sold with Xenon and some weren’t. The same went with the interior changes as some cars got AMG gauge clusters while some didn’t and some interiors were crazy colors but others were just standard R129 interiors from that year. I believe that all the cars, except the very early ones, received the two-piece AMG wheels in the staggered setup. Today’s car is one of the few right hand drive examples that were built and honestly priced pretty reasonable in the grand scheme of things.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1997 Mercedes-Benz SL60 AMG on eBay

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