Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
Color is a big piece of the pie when it comes to buying a car. Sometimes it is the only piece. Today is one of those one-piece pies. This 2011 Mercedes-Benz E350 up for sale in Arizona is finished in Pearl Beige Metallic, and what a color it is. To me, pearl + beige + metallic = gold. This is the first time I’ve seen a modern Mercedes-Benz in Pearl Beige Metallic and by the looks of it, I’m probably not the only one.
The ‘what’ edition?
Don’t worry, that was my reaction too. It’s not that I don’t know the Latin origin of 10…heck, we’re only two weeks away from the month that begins with it (sidebar: Thanks for screwing up the straightforward month numbering system, Julius Caesar, though the weather in his and his adopted son’s months is much nicer). Anyway, here’s the R8.
The 2020 R8 V10 Performance Decennium Edition is ostensibly to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Audi’s V10, which…premiered in 2009 here. So that’s eleven years (or twelve, if you count this year). So…what’s the rub? Well, in the US Audi just skipped the 2019 model year. As the performance of the V10…Performance…was already pretty sharp, the Decennium Edition didn’t add any extra power, so as not to step on Lamborhini’s parade and become a named storm. Instead, it’s a roughly $20,000 visual package that was added on top of your already quite expensive R8 if you ticked the box, and it was limited to just 50 cars in the US. So let’s see what you got:
Within the world of older Audis, it’s often a case of pick your poison. Do you want low miles? Do you want good exterior condition? Do you want good mechanical condition? Do you want a manual? Do you want a desirable model?
Running down the checklist when considering the pool of available candidates, infrequently are you allowed to shout out “BINGOâ€!
I’m not sure today is that day, either. Here’s a 1986 Audi Coupe GT, and yeah, I really do try to look at every single one I can find. But in particular I wanted to look at this car because it’s very similar to how my own GT was delivered from the factory; Oceanic Blue Metallic, a quite rare color to find on any Audi from the 80s. How rare? Well last year I wrote Audi to ask them. And they claim that in 1986 114 Oceanic Blue Metallic with Gray Velour Coupe GTs were produced. That number seems low, but to me it also seems a bit suspect. Audi also claims they sold 2,846 Coupe GTs here in 1986. If those numbers are both to be believed, it’d mean that every 25th Coupe GT we’d come across would be Oceanic Blue Metallic. Maybe that number does make sense, but it seems to be unlikely; spotting an OBM Coupe GT in the wild seems to be a lot more unlikely than that number would suggest. Regardless, we don’t see it often, so it’s worth taking a look:
Wait, the recent strings of Opels weren’t enough? Nope! Strap in! Back in August I took a look at an ‘Opel’ Monterey, which was really just a lightly rebadged Isuzu.
Well, if you squint, this Bertone looks somewhat similar, but then all of the boxy off-roaders kinda do. That’s not where the link is, though. The Freeclimber was marketed under the Bertone, but as with previous Bertones – just as the X1/9 – it was really just a rebrand of an existing vehicle they had helped design. In this case, underneath the Freeclimber was a Daihatsu Rocky, and yeah, there’s definitely no link to Germany there. But things did get interesting under the hood…
Since the 1990s, the proliferation of each premium marque’s “special†brands has become dizzying, and for enthusiasts it seems as though they’ve continuously diluted the performance options in favor of profits. From S-Line to AMG to perhaps the biggest offender, BMW’s M division, companies are badge slapping-happy when it comes to sticking a bigger set of wheels, some special trim and maybe, if you’re lucky, a few extra ponies. And on the surface, this 335d would seem to fit that description perfectly. After all, how could you possibly compare the diesel to that sonorous M3’s S65 V8 that cranks out over 400 horsepower and 300 lb.ft of torque with a 8,400 RPM redline? Pull up to a redlight next to one in this 335d, and the snickering owner would undoubtedly be laughing at the ‘M-Sport’ option package you ticked off. Because you’d think there would be absolutely no way that diesel would produce equal power to the M3.
You’d be right. The M57 under the hood of the 335d doesn’t produce as much horsepower as the M3, at least not in stock form. But torque? It produces more. A lot more.
Starting at a leisurely 2,000 rpms, the twin turbochargers augmenting the inline-6 spool up to a mountain of power. In stock form, the 335d cranked out 428 lb.ft of torque. In fact, it’s so much torque that gets used on a regular basis that the first person I met who had one had already consumed a transfer case on his xDrive model, and he’s not alone. Being a turbocharged model, it was also quite easy and possible to turn up the wick, and yet this classy 4-door can still return 35 mpg. Try that in a M3:
