Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
Ever feel like you are having car déjà vu? If you are like me, it happens from time to time. A car that you recognize, but maybe can’t place it or isn’t sure if it was the same model. When I saw this car, a 1990 Mercedes-Benz 560SEC, it took me about 30 seconds to remember the story on it. However, the story does not get any better.
It feels like the W211 Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG is flying under the radar a little. Well, at least for now. Maybe it’s their subtle looks or lack of screaming exhaust note, but then again, that was the entire point when this car was new. Keep in mind, this was right when the horsepower wars started between Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi, which ultimately prompted V10s in both the E60 M5 and C6 S6. Looking back now, the E60 M5 is basically considered radioactive in terms of reliability, and people seem not to want to sign up for an aging Lamborghini-esque V10 that requires carbon cleaning and new intake flaps every so often. That leaves the E55, the car with a big supercharger on it, as the most reasonable example to own out of the three. I think we set the bar pretty low here.
Like Porsche, BMW has gone crazy with the special editions recently, and who can blame them, really – slap some badges and a special color on a normal production car, announce it’s limited production, jack up the price; enthusiasts seems to love it these days.
In the case of the M5 30 Jahre Edition, which of course celebrated the European introduction of the model and not the US-market E28s, BMW announced in 2014 that they’d make 300 of the special edition M5s to commemorate the following year. These cars were auto-equipped with the Competition package, and the more than just badging, BMW Motorsport turned up the wick on them as well. Revised engine tuning yielded 600 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque. Of course, the visual tweaks were much more noticeable than the power bump; 30 Jahres were produced solely in Frozen Dark Silver Metallic with dark chrome accents and special badging as well as 20″ Style M601 wheels with Jet Black accents outside, while inside black Merino leather was contrasted with ’30 Jahre M5′ embroidery, Alcantara interior trim, an Alcantara steering wheel, 30 Jahre door sills, and a 1/300 dashboard badge. One of these special editions has popped up for sale in Arizona, impressive since the claim is that only 30 made it here:
For some reason, I feel like I need a distraction today. Let’s look at some fun cars!
Following on the heels of the Carrera 2.7 MFI, Porsche introduced two hot 911s in 1975. Of course, the big arrival was the 930 Turbo Carrera. But Porsche took components from the 2.7 MFI and the Turbo Carrera, backed out the turbocharger, and produced the car you see here – the 200 horsepower Carrera 3.0, a healthy bump over US-spec cars. They are quite rare, having been built only between 1975 and 1977, and a total of just 3,687 are claimed to have been built. There were numerous changes between the 1976 and 1977 model years, with the ’76 being the more rare of the two. Of course, these were European-specification cars, and as a result were not imported to the US. So it was a bit of a treat to stumble across one of the roughly 1,100 ’76 Coupes (maybe…see below) for sale in Arizona:
No, that letter ‘K’ in the title wasn’t a careless keystroke that I’ve been know to make. It is the understanding of the decimal unit prefix in the metric system denoting multiplication by one thousand. In layman’s terms, this 911 has 376,000 miles. To make it even more interesting, this particular 1986 Porsche 911 was optioned with the M491 code, which means “a sheep in wolf’s clothing”. Okay not exactly, but it denotes the car has the body of a 930 Turbo, but engine remains the standard 3.2L flat-six. You’d think this car has 37,000 miles by looking at it, and the owner must think so too as it sure is priced like it is.
