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Month: February 2023

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2001 Audi TT Roadster 225 quattro

In 1993, my father purchased a W113 Mercedes-Benz 280SL Roadster. It was green with black MB Tex and do you know what? It looked, and felt, old. At that point, it was a 22-year-old car that had been mostly forgotten by the enthusiast world. After all, the dated W113’s replacement – the oh so 80s even though it was from the 70s R107 – had just gone out of production, itself replaced by the thoroughly modern R129. I loved the R129 at the time, and the W113 seemed like a dinosaur by comparison. But my father loved the look of the W113, and so for the then princely sum of mid-teens he purchased a relatively clean, reasonably low mileage and (almost) fully functional Mercedes-Benz SL.

Fast forward three decades, and the SL market has gone completely bonkers, awakening to the fact that the W113 was (and still is) a beautiful, classic and elegant design. I’m not even sure you could buy a non-functional, rusty wreck of a W113 for the same price my father paid in 1993 – and an expensive restoration would await you.

Why do I mention this?

Today’s Audi TT Roadster 225 quattro is also 22 years old, amazingly. It’s also green, and you can get a pretty nice one in the teens. Will the TT be the W113 of the future? That seems unlikely, but they’re very nice cars that were reasonably well built, offer plenty of fun, and are oozing with style.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2001 Audi TT Roadster 225 quattro on eBay

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2022 Audi RS6 Avant Exclusive

Back in 2020 I saw the first shipment of fully wrapped RS6s arrive at the port next to my home. Audi’s top-tier wagon had finally arrived, with a full-fat 4.0T cranking out 561 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque. Coupled with a hybrid assistance motor and an eight-speed automatic gearbax, it’s no surprise the numbers are staggering. 0-60 is a hair over 3 seconds, and it’ll bury the needle close to 200 mph if deregulated. This isn’t a supercar; this is a five-passenger wagon that weighs in just over 5,000 lbs – with nothing in it! Also staggering? The tech, with touchscreens, virtual cockpit, and torque-vectoring. The tires, which measure 285/30 and up to 22″ in diameter. The brakes, which are 16.5″ in front and ‘only’ 14.6″ out back. And, the price. People are still in line to wait for these cars, and that’s despite the monster pricetag starting at $121,000. Tick a few extra options, like running the car through Audi Exclusive with a color like today’s Goodwood Green Pearl Effect, and you’re looking at $140,000 plus!

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2022 Audi RS6 Avant Exclusive on eBay

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2015 Porsche Cayman S

I’ve really come around on the 981 Porsche Cayman. For a while, I thought maybe they weren’t offering enough for the price and if you are going to spend the money you might as well just pay more for a 911, but they’ve grown on me. A big part of it was that the 718 was such a disappointment with the turbocharged flat-four and the awful sound it produces. Porsche knows this, otherwise the new GTS 4.0 probably never goes into production. Buyers want the great sounds in addition to everything Porsche has to offer.

Today’s car, a 2015 Cayman S up for sale in Miami, might have everything you are looking for in a 981. I know I’m awfully intrigued.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2015 Porsche Cayman S on eBay

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2011 Porsche 911 GT3 Club Sport

Talk about a bright color. This is a 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 Club Sport finished in the crazy and peculiarly named Yellow Green. Yes, that is the name of the color. Yellow Green. It’s not even a bad German translation either. Gelbgrün is literally Yellow Green. Either way, I hope you like being noticed and driving around in pain because you’ll be doing that in this car and paying $200,000 for the privilege of doing so.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 Club Sport at Neumann Classics

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2016 BMW 335i xDrive GT M Sport

BMW’s brief foray into “Gran Turismo” models still confuses me. After removing the 5-Series wagon from the North American market, the company decided that US buyers needed more space in the 5 again. Why those buyers couldn’t opt for one of BMW’s plentiful SUV and SAV models – the X1, X3, X5, or X6 – still baffles me, but nonetheless the company forged ahead. While it was called, a 5, it was actually closer to a 7-Series platform. The resulting G07 chassis was a disproportionate and clunky combination that managed (somehow) to look even more awkward than the X6. Baffled, too, were buyers, who drove away from dealers at a rate of only about 3,000 per year.

Undeterred, the company extended the same treatment to the 3. Based on the long-wheelbase Chinese-market F35 sedan, the F34 GT utilized the F31 wagon’s rear suspension, revised and adjustable rear seats, raised front seats, and a big hatchback. Although it looked sleeker than the Sport Wagon, because it was larger in every dimension it actually could hold more luggage. The range-topping 335i carried the single-turbo N55 inline-6, and here they were tied only to an 8-speed automatic. While admittedly a lot less awkward than the 5 GT, the 3 GT was still…different, and the 5 and 3 GTs were single-model-only to date, as the hatchback designs moved to the 6- and 4-Series models, respectively. So why buy? Well, like every prior generation of 3, you couldn’t get the most powerful motor in the Sport Wagon in the US, so the 3 GT offers the most space and spunk that you could get in the small chassis. Let’s take a look.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2016 BMW 335i xDrive GT M Sport on eBay

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