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Author: Carter

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1963 BMW 700 Coupe

After yesterday’s mega M6, I’d like to take a look at another favorite BMW coupe of mine. In many ways, it is the antithesis of the M6; simple, under-powered, rear-engine and decidedly ’60s while the M6 was oh-so-’80s. The 700 Coupe developed through an interesting route, as I described in an article for The Truth About Cars. While air-cooled power was associated with VW and Porsche, NSU and BMW also flirted with rear-engine designs of their own, and in their own right they were fairly successful.

From the diminutive Isetta grew the oddly-shaped 600, which then bore the 700 run. Available in 2-door sedan, Coupe or rare convertible, the 700 developed some 30 horsepower from its .7 liter twin in the rear. The handsome Michelotti design signaled the direction for the new BMW designs, with (for the time) modern lines penned to the standard 3-box formula. A total of nearly 200,000 700s were produced, but the Coupe version sold in much smaller numbers – only about 30,000 total Coupes produced. The departed from the more traditional 2-door sedan’s look with a sharply cut greenhouse and pronounced tail fins. While the combination of all these things seems like an odd recipe, it somehow worked very well and looked beautiful:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1963 BMW 700 Coupe on eBay

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1988 BMW M6 with 12,000 Miles

We would be remiss if, during Shark Week, we failed to present an E24.

Well, here it is. And, frankly outside of the museum, I’m not sure that it gets better than this one.

First, it’s a late M6. They’re automatically better looking than the early M6s to me because of the color-matched bumper covers if nothing else. Second, this one is the perfect color combination of Royalblau Metallic (198) with Silver leather (201). Truth told, I’d prefer Lotus White Nappa (199), but I’m being quite picky. That’s because of the third item; with only 12,100 miles since new, this M6 is as close to showroom fresh as one can get it would seem. GREAT! I’ve found perfection! But, what price does that translate into.

Well, we have some comparable models to look at, amazingly. I featured a 36,000 mile 1987 reached $54,700 in bids this past April. The equally impressive 1988 Schwarz model with 32,000 miles asked $80,000. But this one? This one bats the asking price right out of the park at $135,000.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1988 BMW M6 on eBay

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1993 Audi V8 quattro

Edit 7/28/2017: This ’93 has reappeared with the same plates (so I presume the same seller) from December 2015 in a no reserve auction. It no longer has black wheels but only a few more miles on the clock. Finding clean late model V8s is pretty rare and this one generally looks nice! Cleverly the seller stuck in the listing that the car’s odometer is broken, though you have to look. The original ask price was $5,000, so it will be interesting to see where the strong bidding ends.

Sometimes it’s something small on a car you’re looking at that brings up a great memory. In the case of this 1993 V8 quattro, if my emotions weren’t already stirred by the sight of another late 4.2 model like my beloved and maligned example from a decade ago, it was the wheels that really did it for me. You see, for a few winters I ran A4-spec 15×6 steel wheels with Michelin Artic Alpins on my Ragusa Green monster. Already small, the A4 offset is higher than the V8s, leaving the impression – especially head on – that the car was floating. The awesome flares that were the signature of the V8 hung out in mid air, the antithesis of today’s trend of fitting the widest wheel as close to the fender as possible. But the result in the snow was undeniable. The V8 on skinny rubber was virtually unstoppable, hugely controllable and a riot to drive. Pulling in from runs at a Tim O’Neils rally school, the rumbling eight would erupt in clouds of smoke, as if Vesuvius was on the verge of claiming Pompeii. Crowds would gather to look in wonder and slight bemusement at the smelly, crusty and leaking old Audi which so thoroughly trounced the newer models around the circuit. Even though that car brought me plenty of heartbreak and emptied my wallet on multiple occasions, memories like that keep the legacy of my V8 ownership a positive one that still brings smiles to my face:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1993 Audi V8 quattro on Oregon Craigslist

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1995 Audi S6 Avant

After two clean 90s, it’s time to look at the much greater appeal of the turbocharged S6 Avant. Imported in even more limited quantities than the 90 quattro 20V, the wagon form of the C4 with AAN turbo power has been legendary since its inception. But with a very limited stock and a chassis known to pile on mileage with aplomb, clean and low mileage examples are few and far between.

So I’ll start off with admitting that this S6 Avant is not perfect; if anything it’s probably far from perfect by most standards. There’s body damage, a replaced hatch, the wrong wheels, a fair chunks of missing paint. It’s got 179,000 miles and is in need of a suspension refresh. It’s 22 years old, too, so you can bet it’s got some Audi idiosyncrasies. And with that, most of the 911 crew just tuned out.

But, and it’s a big but, it’s a S6 Avant. As such, it’s automatically worth investigating if it runs at all. And dig beneath the (admittedly somewhat ruined) exterior, and there’s a fair amount to like here:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1995 Audi S6 Avant on eBay

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1990 Audi 90 quattro 20V

As I cover the more typically unloved range of German automobiles, finding comps can be at best difficult. At any given time, there are many favorite models of each of the marques available from pretty much any given date range – except Audi. For example, right now there are well over 100 pre-1990 BMWs on eBay. Audi? There’s one right now. One. And, I’ve already looked at it.

The result is that when you have a pristine example of a 26 year old Audi, finding something exactly like it to compare values is very difficult. But we have something unique today to follow up on yesterday’s highly-spec’d ’91 90 quattro 20V, as another very clean Type 89 20V just so happened top come up for sale at the same time. How does it match up?

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

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