Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
It’s been about a month since we last wrote up a Scirocco 16V, a neat economy hatchback with plenty of 1980s character and styling. The 16V was and still is a perennial favorite of the VW crowd, who generally modify them to make them better performers and turners. Few seem to remain in pristine, original shape anymore – and this isn’t one of them, but it is a first-year model with some tasteful modifications that might be a good canvas for the VW loyal:
The 1970s Porsche 911 Carrera RSR are without a doubt one of my favorite race cars. Stretching the limits of that rear-engine design, Porsche employed both monstrous rear tires and aerodynamic aids to help tame the serious amount of grunt they were able to extract from the race prepared flat-6. And while I’m not alone in loving the RSR, not many were made leading to a fair amount of replicas of the various iterations. Some, like the last RSR replica we featured, take the iconic IROC cars as their inspiration, while others replicate more unique examples. But over the past few years backdating Carrera 3.2s and 964s has become popular, and it comes as no surprise to see today’s example – a 1984 Carrera 3.2 that’s been given the full-on RSR look – but unlike many other replicas, has remained streetable:
If you ever think the world of E30s has gone a bit wacky in the past year or two, it’s nothing in comparison to what’s happening in the world of early Porsches, and particularly the 911 model. Just this morning, RM Auctions posted their results from their most recent event and several early 911s were pushing $150,000 to $200,000. Granted, they were in top condition and low miles, but still that was money that used to be reserved for supercars. The simplicity and elegant, classic styling of the 911 has proven to be a strong motivator for many a classic car enthusiast. However, it’s important not to get caught up in the market; park two seemingly quite similar 911s together and while one will be worth close to $200,000 in today’s market, a later run car will be worth only about 1/10th of that amount. This hasn’t stopped sellers from trying to capitalize on the crazy pricing trends; just take a look at this Copper Brown 1974 Carrera 2.7 to see:
While the BMW faithful and converts have flocked to the E28 and E30 as the next collectable and drivable classics, nearly ignored in BMW history are the E21 and E12 predecessors; cars that both revolutionized the small luxury sport sedan market and set the stage for their more sought after replacements. If you’re not in as much of a hurry and don’t mind the more 70s, less 80s approach of the earlier cars, finding a clean example is a much cheaper proposition than the market stars that everyone is looking for. Truth be told, finding those clean examples – especially the E12 variety – can be difficult, but today there is a mint condition, lower mile 1979 528i example on Ebay:
If yesterday’s 1987 Jetta GLi didn’t spark your interest, perhaps one of the most sought-after GLis made will. The 1989-only “Helios Edition” Jetta GLi took the already good economy sports sedan from Volkswagen and followed the “more is better” rule, adding better BBS RA color-coded wheels and awesomely striped and hugely supportive Recaro seats. It was the prototype for what would become the standard GLi in 1990, but this car was decidedly the best GLi we had seen to that point. Only 1500 were made and they infrequently come up for sale, so while today’s isn’t in as good of shape as the 1987 from yesterday, it’s still a bit of an event to see one: