Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
It’s a rainy day here in New England, so I spent some time finding my favorite wheels on Ebay. Most of these are period option or aftermarket wheels, but all of them are pretty cool. I especially love the BMW Ronal wheels, the ATS AMG wheels in nearly new shape and the amazing BBS magnesium Bugatti EB110 wheels. Which are your favorite?
Update: thanks to reader KevinR for correctly spotting the Mercedes-Benz wheels were Centra Type 31s. Thanks!
There are a fair amount of people who don’t get the “stance” scene, and there are many others who don’t understand modifying a car to go to the track. There are those who don’t understand Concours shows, those who don’t understand not putting miles on a car, and an equal number who don’t understand daily driving a high-performance machine. There are diesel fans, turbo fans, V8 fans and even fans of the supercharger. There are people who love modifications and those who prefer their cars stock. For the most part, I “get” all of these camps; I don’t necessarily agree or favor any one in particular, but each has its own merits. There is one that still leaves me a bit mystified though – drag racing. I understand it takes tremendous skill to get a car dialed in; I appreciate the engineering that goes into overcoming physics. I am awed by the raw speed that these vehicles can produce – ballets of explosive violence, a concoction of sound, smells and disappearing cars. But I’ve never really understood the attraction of drag racing, though an unusual suspect can sure make me smile:
In Paul’s recent M6 Roundup he celebrated the many different colors that the M6 came in, including a rare Bronzit example. It’s one of the many reasons I prefer the M6 over the M5. The second reason is the particular look of the updated 88 examples; with slimmed down bumpers, they look a bit closer in my mind to the original design than the other U.S. spec cars. Of course, in an ideal world I’d want a clean Euro example – with small bumpers, the right motor and perhaps an even more rare color combination, such as this Alpine White with Buffalo hide leather 1985:
A friendly automotive blog recently asked on Facebook if the E31 was already a classic, a future classic, or a car forever undeserving of that title. To me, it is nearing classic status, and when seen in comparison to the big BMW coupes of the last 10 years, it is a lithe and lustworthy piece of badass machinery. The 850CSi is the grandaddy of them all, an ///M-car all the way down to the engine serial number but lacking the name and badges. There are enough plain, modern mass-market Bimmers carrying more M badges than passengers to effectively kill the badge’s coolness, while the CSi badge provides a link to some of BMW’s greatest classic coupes. An M-tuned V12 is enough to get the mouth watering and the pants a little tighter, so when you add in low, clean lines and some flared fenders you’ve got what I consider the makings of a classic. This example has covered almost 100k miles, but the auction is starting refreshingly low after we’ve seen some 850CSi going for well above $60k.
My love of the clownshoe is no secret, as I find the shooting brake to be even preferable to the wagons I covet so much. The Z3 Coupe is one of the funkiest and coolest out there and always demand a long look whenever they pass. Though usually found in M Coupe guise, there’s something refreshingly unpretentious about the base Z3 version. The S52/S54 debate is immediately thrown out the window, and the Z3 Coupe owner just becomes someone who enjoys funky sports car regardless of bragging rights and for whom a fun base model seems like the logical and more-frugal choice. That person sounds like a cool car enthusiast to me, and today’s 2001 model comes with the M54 that produced almost as much power as the earlier S52 and comes on some of my favorite wheels ever, the Style 32s. With only 629 Z3 Coupes made in 2001 and a small fraction of those in the arresting (or is that arrested?) Hellrot II, this is a great little rarity that would be a blast to own.