Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
The Mercedes-Benz 500E is one of those cars that was fairly affordable for a long time, but dwindling supply and greater awareness has raised values considerably. I knew it was a matter of time before this legend started to increase in value. We often see these four-door hot rods with Porsche DNA in black or silver, but this metallic blue example for sale in Florida bucks that trend. This car is closing in on 150,000 miles but has had the same owner for the last 18 years.
Upon its release the 911 Turbo was an instant marvel. Here was a car that combined aggressive looks and prodigious power in a package that was actually reasonably practical and usable. The supercar world was turned on its head. Even today those early cars still provide an excellent driving experience and are capable of running with many performance cars. That initial offering saw its only significant change take place in 1978 as displacement increased from 3.0 to 3.3 liters, but for the remaining 12 years of its life the 930 simply continued to excel with a tried and true formula. Even when the 964 Turbo was released it still used the same engine that Porsche had utilized since 1978, except now that engine was improved and the car came in a more refined package. Still, the 964 Turbo was a brute and with all of that power being delivered to the rear of a car already having a rearward weight distribution it made for very exciting driving! As we continue to see prices rise for air-cooled 911s, and the Turbo especially, it becomes increasingly unlikely that these will be seen outside of someone’s garage, but we can still marvel at them from a distance. The example we see here is a Black 1992 Porsche 911 Turbo, located in Illinois, with 59,530 miles on it.
Porsche certainly has a history of doing interesting, and vibrant, shades of green on their cars. They’ve also made available many of the darker and metallic green colors we typically see on the market, but it’s the mint greens, viper greens, and, like the car we see here, lime greens that really stand out and draw loads of attention. This isn’t a completely original 911S, but Lime Green is the original color and the non-original aesthetic alterations, like the addition of the ducktail spoiler, tend to enhance the overall look of this car rather than detract from it. The mid-year 911s are not always the most popular, but when they can be had in one of the more interesting colors Porsche made available, then they become quite a bit more of a talking point. Here we have a Lime Green 1973 Porsche 911S Coupe, located in California, with 128,951 miles on it.
Often forgotten, the 993 based Porsche 911 Targa was an interesting study in trying to move a segment forward. With a huge glass panel roof that slid inside the vehicle, the profile was changed a bit. Gone was the distinctive rounded rear side windows and a wide B pillar functioning as a roll bar. Also standard were two piece 17″ wheels to differentiate this car from the standard Carrera. For 911 sun worshippers that maybe don’t want to go the whole hog with the cabriolet, this Targa for sale in New York is a good middle ground.
Here we have another 911E, though this time with Porsche’s way-before-its-time Sportomatic transmission. We feature very few examples of the Sportomatic so I wanted to feature this, in part, to get a sense of the relative market contrasts between these and a manual-transmission 911. But also because it’s nice to show some of Porsche’s more innovative designs, even when, in the case of the Sportomatic, those designs were addressing concerns that didn’t appear to exist at the time. As essentially the precursor to their Tiptronic, the Sportomatic was a clutchless manual that allowed drivers to do the shifting but without having to concern themselves with learning how to operate a clutch. While Porsche referred to these as an automatic, there really wasn’t a fully automatic setting as gears still needed to be shifted, but the lack of a clutch allowed Porsche potentially to spread its base market to those who were unable to operate a full manual. So these are a little bit unusual and not very common, even though the Sportomatic was an available option until 1980. The example here is a Gemini Blue 1973 Porsche 911E, located in California, with 115,931 miles on it.