Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
After failing to sell at auction for the estimated $600,000 – $800,000 projection, the AHG Studie modified M1 is back and now on eBay. Bidding as of writing is sitting around $300,000 – a steal for even a poor condition M1 these days. While it’s not likely to remain there or meet reserve, it will be interesting to see where the pricing ends up!
As with E30s, E36s, Volkswagen GTis and Jettas and Audi A4s, there seem to be a tremendous amount of modified 2002s. A popular tuning platform, they take many different forms in their personalization – not all of them good. Indeed, some of the modded 2002s that pop up for sale really leave me scratching my head as to the intentions of the owner. But when you see one that got it right, they always make me smile. Some of those “right” cars are period-look Alpina or Schnitzer cars, some are more subtle – just low, clean and with a nice set of Hella or Marchal fogs and some BBS Mahles. Then there are the updated cars, such as this more wildly Zender flared example. To me it looks pretty slick!
I posted a couple of Laguna Seca Blue E46 M3s yesterday that looked like they were owned and modded by a couple of similarly-minded fanboys. Today, we’ll shift gears and look at one of the most tastefully and maturely modified E46s out there (chrome exhaust surround notwithstanding). Carter featured this car for Tuner Tuesday earlier in the month and it’s received the full Dinan treatment, earning enough points via supercharger, exhaust, suspension, and more to get the official Dinan badge. The badges sit on a custom and beautiful red paint job, with CSL nods in the wheels and trunk spoiler. It has only covered 40k miles in its 10 years and was honored with the cover of BMWCCA’s “Roundel” magazine a couple years back. The seller says its “generally considered to be one of finest E46 M3 in the country,” and it’s hard to argue against that.
-NR
As we’ve previously covered, the Volkswagen Corrado has been since new a popular tuning platform. Whether in supercharged G60 early form or the later VR6 model, avid enthusiasts snap these cars up and generally quickly set about customizing and personalizing the sporty coupes. On paper, the Corrado reads effectively just like a GTi – but to Volkswagen faithful, the coupe’s name carries so much more weight. Like a sports hero entering a local bar on game day, Volkswagen fans gasp, smile and utter expletives when they see a Corrado in any shape. Expensive when new and always holding more value than their brethren, they’ve remained somewhat elusive compared to the more mundane GTi and GLX models that ran alongside them. So, even if you find a model that isn’t 100% to your liking it may be worth investigating to see if you can re-customize it to your taste:
In the movie Spinal Tap, the character Nigel Tufnel displays his specially made Marshall amplifier to the film director. “As you can see”, he explains, “the numbers all go to eleven – right across the board.” “Does that mean it’s louder?” asks Rob Reiner. Nigel retorts “What we do is if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? 11, exactly. One louder.” Frankly, with AMG’s “Black Series” cars, they are already Mercedes-Benz models that are operating fully at “10” – but that doesn’t stop many enterprising individuals from turning them up one notch or more. A case in point is today’s 2008 CLK63 AMG Black Series – a serious car right out of the starting blocks, the 6.2 liter M156 V8 is an absolute monster with 500 horsepower and nearly matching torque. Having driven a similarly motored SLS, the speed is effortless and immediate – the sound, incredible. There is literally no point when driving one when you think “you know what, this car really needs 200-300 horsepower more”. Yet as if to out-AMG AMG, the nutters at Weistec added a supercharger – with variable power from 600-800 horsepower, it’s capable of creating a 9-second quarter mile luxury Benz. Insane? Yep: