Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
It’s always a bit strange when highly sought cars come to market with few details. Today’s 2002Ti is a great example; the 2002Ti is already sought after model thanks to the dual-carb, high compression motor, and of course being a “Roundie” an early model 2002 like this is automatically more desirable. But start to throw in some of the other details, such as “Alpina”, “Race Car” and “Original” and the dollar figures start climbing. If, that is, it’s all to be believed:
What happens when a rare color doesn’t seem so rare? Or at least it isn’t a color that we would expect to be very rare. That is the peculiar situation in which we find this Polar Silver 1994 Porsche 911 Speedster, located in Miami. These days coming across a Silver Porsche or Mercedes is a daily occurrence, but the presence of the color wasn’t always so ubiquitous. Still, it is difficult to think of Silver as possessing a degree of rarity, even if it is a particular shade of Silver, in this case Polar Silver which does have a lot of fans, but that appears to be exactly the case with the 1994 911 Speedster. With a purported 5 produced in total in this color that makes this a rare find of an already rare production vehicle. The question, of course, is how much does the market care? Really striking rare colors, especially pastel colors, tend to command a premium all else being equal, but can Polar Silver see the same results? The auction of this car should help us in that regard.
The 1983 Mercedes-Benz 300CD we saw for sale last November is back up on offer at no reserve. To be perfectly honest, 181,000 miles rarely looked so good.
The Porsche 912 was originally conceived as a budget model because the 911, quite simply, had become too expensive compared to the outgoing 356 model. On the surface, you got the updated looks of the 901 – but underneath was a more simple and frugal flat-4 similar to the unit from the outgoing 356. This helped to keep costs down but performance was less exciting, and for a long time the 912 was the “also ran” compared to 911. But stratospheric rises in prices – especially of early 911s – meant that it was no surprise to see the 912 get drawn up as well. The simplicity is almost more appealing than the 911 in some ways; as the adage goes, it’s more fun to drive a slow car fast, and a 912 is just the type of car that you can drive flat out without worrying about lighting your hair on fire and jumping backwards off a cliff. As with all Porsches, some of these 912 have been modified to race, such as this 1969 example:
I have focused much more on the value end of the 911 spectrum this week and the car featured here falls into a bit of a middle position along that scale. The 1983 and 1984 model years tend to represent the best value opportunities depending upon whether you would prefer the 911SC or the 3.2 Carrera. You cannot really go wrong with either, but each has its own personality that may suit some better than others. Overall, however, the key is finding one in the condition and with the mileage that makes you most comfortable – and that fits within your budget. Here we have one from the lower-mileage section of the market: a Grand Prix White 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe, located in Florida, with 59,900 miles on it. These are the 911s that, for many of us, invoke the most nostalgia for the marque and they came along at an important time for the model itself. That they can still be had for fairly reasonable values makes them all the better.
