Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
About a month ago, I wrote up a 2002 M20 Turbo built by a company called Manofied. Well, the Manofied folks have been at it again, this time with a 535i. They’ve fully built the car in the style of the Alpina B9, replete with plenty of Alpina parts, some Euro bits, and what appears to be a fantastic individual throttle body engine. The downside? As with the 2002, the price for this build is quite high for a non-original car. But before you jump to conclusions, take a look:
If yesterday’s low-mileage and high-dollar 993 Turbo was out of your price bracket or simply not the sort of Porsche that you are in the market for, then perhaps the car featured here will be more appropriate. An Ocean Blue 1998 Porsche 911 Carrera S with Cashmere leather interior, located in New York. With its wider rear and stiffer suspension the C2S delivers nearly perfect contours to go along with 282 hp driving the rear wheels. While not as effortlessly powerful as the Turbo, the C2S still provides its owners plenty of power and, outside of the unobtainable Carrera RS, represented the best of the naturally-aspirated road-going 993s.
“They don’t make ‘em like they used to.” How many times do we hear this in passing? Perhaps in this age of instant communication and mass produced goods, it rings more true than ever. For the most part, new cars are more reliable and offer technology one could have only dreamed of a scant ten years ago. For some, new cars have lost a bit of that special feeling that came with design driven by passion rather than committee and accountant. Step into a car today and even the most extravagant models will have some parts from a central supplier or share switchgear with lesser models in the parent company portfolio.
This nicely presented 560SL comes to us from our friends at Sun Valley Auto Club in Idaho and is a stunning example of one of the most iconic Mercedes designs of the last few decades.
The Audi B5 was really the first Audi chassis that gained mass appeal for modifications. Sure, the Quattro, 5000, 200, S4 and S6 all had crowds that followed them and modified them, but it was really the B5 that took the Audi tuning theme to the masses. Most of those masses focused on two models; if you were new to the brand you bought and modified the plentiful and relatively cheap 1.8T, and if you could swing the hefty payments you bought the twin-turbocharged S4. Both accepted increased levels of boost easily, making them a no brainer for the tuning crowd. But quickly forgotten in the mix was the silky-smooth 2.8 V6. Initially available in 12 valve form, in 1998 Audi upgraded to the 30V heads. For the first time, the Audi V6 produced power levels near its competition, and the smooth and responsive V6 was a nice match for the slick look of the A4. But easy to tune it wasn’t; you weren’t left with many options outside of exhaust and intake if you wanted to turn the wick up on your 2.8. Unless, of course, you turned to unnatural forms of aspiration – happily supplied by PES in the form of a supercharger:
When the R107 Mercedes-Benz SL debuted in the early 1970s, it was a decidedly more boulevardier cruiser than it’s Pagoda-roofed predecessor, the W113. Mercedes then decided to base their replacement for the W111 Coupe on the R107 chassis, resulting in the C107 SLC. This was the only Mercedes-Benz coupe to be based on a roadster, rather than the other way around, with exception of the SL65 AMG Black Series. With the extra ten inches in length and unique louvers in the rear quarter windows, there was no mistaking this larger SL variant. Most R107s and C107s that arrived on US shores came with automatic gearboxes. Those in other markets could specific a manual, mated in some cases to the the larger V8 engines. This 450SLC with the 4.5 liter V8 and 4-speed manual transmission is for sale in Missouri. It wears later style alloys, comes with the original set of bundt alloys and has covered a low amount of miles for its age.