Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
After that last Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, I thought I’d get back on the right track with another SLS that is much more special. This 2012 up for sale in Germany starts out tame enough in Obsidian Black Metallic, but when you open those doors you get hit with a color combo that I’ve never seen before and didn’t even think was possible. It is worth the click.
I give Audi a lot of credit for bringing the R8 to market. It took a fair amount of gall for a company best known for mid-range all-wheel drive luxury sedans to up and produce a supercar-beating mid-engine road car capable of being used year-round and every day. It’s a feat nearly without precedent. Of course, I said “nearlyâ€.
That’s because BMW pulled off a similar trick the best part of thirty years before Audi did it. And arguably the development of what would become BMW’s fledgling Motorsports division was even more impressive than what Ingolstadt pulled off. The M1 burst onto the scene at a time of economic austerity, global oil crises and came from a company who not only didn’t have a history of producing such cars, but didn’t have connections to others who did (unlike Audi’s corporate Lamborghini partnership).
Speaking of Lamborghini, because of BMW’s lack of expertise in supercar design it was the Sant’Agata firm that was employed to produce the M1. But because of Lamborghini’s lack of expertise at being…well, a company capable of producing something on a schedule, BMW engineers had to first liberate the early molds from Italy and then find someone who could produce the car. Ultimately, it was a combination of ItalDesign in Turin, Marchesi metal working in Modena to build the frames and Karosserie Baur in Stuttgart that stuck the M1 together. Though it doesn’t exactly sound like a match made in heaven, and indeed the M1 was a relative sales flop, it has nonetheless grown to cult status as one of the most user-friendly supercars of the late 1970s:
If you are going to all-in on bright green, prepare to go all in. The greens that Porsche offered up back in the 1960s and 1970s were not for the shy and judging by the today’s car, it’s still that way. This is a 2017 911 Carrera 4S in paint-to-sample Viper Green and there is certainly no mistaking it. I can see why they called it Viper Green, because in a never-ending sea of cars in earth tones, seeing a car painted this color is like getting bitten by a viper. Okay, maybe that was an extreme comparison, but you get where I am going with this. Judging by the mileage on this car, it seems like the first owner didn’t like to be seen in this one.
The 1989 model year was the final year of the torsion-bar 911, and only 1,156 US-market Carrera coupes were made. If that number seems low, it is because the 1989 was a split model year, as the 964s were also sold as 1989 models. Given that the 911 basically looked the same from 1974 to 1989, I can’t imagine it was a fun job trying to sell these 1989 911s when new when totally new 964s were sitting in the showroom. Now some 30 years later, most seek these out for the G50 gearbox and special options like the sport seats. They bring a slight premium over the older 911s with the 915 gearboxes, but at the end of the day its all about condition, mileage, and options. This example caught my eye up for sale in Idaho is finished in classic Carrera White with matching Fuchs and blue interior. A fairly nice spec on its own. Mileage? Just under 121,000. So a potential nice driver-quality 911 for a decent price, right? Not so fast.
While the step up to the Mk.3 added a fair amount of size – and accompanying weight – to the Volkswagen Golf, the GTI emerged with the much more potent VR6 engine borrowed from the Passat and Corrado. While admittedly the power and the exhaust note was very appealing, and in hindsight the third generation Golf looks positively tiny compared to cars today, I have always lamented the loss of the what I consider the best GTI – the 1990-1992 16V model.
But, what if that model had continued? Well, it did – just not in the U.S.. What we have here is a 1994 GTI 16V from Europe. Replete with Recaro interior, blacked-out rub strips and fender flares, beefy wheels, and dual-chamber headlights with foglights. But the best part is under the hood, where the 9A lived on as the ABF. With Digifant engine management power was up to 148 at 6,000 RPMs, while torque remained at 133 lb.ft but again higher in the range. One of these gems has turned up for sale on Ebay:
