Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
I personally regard the 991 generation Porsche 911 Turbo as the “cheat code” of the automotive world. Especially the Turbo S. It’s one thing to have a car do 0-60 runs in 2.6 seconds. It’s a whole other thing to have a car do 0-60 runs in 2.6 seconds and be totally comfortable doing so while being able to drive it 365 days a year. Not to mention it be reasonably reliable and won’t kill you in service costs. Where do I sign?
There is no greater example of a car I love but have no interest in owning than the Mercedes-Benz 600. I’ve opined for years about them and every time I see one for sale it’s a new treat. Today’s example, a 1966 up for sale in Portugal, has its surprises and little fun features that always impress me. It also carries a hefty price tag too.
This is what it’s all about. An obscure high-performance model based on a car you never thought deserved such a treatment made in extremely low…
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The 992 generation of the venerable Porsche 911 Carrera is the first time I’ve felt the base model actually produces up to the level of performance you are paying for. Yes, I understand that buying a 911 in the past was much more than just 0-60 times, but if you buy a base 911, you probably were feeling the power of the S and later GTS was worth it. Not with the 992. A PDK equipped 911 Carrera can rip out 0-60 times in as little as 3.6 seconds. That was supercar numbers back in the day. You just have to bring over $100,000 for that privilege now. The days of buying a new base 911 for $56,000 are not coming back.
In 1993, my father purchased a W113 Mercedes-Benz 280SL Roadster. It was green with black MB Tex and do you know what? It looked, and felt, old. At that point, it was a 22-year-old car that had been mostly forgotten by the enthusiast world. After all, the dated W113’s replacement – the oh so 80s even though it was from the 70s R107 – had just gone out of production, itself replaced by the thoroughly modern R129. I loved the R129 at the time, and the W113 seemed like a dinosaur by comparison. But my father loved the look of the W113, and so for the then princely sum of mid-teens he purchased a relatively clean, reasonably low mileage and (almost) fully functional Mercedes-Benz SL.
Fast forward three decades, and the SL market has gone completely bonkers, awakening to the fact that the W113 was (and still is) a beautiful, classic and elegant design. I’m not even sure you could buy a non-functional, rusty wreck of a W113 for the same price my father paid in 1993 – and an expensive restoration would await you.
Why do I mention this?
Today’s Audi TT Roadster 225 quattro is also 22 years old, amazingly. It’s also green, and you can get a pretty nice one in the teens. Will the TT be the W113 of the future? That seems unlikely, but they’re very nice cars that were reasonably well built, offer plenty of fun, and are oozing with style.
