Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
The 1994 BMW 530i we featured last October is back up for the sale at the same ask of $9,900. If you’ve hankered after the chance at a clean example of one of the most handsome 5 series to date with an eight cylinder engine under the hood, you’ll want to take a second look at this sedan.
We’ve featured our fair share of Porsche 928s over the past few days, so it’s time to turn our attention back to that other favorite front-engined transaxle, the 944. This 944 Turbo for sale in Ohio has seen just 55,000 miles, painted in classic Guards Red with those famous phone dial alloy wheels. With the dawn of a new turbocharged four-cylinder Porsche upon us in the form of the 718 Boxster, the time is ripe to analyze another four cylinder Porsche from 30 years ago.
In my continued efforts to keep an eye on the market for the 3.2 Carrera I present another low-mileage example that appears in exceptional condition. But, if I’m totally truthful, this one is more than that for me and my choice of it to feature isn’t just because it’s a potentially high-dollar Carrera. The 911 we see here is a Black 1985 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe, located in Los Angeles, with Tan interior and 22,900 miles on it. It is outfitted pretty much exactly as I would have chosen. Black and Tan isn’t necessarily an exciting combination and both the black exterior and tan interior will have their detractors. But it’s my favorite combination for a car I plan to spend time driving. There are more exciting colors I’d love to have in the garage, but those are to look at. Add in the black Fuchs, sport seats, and the whale tail (with complementary front spoiler) and this is precisely what I would be looking for in a Carrera Coupe. As we’ll discuss below it’s priced well above what I’d desire from a 911 I wanted to drive, but in all other regards I absolutely love it!
I’ll get this out of the way off the bat; not everyone likes the Audi TT, and yes, it’s not really a sports car. But excusing that it’s not a 911 although it’s similarly shaped, is it really that much of a pretender? Tight body curves that were really avant garde in the late 1990s reveal a beautifully crafted interior with lots of special details to let you know you were in a premium product. Under the hood, in its most potent form the 1.8T was quite capable as well, with 225 horsepower resulting in mid-6 sec 0-60 runs in stock form and punchy delivery. And while the Haldex-driven but “quattro” branded all-wheel drive wasn’t as slick as Audi’s other all-wheel drive systems, it works just fine in most conditions. So let’s take a look at two nice examples of these budget sports coupes:
I haven’t featured a Porsche 911 Speedster in a little while. Like other rare 911 models that we see up for auction fairly frequently many of them seem more or less the same so without some aspect that makes it stand apart I tend to pass them by. They come in few colors and many sit with very low mileage and in very good condition. Many were bought by collectors and have remained with collectors. The 911 Speedster we see here does stand apart for its unique color combination so it caught my eye, even if we could do with some better pictures to help showcase the car. Those colors are Linen Grey over Mahogany. The former I’ve seen a few times and it’s always somewhat of an interesting choice as it kind of makes for an inside-out Carrera – Linen being a very popular interior color on 911s of this vintage. It isn’t an exciting color though. The latter color I can’t recall coming across at all. Mahogany is in the vein of brown or chocolate that Porsche offered as an interior color in the late-70s and early-80s, but this might be the first late-model 3.2 Carrera I’ve seen with a brown interior. A brown interior isn’t always to everyone’s taste, but I think the fact that Mahogany appears to be a lighter shade of brown will give it wider appeal. Either way, it’s certainly rare and that’s the key here.
