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Tag: 1973

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Double Take: 1973 and 1974 BMW Bavarias

Following on to the S-Class Double Take we featured earlier today, here’s another pair highlighting that car’s competition: the BMW E3, or New Six. After the success of the smaller New Class, BMW decided to try its hand at luxury vehicles once again. These larger sedans, powered by straight six engines, would be a decided departure from the luxury sedan formula, adding a dash of sport into the equation. Unique to the US market was the Bavaria, priced more in line with the 2500 model but with the larger engine of the 2800. Eventually the engine would increase in size to 3.0 liters in 1972 and the Bavaria would continue on, slotted beneath the 3.0S.

To start, we’ll take a look at this restored Bavaria for sale in Pennsylvania.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1973 BMW Bavaria on eBay

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Double Take: Early Mercedes-Benz W116s

Even though it’s old enough to be considered a classic, the W116 Mercedes-Benz S –class seems to lack the following that its predecessor, the W108 or its successor, the W126, have garnered. Today, we’ll take a look at two W116s which appear similar on the surface, due to their golden huge, but are, in fact, rather different. First up is this 280S for sale in Germany equipped with a 4-speed manual gearbox, a combination we never saw here in the US market.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1974 Mercedes-Benz 280S on Mobile.de

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1973 Volvo P1800ES

In case you missed it, Volvo released a stunning concept at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show. The Concept Estate is a modern take on what seems like an extinct breed these days: the shooting brake. The estate car is experiencing a little bit of a resurgence amongst enthusiast communities across the US, mainly due to fast five-doors like the Cadillac CTS-V Wagon and Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG Estate. However, the two-door estate vehicle, or shooting brake, is still a bit too obscure for the mainstream American motoring public. The MINI Clubman is about as close as we’ve seen lately to a two-door estate vehicle, and even that one had a third door on the side.

The Volvo P1800ES was a curiosity, built towards the end of the P1800 run for 1972 and 1973 only, with a little over 8,000 produced. The trademark glass rear hatch would go on to be copied in later Volvo hatchbacks such as the 480ES and C30. This example for sale in New York is a well sorted example in a sharp red orange color that looks idyllic against the autumn backdrop in these photos.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1973 Volvo P1800ES on eBay

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Tuner Tuesday: 1973 BMW 2002 Tii-spec Zender

As with E30s, E36s, Volkswagen GTis and Jettas and Audi A4s, there seem to be a tremendous amount of modified 2002s. A popular tuning platform, they take many different forms in their personalization – not all of them good. Indeed, some of the modded 2002s that pop up for sale really leave me scratching my head as to the intentions of the owner. But when you see one that got it right, they always make me smile. Some of those “right” cars are period-look Alpina or Schnitzer cars, some are more subtle – just low, clean and with a nice set of Hella or Marchal fogs and some BBS Mahles. Then there are the updated cars, such as this more wildly Zender flared example. To me it looks pretty slick!

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1973 BMW 2002 Tii-spec Zender on eBay

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1973 Porsche 911E – Sportomatic

Here we have another 911E, though this time with Porsche’s way-before-its-time Sportomatic transmission. We feature very few examples of the Sportomatic so I wanted to feature this, in part, to get a sense of the relative market contrasts between these and a manual-transmission 911. But also because it’s nice to show some of Porsche’s more innovative designs, even when, in the case of the Sportomatic, those designs were addressing concerns that didn’t appear to exist at the time. As essentially the precursor to their Tiptronic, the Sportomatic was a clutchless manual that allowed drivers to do the shifting but without having to concern themselves with learning how to operate a clutch. While Porsche referred to these as an automatic, there really wasn’t a fully automatic setting as gears still needed to be shifted, but the lack of a clutch allowed Porsche potentially to spread its base market to those who were unable to operate a full manual. So these are a little bit unusual and not very common, even though the Sportomatic was an available option until 1980. The example here is a Gemini Blue 1973 Porsche 911E, located in California, with 115,931 miles on it.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1973 Porsche 911E on eBay

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