Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
If there is a Porsche in an interesting color, you know I’m taking a look. Today is no different with this wonderful 1980 930 Turbo up for sale in The Netherlands. This widowmaker checks in wearing Viola Metallic, which is a color we’ve seen many times before and will probably keep seeing given how great it looks. The asking price on this one? Probably not as crazy as you’d guess.
Color is everything on a vintage car for me, and some colors seem to work better than others on certain models. Today’s car, a 1980 Mercedes-Benz 500SEL, might be one of those “love it or hate it” examples.
This is a grey-market car that probably was imported when new judging by the door plaque, and it is finished in the very-rare shade of Signal Red. I don’t believe this color was ever offered on any US-market W126s because who wants a red S-Class? I know the 1980s were a wild time, but your SL was supposed to be red, not your very serious S-Class. However, now that this car is 40 years old, is it officially cool enough where the color doesn’t matter?
Way back in 1980, Porsche decided to cook up a little special edition model for its wildly popular 911SC. It was pitched as an edition to honor the Porsche Motorsports team working in Weissach and I suppose it was an honor well deserved seeing as Porsche dominated nearly every racing series they enter in the 1970s. It was named the “Weissach” and just 468 units were produced. Half were painted Metallic Black, the other half in Platinum Metallic. Other special touches were a flexible lip on the front air dam, whale tail rear spoiler, Bilstein shocks, color-matched Fuchs wheels, and Doric Grey leather upholstery with burgundy accents. MSRP came in at around $32,000, which wasn’t a premium at all compared to the standard 911SC.
Today, we have one of those examples up for sale in Texas finished in Platinum Metallic with an impressive 106,000 miles on the odometer. Worth the buy if you are looking for a driver?
The Sonderwunsch (Special Wishes) department at Porsche was always a place where the normally very serious Germans left their hair down and get a little crazy. Sometimes it’s just the small touches that make all the difference, and sometimes they go completely off the deep probably because someone paid them enough money to do so. Today is one of those cars.
This 1980 Porsche 930 Turbo has a wonderful paint-to-sample finish on it of Wine Red Metallic. That by itself would be an impressive note and surely a strong selling point for this car alone. However, the interior in this car would make any 1980s fan scream for joy and those who are traditionalists scream in pain. It is that crazy. But you don’t have to take my word for it; just check it out:
When someone says “engine swap” on an old car, my mind automatically goes to a big V8 swap in an American muscle car. It certainly doesn’t go to today’s car.
What we have is a 1980 Mercedes-Benz 450SL with a Toyota 1JZ-GTE turbocharged inline-six. Talk about an odd couple. The R107 is so far from the tuner-culture 1JZ that I’m really struggling to see who this appeals to. Toyota fans who want something classy? Or R107 fans who want easy power? Either way, I am extremely impressed with this build. Something I don’t say often.
