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The ’80s “eta” engine from BMW eschew top-end screaming power for low-end torque and efficiency and make for great commuters. Today’s 528e is a gem, having covered less than 40,000 miles and looking outstanding in Burgundy over the like-new Natur comfort interior. It needs a few points of attention to be perfect, but I’m not sure perfection is the way to go with this car. As the number of clean E28s still alive dwindles, this is a great candidate to be a fun and reliable DD that stands out from the rest of the bubbles rolling down the highways.
One of the unintentionally funny quotes from Stephen King’s Pet Semetery was the haunting warning from the crusty old Jud Crandall; “Sometimes, dead is better“. Now, I know what you’re thinking – “What, Carter? You’re the biggest Audi/Volkswagen fanboy who writes in complete sentences on a daily basis! And now you want to suggest that these two classic VAG wagons shouldn’t have been buried in the Micmac Indian burial grounds?” Well, I wouldn’t go that far but it does seem that 1980s Audi and Volkswagen products of this ilk are resurrected from the underworld because we see them so infrequently. And for enthusiasts, inevitably they’re not quite the cars we wish had been saved. As a result, besides both being beige in color, these two wagons are completely beige in their totality. Neither was a top-spec car originally though they were both fairly expensive – the Volkswagen stickered at around $14,000 in 1986 without options, while the Audi was the best part of $22,000 base price in 1987. Both come with the long lived but rather forgettable KX-code 110 horsepower inline-5 engine, and both original buyers opted to pay an astonishing $1,000 extra (from memory, it’s been a while) for the dull-witted 3-speed automatic. And then, if that wasn’t enough, both buyers selected their respective marques’ beige tones in a celebration of their mediocrity. Yet here we are, nearly 30 years later, smiling just a bit to see both in overall very good shape. Who wins the “race to watch the paint dry” competition?
These days, I think you could slap an E30 badge on just about anything and the cult of the small sedan would perk up and pay attention. If the E30 was the natural choice for a sporting executive in the 1980s, it’s become the defacto way to instant street credentials in the European scene. “Sure bro, you might have a 2JZ-GTE Supra, but I got an E30 dawg!” you might overhear being conversed with a heavy beat from Ludacris pumping in the background and scantily clad women draping themselves over your Claus Luthe designed hood, for example. Is that not what happens? Well, the appeal of the E30 is such that you could easily believe that might be the outcome of turning the key in one. As an Audi fan from the same period, I have to admit a certain amount of jealousy; not so much in the design, but in the plethora of choices of what’s available in the market and the amount of manufacturer and aftermarket support. It’s something you just don’t really see in the Audi camp, for example. That means that you can have some mild to wild examples of E30s to choose from each and every day of the week. They’ve also hit importation status on some later models, so the flood gates have quite literally opened and a steady stream of Euro market cars is popping up for sale, trying hard to capitalize on the car made popular by the success of capitalism. As such, today for Tuner Tuesday I have two E30s to consider; a wild Alpina B6 3.5 from 1986, and a 1990 325i right hooker with a host of Hartge upgrades. Who wins the tune-off?
After sizing up that Audi A5 in Teak Brown over the weekend, I came across this lovely, low mileage 1986 Mercedes-Benz 560SL in a not often seen shade of Manganese Brown. Metallic browns have made a comeback recently on cars, no longer being a hue relegated to the decade which brought us disco, an oil crisis and Mayor Ed Koch. The 560SL is one of those German classics that has been rising in visibility amongst collectors. As such, values are beginning to push upwards for what is likely to be the next SL collector vehicle domino to fall. The appear small, but they drive like a much bigger vehicle, if the few I’ve had the chance to pilot over the years are any indication. The legendary bank vault construction is there but the ride quality has a decidedly soft nature about it. They are immensely capable as grand touring machines, but have a bit of float on the twisty bits with the nose rising under acceleration, almost giving you the feel as if you are on a small boat.
Last week we showed a car very similar to this one, which perhaps was not quite in the condition I would have hoped. I was curious about the low bidding and, as these things typically go, there may have been good reasons for that low bidding. So we’ll try again with another Guards Red 1986 Porsche 930 Coupe, this one located in Connecticut. Like the other car this one too features Tan leather seating, which is easily my favorite look on a Guards Red 911. The contrast is simply wonderful and I have a strong preference for these over the more common all-Black interior. With sports seats and only 44,583 miles on it there’s certainly a lot to like about this particular 930 and it presents very well both inside and out. Even though we feature them quite regularly I still enjoy coming across these and am consistently struck by the way the well-appointed interior tends to belie the aggressive stance of the exterior. There is a monster lurking here that provides ample rewards to focused drivers.
