This beautiful Burgundy 528e is one of the nicer non-M E28s we’ve seen in a while. The red and brown tones come together to underscore what this model is all about. The eta-engined Bimmers of the late 80s were value judgments from the get-go – are you ok with going a little slower in exchange for torque and fuel mileage? If so, you’ll still get the handling and killer good looks of the E28 while being primed to crush long miles without heading to the gas station every few minutes like in my M5. There are some compromises to be made with this particular example as well, like accepting that the real mileage is unknown due to a replaced cluster and knowing there are a couple small spots of surface rust hiding in the Burgundy next to seams. The flip side is extremely conservative bidding on the no-reserve auction for this nice daily-driver quality E28.
Tag: 1987
For fear of having three Porsche features in a row today, I’m going to go ahead with this post regardless. I typically avoid featuring air-cooled Porsches. The market seems saturated with them and values appear to be leveling off for run of the mill variants. In addition, as enthusiasts discover other Porsches that are more rare, such as the 944 Turbo, 968 and 928GTS, values increase for these cars and sometimes surpass their rear-engined counterparts. Those points considered, even though it isn’t fully air-cooled, you don’t see a 959 come up for sale every day. You especially don’t see the only example of a Porsche 959 Cabriolet come up for sale every day. When I first saw this car, it was like seeing a mirage. The transformation from coupe to convertible suits the lines of this 959 fairly well but I admit I did a double take upon seeing it. I knew this wasn’t an officially sanctioned Porsche. Perhaps growing up in the 1980s and seeing 959 bodykits on convertible Porsches reduced the wow factor a bit for me. Blame it on the crystal that aftermarket tuners were smoking back in that decade.
In any case, this one-off for sale in Italy came to be via an unfortunate accident back in 1998, when owner and Porsche racing driver Jürgen Lässig owned it. According to Top Gear, a company called Auto Becker in Germany purchased the wreck and went to work. What resulted is the work you see before you and comes replete with two windscreens (a Speedster version comes with the car which can be swapped in) as well as a hardtop made from the original roof. A US based collector once paid over three million Deutschmarks for this car after setting eyes on it at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Now it is up for sale again at an equally eye-watering price.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1987 Porsche 959 Cabriolet on Classic Trader
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An ’87 Carrera always provides us with a nice case study for glimpsing into the 3.2 Carrera market. As the first year Porsche fitted the 911 with the new G50 5-speed transmission it is with this model year that we most noticeably see shifts in value relative to the preceding year. The ’88s and ’89s then tend to show incremental increases over the ’87 given the few differences between the three model years. Of course, whether you are a collector or just someone on the lookout for a good driver will then play a significant role in which side of that value spectrum you might wish to fall. These days, with values having taken a small step back for all but the absolute best examples the market sits in a fairly good place for those who do prefer the G50 transmission over the 915 and the ’87s can restake their claim as the best overall value on the air-cooled 911 line. Here we have another nice looking Targa that should make for a good driver-quality value: a Guards Red 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa, located in California, with Black leather interior and 103,200 miles on it.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa on eBay
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Many will correctly credit cars like the Boxster and Cayenne for giving us the solvency of Porsche and the more exotic models we love to look at daily. But back up to the 1980s, and while SUVs were popular unless you bought a Geländewagen your 4-wheel drive truck wasn’t coming from the Vaterland. The 1980s were just seeing the reemergence of the convertible, too, and the popular roadster concepts from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche were still a decade off (excusing the Z1, that is…). So how did Porsche manage to survive the 1980s? Well, they had some star power with the 928 and the 911 and 911 Turbo models were still popular, even if at the time everyone admitted they felt pretty ancient compared to the competition or even Porsche’s own lineup. No, what made Porsche successful in the 1980s was the 944. It’s hard to conceptualize how relatively successful it was, but especially considering the relatively high entry price and exclusivity of Porsche cars in general, it was positively a blockbuster. Porsche shifted a total of just over 113,000 944 models between 1982 and 1989, and nearly exactly half of them sold here in the United States. Today it’s not unusual to find a 944 still kicking around as a daily driver; solid build quality, reasonable fuel economy and relatively inexpensive repairs thanks to the more pedestrian inline-4 means that quite a few are still living today. Let’s also not forget that these were expensive and treasured items for many. Even so, few examples turn up for sale today in anywhere near the shape of this 1987 example at Sun Valley Autos:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1987 Porsche 944 at Sun Valley Autos
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Following in yesterday’s rough-but-affordable Vanagon Syncro footsteps, we have an interesting DIY-Syncro Camper with a no-reserve auction. It started as a tinop Vanagon GL Syncro but has experienced many surgeries – cosmetic, mechanical, electrical – to make it a much more versatile and reliable van. The Subaru 2.2 is good for speed, the hightop is nice for headroom (there’s no bed in this one) and the Westy kitchen is a huge camping bonus, but what really catches my eye is all of the little aftermarket touches the seller has installed to make this van much less of a headache down the road. GoWesty relays, circuit boards, stainless lines and coolant pipes… these are details that increase confidence that this is a solid Vanagon bet. There are also plenty of less-consequential but still cool pieces coming with it, like insulated curtains, van shower, bike racks, awning, and good-looking Audi 5000 wheels. It shows some exterior blemishes, but nothing bad; they’re like an old climber’s sunspots on his nose and cheeks. This thing was built for adventure and reconstructed for even bigger ones.