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1989 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe – RoW

1989 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe – RoW

Published June 26, 2018 by Rob

Have you been hoping to get your hands on a 3.2 Carrera Club Sport but found the very high prices a bit out of reach? Then this might be an option for you. To be clear, this isn’t a bargain basement Club Sport; it’s not something that an ambitious owner put together himself to mimic those great cars. The asking price still is high, it’s just not Club Sport high, which may position it in a spot that a few more prospective buyers have a shot at it. Pricing aside, it seems like a very interesting 911 and one that should be a hoot to drive.

While not necessarily the best representation of pricing, the last Club Sport I featured was priced at $365K. It was the only Irish Green example produced for the U.S. market and was very low mileage. And lest we think that price simply was the result of an overly optimistic seller, that Irish Green example had previously sold for $330K. We have even seen a regular Black Club Sport with a price well above $200K. As I said, the Carrera Club Sport can be prohibitively expensive. With a price tag just below $110K this Diamond Blue Metallic 1989 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe, imported from Japan, doesn’t have quite the Club Sport price, but it does have a bit of a Club Sport nature to it. Is that enough to warrant this six-figure cost? Let’s take a look:

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1989 Volkswagen GTI

1989 Volkswagen GTI

Published June 25, 2018 by Carter

Update 7/3/18: After not selling for the nearly $10,000 asking price last week, the seller has dropped the ask to a much more reasonable $5,995 today.

Generally, when one goes through the trouble of importing a car, that car is something really special; a car which otherwise didn’t come here. But occasionally a strange one sneaks through and leaves me scratching my head. Case in point? Today’s 1989 GTI.

Surely, if you want a Mk.2 GTI you’re not without options. Granted, they’re harder to find than other 80s performance icons – especially in original configuration – but then I’ve just covered a string of affordable examples with a ’85, a ’86, and a ’89 16V all quite reasonably priced well below $5,000. Since importation fees alone can eat up most of the sale price of those examples, you’d have to want to bring in a Mk.2 that wasn’t seen here – a Rallye, G60, Limited or Country, for example.

So what have we here? A standard 1.8 GTI, albeit with a few small twists:

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1989 Audi 200 quattro

1989 Audi 200 quattro

Published June 22, 2018 by Carter

It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been well over a decade since I bid farewell to my Audi 200. It was never meant to be; I had always admired the turbocharged Avants and so when one came up for sale for an incredibly low asking price, I jumped.

Turned out it was more than just me that needed a jump. And it turned out that the 200 needed a lot more than just a jump; the clutch was thoroughly fried, as were the brakes, and the fuel system, and a few other odds and ends. I patched it together and we enjoyed a memorable run of events. Of all my automotive calamity stories, about 50% revolve around both of my big body Audis. The V8 created more hair-raising events (such as the time the throttle stuck wide open and in an effort to stop it I managed to set the brakes on fire), but the 200 wasn’t to be outdone.

There was the time I left the tollbooth on the Mass Pike. The car was running particularly well that day, so I gave it WOT leaving the gate. First to second and the nose was pointed at the sky! Surely, everyone must be saying “WOOOOOOOW!!!“, and it turns out they were because I had blown an oil cooler line and was crop dusting Sturbridge with a thick coat of atomized 10W-40. Another time the voltage regulator died, leaving me to switch various electrical items on and off to balance the charge between 11.5 and 14 volts all the ride home from Cape Cod. It blew several tires while on the road, which admittedly probably wasn’t it’s fault but was exciting nonetheless. I found out that the ABS worked – well – in an ice storm on 95 one time as I passed a braking BMW on the hard shoulder. The coolant lines froze one day – a major feat, since there was theoretically coolant in them. It twice threw alternator belts, leaving me to drive home the length of Rt. 24 at 5am with no lights on. The air conditioner didn’t work. Actually, basically everything electronic didn’t work particularly well if I’m honest. The radio’s blown speakers weren’t enough to overcome the wind noise created by the necessity to have the windows down at all times if the outside temp was over 60. But the kicker? The kicker was that the brake lines collapsed, leaving the calipers to randomly seize partially closed. As a result, you had to go full throttle to maintain 50 mph which, as you read at the beginning of this passage, occasionally presented an explosive problem. I gave up eventually, unable to stomach this car consuming more of my money.

Sound charming? It was. But most of my issues probably would have been remedied if I simply had bought a better example:

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1989 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe – M491/M470

1989 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe – M491/M470

Published June 15, 2018 by Rob

I have featured a lot of rare 911s over the years, but I have never featured one of these. I’m not even sure I have seen one for sale. This is just about as rare as they come. I have featured examples that are more rare due to paint-to-sample or other custom options and I guess the reason this 911 is rare is for similar reasons. The model itself, the 3.2 Carrera, is not especially rare, but an ’89 Carrera equipped with the M491 Turbo-look package is a rare thing indeed.

Production of the Turbo-look package gradually waned as the ’80s wore on and once the 930 had returned to U.S. shores. Somewhat strangely those who still opted for the package tended to select it on the Carrera Cabriolet rather than the Coupe or Targa. :shrug: Determining accurate production numbers has been difficult; a long-circulated letter from PCNA themselves has been shown to be very inaccurate. Perseverance pays off and the best numbers now show there were 15 M491 Coupes produced in 1989. That’s not very many.

But what really makes this example rare isn’t just the M491 Turbo-look package. It is the other even more rare M470 front and rear spoiler delete package. Of the 15 M491 Coupes produced in 1989 only 5 also had the M470 package. There were only 2 Targas equipped as such so this isn’t the rarest, but 1 of 5 will have to suffice. It’s stunning!

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Tuner Tuesday: 1989 Porsche 911 Turbo RAUH-Welt Begriff

Tuner Tuesday: 1989 Porsche 911 Turbo RAUH-Welt Begriff

Published May 8, 2018 by Rob

I’m not sure I know where to begin. There is A LOT going on with this 911 and, in this case, that’s a good thing. I first saw this 1989 Porsche 911, modified by RAUH-Welt Begriff and Turbo Kraft, on Rennlist near the end of last year. It looked great and I actually thought it might sell pretty quickly even with its very high price. It had all the right attributes to attract the right sort of attention for what is a pretty over-the-top machine. Then I didn’t see it for a while so I thought it had sold. Lo and behold it had not sold so this time I wanted to take a closer look.

RAUH-Welt Begriff can be pretty divisive among 911 enthusiasts. Not only are Akira Nakai’s designs pretty wild, but many of his creations entirely consist of cosmetic modifications. They are cars that hearken back to many of Porsche’s early race cars with huge power, preposterously wide rear fenders, and massive wings all designed to keep the rear tires firmly glued to the ground. That sort of design in a road car isn’t always appealing and when there isn’t enough grunt to back up the looks the appeal is lessened further. However, there are exceptions; there are builds that possess the wildness of RWB’s designs AND the power to go along with it. This RWB is one such machine. The claims: 600 horsepower, 2,400 lbs. I don’t think outright performance will be an issue.

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