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While I don’t want to stretch my hyperbole too far, this car is changing everything I’ve thought about the 964. There are a variety of colors that would work on this 1994 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Wide Body, but I love the classic combination of Black and Tan so this one works particularly well for me. But it’s the non-standard attributes of this 911 that are really setting it apart. We are familiar with the Speedline wheels on the Turbo 3.6 and Turbo S and they are such a great looking wheel on any 964. Here they aren’t the originals for this car, but still provide that same great look. As great as those wheels are it is the whale tail that is drawing my eye the most. Normally a wide-body 911 would be fitted with the tail from the Turbo, as was standard on the M491 cars from the ’80s, but this one has what I assume is the tail from the 911 RS America. The seller makes no mention of the tail and even remarks that the spoiler functions properly, which I assume would normally be a reference to the electronic rear spoiler that is now absent. Regardless of all that I think it looks spectacular in this application and I strongly prefer it to the standard Turbo tail. I’ve always preferred the whale tail over the tea tray so this is not a new revelation for me, but having never seen one on a wide body 964 this is life affirming.
Following on to the Mercedes-Benz SL600 Silver Arrow that Andy featured yesterday, here’s an equally rare German flagship from the 1990s: the BMW 850CSI. While a BMW M8 was never officially produced, if you wanted your 8 series coupe with a bit of M flavor this was as close as you were going to get. The E31 8 series wasn’t as popular as its predecessor, the E24 6 series. A little over 30,000 E31s were manufactured in comparison to the longer production run of the E24, which saw over 86,000 examples produced. Out of those 30,000 8 series, only 1,510 were the model you see here. With an increase in capacity to 5.6 liters, the 850CSi cranked out 375 horsepower and was mated exclusively to a 6-speed manual gearbox. With uprated brakes, suspension and Style 21 throwing star alloys, this was a fetching package. This example for sale in North Carolina has yet to cross the 30,000 mile mark, good for those seeking a collector piece.
I could have sworn I had seen this car and featured it previously, but it seems like that isn’t the case. I am certain I’ve seen it for sale though (or at least another very similar 911, but how many of these could there be?). Regardless, here we are now and of the various Turbo 3.6 we’ve seen this one stands well apart from all of the rest. That is almost entirely due to its paint-to-sample Irish Green exterior. Green cars aren’t always favorites among many, but Irish Green has long been an exception and when a particularly desirable model shows up wearing it, then we take notice. Last month we featured an Irish Green Carrera Club Sport that was said to be the only one in its color. That Carrera sold for $330K, which makes this Irish Green 1994 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6 seem like a relative performance bargain. Of course, at lot more goes into these prices than simply performance, but for fans of the color these two make for two extremely attractive – if high priced – options. Maybe the buyer of the Club Sport will have space left over in the garage for another addition.
Has it really come to this? It has been a little while since I’ve taken serious notice of the 928 market, but I still would not have expected to see these sorts of prices. Granted these remain fantastic Grand Tourers and with the ’94 and ’95 model years you’re getting the most advanced version Porsche produced, and the last true GT Porsche has produced. The styling is timeless and only showed a gradual evolution over the model’s nearly two decades of existence culminating in the graceful curves of the GTS we see here. They’re beautiful and wonderful performers and the market appears to have really taken notice. This Grand Prix White 1994 Porsche 928GTS, located in Missouri, sits with only 16,129 miles on it and is said to be the only white GTS produced with a Tan interior. I can’t verify the veracity of that claim, but we do come across a Tan interior pretty rarely with these so even if there is more than one the overall numbers are sure to be low.
Conventional wisdom would have it that North America was robbed of the “real” M3; the undiluted, S50B30/B32, individual throttle body, floating rotor, continuously variable VANOS enthusiasts’ dream. Conventional wisdom, though, is wrong. Exploiting a loophole in importation laws, in 1994 BMW Canada commissioned a run of 45 exclusive European-spec E36 M3s. These were the full-fat BF91 rather than the BF93 which would come slightly later to U.S. shores. That meant the full spectrum of Euro goodies were optional on these cars, but most notably the 286 horsepower engine was the highlight. Each got a numbered plaque to commemorate fooling “The Man”, the only real changes from standard specification were the additions of daytime running lights and a third brake light to meet Canadian road laws. Sure, your E36 M3 is special, but these Canadian Edition cars are more specialerer. And this one isn’t in Canada anymore – it’s in the U.S.. Feel cheated no more, E36 fans!
