Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
I suppose someone has to drive it. “It” in this case is a 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera. A classic 911 finished in Polar Silver over a rare Flamenco Red leather interior. It also has 18″ turbo-look wheels, a sunroof, and just 67,000 miles. One minor catch – it’s also got a gearbox that shifts itself.
It seems that Porsche wasn’t afraid of turquoise judging by the 930 Turbo I looked at a few weeks ago. As you can see by today’s car, they certainly weren’t scared of it on the outside of their cars either. This 1996 911 Carrera 4S is a desirable car in any shade, but in paint-to-sample Dragonfly Turquoise Metallic? Oh boy. Rumor has it that this was a press and demo car for Porsche AG in Germany and then changed hands to an employee who owned the car from 1998 to 2007. That certainly explains I’ve never seen one in this color and it has the extra touches on the interior. The price? I guess we’ll be guessing on this one.
Among the craziness of the used car market in the past two years is what has been happening with the 993 Porsche 911 Turbo models. For a long stretch there, you could grab a nice example for somewhere between $100,000 to $135,000. For that amount I think it was well worth the price of entry. It is an unmistakable design, enough pep and power to keep up with modern exotics, and not a total disaster to own like some of the mid-1990s cars that hail from Italy. Now, in 2002, if you want a nice 993 Turbo…oh boy.
This 1996 up for sale in Tennessee is reportedly a one-owner car finished in the sleek Polar Silver Metallic. It has just over 51,000 miles and a fresh engine-out service that ran almost $28,000. I suppose you could say a $28,000 repair bill was worth it when you see this asking price.
I’m not exactly breaking any news here, but we are 25-years deep and then some on the 993 Porsche 911 chassis and it is aging extremely well. All the way from the base Carrera 2 up to the Turbo S and GT models, the models are desired and are probably going to stay that way. Naturally any starting point when dipping your toe in the 993 world is the Carrera 2 as it offers all the purity of the rear-wheel drive air-cooled 911 without spending over $100,000. This example up for sale in North Carolina is exactly that.
The E31 was BMW’s first real attempt at integrating lots of computer designs and controls into one of their road cars. The clean-sheet design resulted in a 2-door grand tourer that shared some visual similarities with the great M1, but stood apart as a more practical cruiser. Unlike the E24, the windows could fully drop, revealing a graceful pillarless design to match the sweeping greenhouse. The sharp nose amazingly hid an even larger motor than its predecessor; in fact, it was basically two conjoined M20s. That configuration certainly has some drawbacks, but there was no denying that the 850i had serious presence and credentials with the M70 V12 kicking out 300 horsepower.
However, BMW softened the character of what potentially could have been a screamer. Many were outfit with 16″ wheels for a better ride and tied to an automatic transmission. This was truly a GT car, and not the supercar slayer that BMW teased with its M8 Concept. That vision ultimately became the manual-only 850CSi, but upgrades later in the run saw the introduction of the V8 840Ci and the revised M73 5.4 liter V12 in the 850Ci. This one is a bit special, having run through the hands of BMW’s Individual department before being sent to Mexico:
