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Tuner Tuesday GCFSB Alumnus: 2002 Ruf Volkswagen Beetle Turbo S Concept

Tuner Tuesday GCFSB Alumnus: 2002 Ruf Volkswagen Beetle Turbo S Concept

Published November 14, 2017 by Carter

Update 2/16/18: After showing as sold in November for $14,900, the mega-cool Ruf Bug is back again for the same $14,900 ask.

It’s back!

This is a car which has haunted these pages since we first began writing up German cars, if you can believe it. Originally, Aaron wrote this car up nearly 6 years ago to the day – November 8, 2011. Back then, the seller was asking an incredibly steep $60,000. Three years later in 2014, Paul spotted it again and revisited the concept. It was then up for sale for a scarcely more reasonable $50,000. In both cases, it was really hard to justify the substantial premium even if it was a neat looking car.

Fast forward to today, and we’re finally getting somewhere. Although the car appears to have changed little since 2014, the asking price is now $14,900. Mileage is far below average at only 51,722 and condition generally looks very good. It has only accrued 10,000 miles in the last three years. Although this car lacks true RUF credentials, the general concept pulls together pretty well and the execution looks nice. Is this the one to have? It’s certainly a lot more compelling than a standard Beetle in many ways and has big dollar mods, but do those mods justify a $11,000 premium over a standard Turbo S?

-Carter

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 Ruf Volkswagen Beetle Turbo S Concept on eBay

The below post originally appeared on our site November 9, 2011:

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2002 Mercedes-Benz C32 AMG

2002 Mercedes-Benz C32 AMG

Published November 8, 2017 by Andrew

The Mercedes-Benz C32 AMG falls into that category of ”Oh yeah, they made those” probably because of a few reasons. The first one being it wasn’t particularly good or impressive at any one thing. It’s extremely bland, even by conservative Mercedes standards, and you’d be hard-pressed to pick this out of a lineup to recognize it as an AMG car. Aside from some slightly different bumpers and some split spoke AMG wheels, the C32 looked just like every other pre-facelift W203 out there. The power part for this car isn’t anything to write home about with a supercharged M112 V6 that was then shared with the Chrysler Crossfire SRT-6. It did make a respectable 349 horsepower but torque was down with only 322. I think the biggest reason these things are often shoved aside and not really desirable is because the car that replaced it, the W203 C55 AMG, fixed everything that was wrong with this car. The C55 got the big V8 that made almost 400 lb·ft of torque and had a bunch cosmetic updates that made it look different from every other W203 out there. So now that these C32s are 15 years-old, where do they stand?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 Mercedes-Benz C32 AMG on eBay

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2002 Audi S8 with 13,000 Miles

2002 Audi S8 with 13,000 Miles

Published October 16, 2017 by Carter

If you follow these pages, it goes without saying that I’m a pretty strong Ingolstadt devotee. My first car was an Audi 4000CS quattro and since then I’ve owned an astounding 9 models along the way. But that doesn’t mean I buy everything from the company hook, line and sinker. Indeed, I’ve been less than impressed with many of the newer models. Sure, sometimes they look slick, go like stink or are really pretty inside. But would I want to own one? In most cases, no – outside of a few very select models, I don’t really desire to own much post ‘Y2K’.

One exception to that rule – and it’s literally and figuratively a huge exception – is the S8. Everything about this car was just spot on to me. In an age when increasingly the offerings from the competition were unattractive and overly complicated, the S8 was to me the last of the great original quattros. It was an analog offering in a digital age; simple, blunt force from a 360 horsepower V8 in front driving all the wheels with a luxurious driver-oriented cockpit. Sure, there were plenty of computers. Probably there are too many. But compared to the new luxo-suites? The D2 seems downright cart-like. And the proportions of the car were just perfect; lowered, menacing stance, huge yet delicate-appearing wheels, just the right amount of bling, yet an understated car which easily fades into the background. So even though I’m still probably a long way from ownership, I often find myself dreaming about being behind the wheel of one.

The pool of candidates that remain is beginning to dwindle; the newest of the D2 S8s is on the verge of being 15 years old and parts are already getting hard to source. As a result, if you want to get into one of these cars, you’ll want to find the best one available.

Here it is.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 Audi S8 on Washington, D.C. Craigslist

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2002 Porsche 911 Turbo Coupe

2002 Porsche 911 Turbo Coupe

Published September 24, 2017 by Rob

We are always on the lookout for good performance value and as the writer who primarily features the Porsche 911 that isn’t always easy. At least pretty much all 911s provide nice performance, if not nice value! The go to for those looking has long been the 996TT, which for a while represented absolutely silly performance for the price. If you found one with the X50 package you could get supercar levels of performance for around $40K.

Those times have changed. The cat eventually was out of the bag and I guess enough people took notice that prices began to rise. With the air-cooled market rising as well that moved more buyers toward the later water-cooled models. Things haven’t exactly gotten out of hand, but with enough low-mileage examples available it’s pretty common to now see those X50-equipped models priced above $60K. Still good value, but there are other options not far away.

Nonetheless, the search continues and here’s one that comes with a good price: a Seal Grey Metallic 2002 Porsche 911 Turbo Coupe, located in Arizona, with 6-speed manual transmission and 99,522 miles on it.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 Porsche 911 Turbo Coupe on eBay

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Tuner Tuesday Double Take: 2002 and 2003 BMW M5 Dinan S2s

Tuner Tuesday Double Take: 2002 and 2003 BMW M5 Dinan S2s

Published September 19, 2017 by Carter

There are a few select automotive tuners who can take an impressive package and refine it into an even better entity. That group includes legends such as AMG, Alpina and Ruf – all of which are staples of this segment.

Yet they are far from alone. Given the task of improving on what is generally considered to be one of the greatest sedans ever made is no small feat, but if there was one group up to it, it was Steve Dinan’s eponymous company in California.

While just about anyone can take a turbocharged engine and crank up the boost, slap a few stickers on it and call it done, the E39 M5 didn’t come with forced induction. On top of that, it was a motor which wasn’t exactly underdeveloped before it went into production. Nor were the brakes, suspension, or any other aspect of the third gen M5. But Dinan thought they could improve upon them, and with a tremendous amount of work, did.

Dinan went to town on the S62 from start to end. Out came the factory air boxes, air meters and velocity stacks, replaced by Dinan units of larger diameter and better flow qualities, along with larger throttle bodies bored out by the company. This necessitated reprogramming of the computer controls for the engine to match the new flow characteristics. To help the exhaust side of the motor, unique tubular headers were fit to a free-flowing, lightweight exhaust system. While this sounds a bit like old-school engineering, it was successful; the result was an additional 76 horsepower and 51 lb.ft of torque – basically, this was like adding a 1980 Rabbit’s worth of power to an already powerful car.

Dinan coupled the engine mods with a shorter final drive and higher rev-limiter to reach fantastic speeds. The S2 was capable of 0-60 runs around 4 seconds flat and, in unrestricted mode, geared out around 190 mph in 6th. These are still very impressive numbers today, some fifteen years after its introduction! Of course, special forged wheels from the company were added along with their signature suspension. The price was steep, at $36,000 in modifications alone – a further 50% premium on your premium sedan.

Today, you can pick up one of these super-saloons for less than what the price of the modifications cost originally making them one heck of a performance bargain, and I have two to consider for today’s Tuner Tuesday:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 BMW M5 Dinan S2 on eBay

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