After that last Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, I thought I’d get back on the right track with another SLS that is much more special. This 2012 up for sale in Germany starts out tame enough in Obsidian Black Metallic, but when you open those doors you get hit with a color combo that I’ve never seen before and didn’t even think was possible. It is worth the click.
Don’t sleep on the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. Not saying you are, but they don’t seem to get a lot of love compared to all the other wild and crazy cars out there. Maybe it was just a strange time to launch an exotic super car, or maybe it looks too much like an SL, but I think this car is very much something that will go down in history as a car to have. I’ve pleaded the case many times before for the SLS, so I figured I’d do a yearly reminder that these are probably at the bottom of the price curve right now as they are nearing 10 years-old. It has Gullwing doors for goodness sake!
One of the crazier things I’ve ever seen in the car industry is the Porsche 911 Turbo S 918 Spyder Edition. If you don’t know the back story, lets settle in for a very quick story.
When Porsche was selecting their very best clients to purchase the upcoming 918 Spyder for $845,000, they decided to offer a 911 Turbo S called the “Edition 918 Spyder” to those same buyers. It was a 997.2 Turbo S finished in either black or silver with acid green accents to match those of the 918. Each one was “numbers-matching” to their 918 and rumor has it every 918 owner took up Porsche’s offer on these, although that is disputed in some circles. The price? $160,700 for the coupe or $172,100 for the convertible. Nothing like a good old fashion upsell to the tune of six-figures. Over the years, these cars have parted ways with the matching 918 given they made 918 of them in total. Naturally, these pop up for sale every once in a while and oh boy, they are not cheap.
You know why we are here. If there is a Porsche in a rare or interesting color, I’m taking a peek. Even better if color on the inside is just as cool as the outside. You can probably see where I’m going with today’s car, a 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S up for sale in Ohio. This example is finished in Radium Green, a color first debuted way back on the 356. As cool as this color is, not exactly something that would appear on the option sheet for a new car. Understanding that, I figured this has to be a paint-to-sample car given it is a historical color. Surprisingly, this is the much more expensive option than having Porsche spray the car for $7,500.
Last week Porsche announced the new 992 Turbo S and of course, the stats were bonkers. All you really need to know is that it does 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds and will top out a little north of 200 mph. Much to no one’s surprise, it will be an 8-speed PDK gearbox with almost zero chance of a 6 or 7-speed manual gearbox given that the entire 991 Turbo generation did not offer a true manual gearbox. I totally get why, and you can’t blame Porsche for not offering it. First, the majority of 911 Turbo buyers don’t want a three pedal car, and if they did, as soon as they smashed the throttle in first gear, they’d be banging it off the redline. As much as we like to think we are all amazing drivers, your dentist Gary is not. That means if you do want a 911 Turbo with a 6-speed manual gearbox, you have to venture all the way back to the 997 generation.
This 2012 911 Turbo up for sale in New York is just 1 of 163 examples produced for the North American market with the 6-speed compared to the significantly more PDK cars. That means finding one is very a tough task to say the least. Finding one in Carrera White with a Carrera Red interior and just 6,000 miles? Bring your checkbook.
For a much love as I give all the Porsche GT and Turbo cars, very rarely do I look at the standard 911 Carrera. Rightfully so as those headline-capturing GT and Turbo cars can basically go toe-to-toe with any car in the world and hold their own, but that certainly doesn’t make the base 911 any less good. This is especially true on the 991 chassis. The lowly base 911 is hardly that. It came in at a respectable 350 horsepower and a choice between the 7-speed PDK gearbox or a 7-speed traditional manual transaxle that was a world-first at the time. A 0-60 run needed just 4.4 seconds and this all could be done in a package tame enough to drive 365 days a year with no fuss. The price wasn’t cheap however as the base 991 started at $83,000. I wish I could put “started” in size 84 font as stuff you think would be standard can easily tack on another $10,000 without even realizing it. Got to have those 14-way sport seats, after all.
Continuing on the theme of lightweight, Europe-only specials of a fan-favorite chassis, here’s one I’m willing to bet a fair amount of you aren’t aware of. BMW launched several special variants of the E9x chassis, and we saw some of them – the Lime Rock Park Edition being the most notable – but in total BMW produced a hard-to-fathom 28 special variations of the E9x Ms. As a result, you’re forgiven if you didn’t remember all of them!
CRT stands for “Carbon Racing Technology”, but perhaps ironically it was BMW’s carbon-intensive road cars that led to the model. Spare cuttings from the carbon passenger cells of the i3 and i8 models were recycled and molded into body pieces for this special M3 sedan, while motivation came from the M3 GTS’s upgraded S65B44 V8. Stroked to 4.4 liters and with a lightweight titanium exhaust, the enlarged V8 was rated at over 440 horsepower (20+ over a standard S65B40), while torque was up 30 to 325 lb.ft at a lower 3,750 rpms. BMW produced a total of 68 cars, of which 67 were sold to the public, all in identical Frozen Silver Metallic with Sahkir Orange accented interiors:
Update 1/17/19: This 135i is listed as sold at $18,000.
A few months ago I took a look at one of the best affordable driving packages from BMW in recent times – the E82 135i. The model I looked at was rare for a few reasons; clean, original 135is with a 6-speed manual are fairly hard to find, and on top of that the particular example was outfit in Alpine White and with the M-Sport package, plus it had the even more infrequently seen beige Boston leather interior. It was also fairly loaded and had lower mileage – all in all, a hard package to replicate.
Well, I’ve come pretty close today. In some ways, this car may actually be a bit more desirable. Let me explain why:
When I previously featured an Ipanema Blue Metallic 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS it was one of the few times I’d seen the color come up for sale. Here we have another nearly identical 911. Same year and same model though optioned slightly differently. Hilariously it is priced $1 above the asking price of the previous example I featured. It’s Price is Right bidding on eBay!
Let’s get to those different options because they’re not insignificant. Most importantly this Carrera 4 GTS is equipped with PDK rather than a 6-speed manual. That’s a big deal on the 997 GTS. We’ll get to that in a moment. The other significant option is that this one came with the Aerokit Cup. It’s an interesting choice that certainly provides a little more raciness to the exterior. There are a few other optional differences but other than Sports Suspension, which the other GTS had while this one does not, they are mostly minor and not much to get riled up about.
Ipanema wasn’t a terribly popular color for the 997. It’s why we don’t see a lot of them. But bright colors seems like they are back in style on 911s so maybe it’ll see a surge in popularity.
It’s always interesting to see a somewhat unusual build on any car and I think this one qualifies. This is a paint-to-sample Speed Yellow 2012 Porsche Cayman R. That it’s one of the few PTS Cayman R produced in itself makes this a pretty unique and desirable car. This one takes color to another level by adding a set of Guards Red painted wheels. Contrasting red and yellow in such a way certainly isn’t the typical setup and most won’t find it that desirable, but if we think of the Cayman R as a track car, which we probably should, the colors work just fine. They’re bold and bright and attention grabbing, just the sort of thing that any track car needs. I don’t know what sort of track use this Cayman may have seen, nor whether that was the intention of the original owner when choosing these colors, but it at least provides a possible reason for how this came together. I kinda like it!
