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Tag: Motorsports Monday

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Motorsports Monday: ex-Walter Cronkite 1958 Goggomobil TS400

From the land of the obscure comes today’s listing. While Walter Cronkite is a name quite a few still remember well, for most it is a name from the distant past especially when you consider what has become of “the news”. Mr. Cronkite, after all, retired in 1981 – longer ago than the age of the majority of our content. And the name Goggomobil is also, for most, completely obscure. However, the Glas founded company in Dingolfing was pretty successful at making two-stroke, two-cylinder micro-cars which laid the foundations for the Glas GT and later incorporation of the company into BMW. Okay, so an obscure slow car driven by the ‘Greatest’s Generation’s’ greatest newsman sounds…well, boring. But Mr. Cronkite didn’t just drive this Goggomobil TS400, he raced it:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1958 Googomobil TS400 on eBay

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Motorsports Monday: 1973 Porsche 914-6 GT

As I looked across the lawn at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum’s German Car Day between a Porsche Cayman GT4 and the Porsche 914s that lined the row behind it, I couldn’t help but feel that the diminutive design doesn’t get enough credit from enthusiasts. Indeed the aura of the 911 is so thoroughly encompassing it overshadows nearly every other Porsche model conceived and constructed, but especially this seems to be true of the 1970s. During that time Porsche launched groundbreaking models like the 924 and 928; generally, both very unappreciated compared to the air-cooled siblings. But the 914 seems nearly forgotten despite its similar engine behind the driver and atmospheric cooling setup. Why? Well, it’s not the prettiest Porsche design, it’s true – but presented properly it is still quite neat. The neatest of the bunch are probably the original, fat-flared 914-6 GT models. Ready to blow your mind? Fresh off their somewhat surprising and unlikely victory at Le Mans yesterday, I thought it would be nice to take a look at a 914-6 GT replica, because 46 years ago Porsche themselves entered such a car at the 24 hour endurance race. Now, 1970 is probably a lot more memorable for Porsche because it was the famous red Salzburg 917K Attwood/Hermann that took overall victory. You might remember the 1970 race for being the basis of the Steve McQueen movie that was appropriately named, too. But what was perhaps the most amazing thing about that race was who finished 5th overall. Following the 917K and the 917LH along with two Ferrari 512Ss was that Porsche 914-6 GT, some three laps ahead of a 911S. How’s that for something to put on your resume?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1973 Porsche 914-6 on eBay

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Motorsports Monday: 1984 Audi Coupe GT

Far less famous than its wide-hipped brother and mostly unknown to most U.S. customers, the B2 Audi Coupe was available with quattro all-wheel drive in other markets. It shared nearly all components with the sibling 4000 (90) quattro, including 4×108 wheel pattern and 256mm front brakes – items that were also on the U.S. spec front-drive GT. So, one would assume it would be pretty easy to “swap in a quattro”, as the internet posts usually start. Of course, those individuals who start the posts best be wearing flame-retardant clothing, as they are immediately inundated with responses that kindly (or not so) explain the difficulties inherent in this project. You see, everything aft of the firewall on the all-wheel drive floorplan is different than the two wheel drive units; indeed, as I’ve pointed out previously, even the two wheel drive floorpans were different between automatics and manuals. That means to recreate a rest of the world Coupe quattro, you need the floorpan from a 4000 quattro mated to a body of a Coupe GT. This, of course, makes no sense financially as the countless hours involved eliminate all but the DIYers – and even a fair chunk of those with the talent give up on the project. Yet, it apparently didn’t stop the builder of this rally car, who not only swapped the body, but went one step further and dropped in a turbocharged motor and the brakes and wheels from the big-brother Type 44 chassis. The result is a budget Ur-Quattro rally replica without the flare of the original…or, at least, it was a few years ago before it was parked:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1984 Audi Coupe GT on eBay

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Motorsports Monday: 1986 Porsche 930

It’s hard to fathom any Porsche 930 as “reasonably priced” these days, but after the $500,000 SLS AMG GT3 from earlier this 1986 Porsche 930 seems positively a cheap way to consider track time. What interests me about this car is something the seller mentions in the listing; this is an original Turbo, and still retains the original motor casing and transmission to prove it. Rob’s recent modified 1984 911 “Turbo” model and Nate’s odd M30 turbo M5 from yesterday prove that turbocharged motors popping up in unexpected packages isn’t particularly uncommon, but original 930s rarely turn up in race car form:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1986 Porsche 930 on eBay

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Motorsports Monday: 2013 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3

While I try to vary the posts up a bit, there’s no denying that my regular “Motorsports Monday” posts are dominated by Porsche and BMW. Occasionally, I search far and wide and manage to include an Audi into the mix, but our readership undoubtedly doesn’t associate this column with Mercedes-Benz products. On top of that, the name of this particular car which is bucking that trend also isn’t unusually associated with the three-pointed star – “GT3”. So synonymous with Porsche is that combination of letters and a single number that one could overlook that it dictates the rules for an entire class of cars in the FIA. Since I like rather unusual candidates anyway, I was excited to see one of the very limited production C197 SLS GT3s come up for sale on eBay this week:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2013 Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS GT3 on eBay

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