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Modifications to cars can either be a tremendous improvement or a spectacular failure, and the Porsche 911 has occupied both sides of the coin. We’ve certainly seen our fair share of lovely slantnose 911s and 930s, but they can also verge on the tasteless in their excess. It seems that the 1980s really was a period where cars that were the envy of most suddenly became the outward expression of decadence; a cry for help even. There was a great Dave Chappelle skit called “True Hollywood Stories”, where Charlie Murphy recounted some tales of Rick James – describing him as a “habitual line stepper”. To me, tuners in the 1980s were habitual line steppers with how far they would push cars. They passed nip and tuck in order to achieve the dipped look. Thankfully, this all-steel slantnose 911 has avoided the color-matched windshield wiper arms – but still, outwardly it’s a reminder of how Rick James explained his behavior, eerily laughing the whole time; “cocaine’s a hell of a drug!”
I don’t talk about it often, but my first car was nearly a BMW 2002 tii. It was a bit of a rookie mistake in many ways; I was 17 years old and had been going to the track with my father for many years and wanted my own track car. As my father was in to BMWs, it was a natural thought that I’d end up with one. The search led me to a green over black 2002 tii, and after not much looking at the car or knowing what I was looking for I put a deposit down. When I got home, I told my father who suggested we have a mutual friend who knew the 2002s better than me go look at it before I paid. The friend agreed, we arrived at the seller’s home and after what seemed like a shockingly short amount of time he came over to me and said “walk away”. The car had prohibitive amounts of rust, and it would have taken a miracle to return it to nice condition. Shortly after I ended up with my 4000CS Quattro, and the run of Audis began – but I often wonder what would have come if I purchased that 2002. I’d like to think it would have ended up something like this one:
I was so certain that we I had written this car up before as the Racing Dynamics prototype, I initially wrote the headline up as a “revisit”. But the year was wrong, the wheels were different, and then I noticed something – that earlier car was an R48, and this car took it to the next level. A full bored and stroked 4.93 liters, the RD50 pushed the performance envelope past the M5. With discrete body modifications and some of the best looking aftermarket wheels ever fitted to a BMW, this is certainly a unique alternative to the normal E39:
Want a M5? There aren’t many that don’t right now. And if the E39 wasn’t already appealing enough, pricing on them is quickly becoming more affordable for the everyday Joe. But for some folks, it’s still too much, and let’s be honest – while M5s are pretty special beasties there are plenty of them out there. So perhaps if today’s no reserve RS6 wasn’t enough to have you looking at the grass on the other side of the fence, then maybe this listing will be enough to peak your interest – the claimed development car for the Racing Dynamics R48, this early build 1997 540i is prime for the driving at a very easy to swallow pricetag and is certainly unique:
This selection comes our way from an email sent by Nick. I apologize as I didn’t get to his email until tonight and the auction…
