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Tag: Turbo

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1995 Audi S6

We’re a fickle crowd, automobile enthusiasts. We’ll sit around critiquing cars all day long; what we would or wouldn’t have done, and where the current seller has stepped up or fallen short. Without knowing the whole story, we’ll question motivation, driving habits, cleaning regiments or part choices. Piece by piece, we’ll pick apart what often isn’t an unreasonable asking price for a used car, spending money that isn’t ours and making bold claims about how little we would pay for such a ride. But for those of us who have gone through attempting to rebuild a vehicle to a high standard or return a car to stock form, it’s a little easier to be objective when viewing an asking price on what is a pristine example of a rare car. Simply put, there’s a balance between buying an example that fits the “wants” – you “want” a perfect, pristine, low mile, low owner count maintained car, but you “want” to spend as little as you can. Let’s take a look at a car with a serious fan following in seriously good condition and break it down – in this case, it’s a pristine 1995 Audi S6:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1995 Audi S6 on eBay

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Future or Now? 1998 993 Carrera 4S v. 2007 997 Turbo

This past weekend I caught a bit of the Mecum Auction action, and I was pretty stunned to see a fairly new 993 Turbo in Arena Red come across the auction block. Generally, when newer metal comes across the block at these auctions, the commentators break to commercial sponsors and don’t really pay attention. But the 911 market is such that this particular 993 – which wasn’t perfect, mind you – hammered for around $170,000 not including fees. The surge in air-cooled prices is amazing, and it seems that there’s a scramble to buy what good examples are left while they’re still affordable. Two cars were sent our way by readers last week that got me thinking more about this; one was the 993 Carrera 4S that you see here from our reader John, and a 2005 996 Turbo S in Signal Green – reportedly 1 of 1 – from our reader Michael. I’ve talked before about how the 996 Turbo is a screaming performance deal right now, and this one-off Turbo S wasn’t too far from the price of the 993 Carrera 4S offered here.

Obviously, despite being very similar cars in many respects the two have very different markets. Those in the 993 market are looking for a rapidly appreciating classic; a well proportioned, ultimate development of the air-cooled days of Porsche when limited production numbers, over engineering and sublime driving experiences ruled the day. Those in the 996 market are looking for the most performance they can buy, and a twin-turbo, all-wheel drive 911 is truly a car that now can be used all year long while lighting your hair on fire every time you hit the loud pedal. Unfortunately, that Signal Green example disappeared before I could get this article up; what I found to replace it might even be more astounding – a 997 Turbo Sport Chrono with less than 40,000 miles on the clock. Nearly a decade separates these two cars and there’s a substantial performance gap as well; which would you choose?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1998 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S on eBay

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Tuner Tuesday: 1986 Porsche 911 Turbo DP 935

Ah, the DP 935. It’s a car that in the world of Porsche generates both enthusiasm and enthusiastic hatred of the modifications. There’s no denying that they were one of the more spectacular modified Porsches in the 1980s, though, and while Duran Duran seems to be playing in my head everytime I see one, I nevertheless love to find them. We last looked at a blacked-out and modified 1986 DP 935 almost exactly a year ago. Today’s model, like the all-black model from last year, is not 100% correct or the full-crazy European-spec slantnose, but the U.S. spec toned down package that retained the original bumpers. Also like that car, this example has non-original wheels and an engine rebuild/refresh. Is it the one to buy?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1986 Porsche 911 Turbo DP 935 on eBay

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Tuner Tuesday: 1985 Porsche 930 Andial 3.5

When it comes to 1980s Porsche tuners, the immediate name that pops into enthusiasts’ minds is Ruf. And for road cars, certainly the Yellowbird set the tone for performance tuned cars and remains legendary today. In the shadows of Ruf’s imposing figure, though, were smaller firms such as Andial. Andial worked in tandem with Porsche Motorsports to run many of the customer racing program cars such as the 935, 956 and 962. This gave them some serious credentials and notoriety for building impressive cars. Some of those Andial-built motors ended up in road-going Porsches, such as this 3.5 liter converted 930:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1985 Porsche 930 on eBay

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Tuner Tuesday: 2002 Audi S4

One of the best features of the German super-sedan is how much of a sleeper performance machine they are. In more recent years, that sleeper-status has decreased slightly in some marques, but in the late 1990s and early 2000s, you still needed to be an enthusiast to really tell the difference between some of the more potent models and their more pedestrian stablemates. Certainly that was true of the B5 Audi S4; yes, it had subtly refined front and rear bumpers and distinctive wheels, but aside from that the outside looked nearly the same as any other sport package A4. But the performance was certainly better than the typical A4, and the B5 2.7T V6-equipped S4 has proven itself to be a popular tuning platform. The ability to channel the power through all four wheels means that horsepower figures that would render other cars simply tire-shredding machines can be utilized by the S4. And some of those power figures are impressive; spec out a B5 S4 motor such as this and APR claims it’s capable of getting within a riding mower’s worth of 700 horsepower. Look at the outside and tell me you’d be expecting that at the lights when this stealthy sedan pulled up next to you:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 Audi S4 on eBay

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