You learn something new... - Cars you didn't know existed, until now!

[Danny]

Peep this kids,

911 993 Speedster

In contrast to the G-model and the 964, Porsche never officially released a 993 Speedster. However, two were built by the factory: a dark green Speedster equipped with Tiptronic S and 17-inch (430 mm) wheels for Ferdinand Alexander Porsche (his 60th anniversary) in 1995 and another wide-body, silver Speedster with manual transmission and 18-inch (460 mm) wheels for American TV star Jerry Seinfeld in 1998.

 

[Metar]

You can almost see that nasty grin behind the pillar

 

[Sniffs]

I said that kind of thing about Toyotas way back at their american premier...probably noticed it because I saw the word "toy"

a lot of the GT cars came up in my head as "what, they still MAKE these?" for the European vehicles. this here is Truck country, and the only foreigners you saw were Volkswagens. nowadays, I can tell things have changed. we now have a Hyundai dealership, AND the local toyota dealer added Scion the minute it came out. Sadly, VW has pulled out of our area, and left a Chrysler dealership behind.

to find any other Japanese dealer, you have to drive 50 miles south of where I'm at now. not even Subaru has a presence up here. and, of course, here in cow pat central, the only Mercedes or Beamers you see belong to the Indian doctors at the hospital.

 

[superberkut]

Is it this one - P538 Spyder? Apparantly sold to a Mr. Michael Mac here in Hong Kong via auction.

Nope. The P538 has a Kamm tail (I think), and the wrecked car was a coupe. I think it's actually an Iso Grifo.

 

[Venari]

and then there was Aston Martin's "Mustang," their first V8.

Honestly, it does look like a '66 Fastback that Lagonda took, stretched, widened, and threw their signature grille and a few styling cues onto. Funny, because Ford would later buy...and Sell...Aston.

Heh. Close. Actually, the key influence for Towns' original DBS design was the '67 Camaro, but yes, he wanted the 'fastback' tail.

 

[buickgnx88]

Yah I can kind of see what you're saying

 

[Rue]

Nope. The P538 has a Kamm tail (I think), and the wrecked car was a coupe. I think it's actually an Iso Grifo.

Sorry, the crashed car I posted was unrelated to the P358 I was talking about (below)...

 

[Turbo Lag]

If I can remember correctly, it was built during the 360 Modena period, so it's got a few years on it. But yeah, it's not very old.

Edit*
Ok, found the thread. The car is custom built on a Testarossa chassis in the UK. Most of it uses original Ferrari parts, so it's on the border line of being a Ferrari one-off.
*snip*

It is very rare that anyone will see this car out on the streets.

I saw it on some NFS forum, IIRC. Thanks for info, one odd but awesome car

 

[Danny]

Heh. Close. Actually, the key influence for Towns' original DBS design was the '67 Camaro, but yes, he wanted the 'fastback' tail.

Oh yeah? And how exactly would you know?



Oh wait...

 

[Metar]

Nope. The P538 has a Kamm tail (I think), and the wrecked car was a coupe. I think it's actually an Iso Grifo.

The P538 exists in more forms than there are chassis' to build them. Chassis #002 is, in fact the famous Manta concept, though it was previously a Spyder and a Coupe until sold for rebodying as the concept. Chassis #001, which is the one in Hong Kong, is a P538S, which is a Spyder.

And obviously, a kammback can be on any car. It's an aerodynamic concept, applicable on any automobile (including a bus), involving a sloping surface at the rear cut off abruptly - like a teardrop cut in half - following the concept that, even without the 'end' of the teardrop (which is the most aerodynamic design available), air will continue to flow more or less in the same shape, hence allowing similarly-low CoDs, yet in a smaller car.


And, Iso Grifos and early 5300GTs are similar in name only. This is the Iso Grifo, the luxurious muscle-car from Italy:

While this is the, or Iso Grifo A3/C, or Bizzarrini A3/C, or Bizzarrini 5300GT, or the most beautiful car known to mankind:

^ In early race-trim. (Check out those awesome top-mounted air-scoops for the brakes )

^ In gorgeous road-trim.

 

[nd 4 holden spd]

I only found out about the Porsche 928 the other day, a FR V8 Porsche making similar power to early LS1 V8s

 

[Rue]

I still think the 928 S4 looks good by today's standards. It's a car I would consider buying 2nd hand although they are apparantly very difficult to work on.

 

[nd 4 holden spd]

Yeah, I just watched an old clip from Top Gear and Jeremy Clarkson said they were very complicated engines, in a hard to work on kind of way. But still, they are a decent V8, with really good handling and are dirt cheap! I want one, but I can't buy one.

 

[YSSMAN]

The Iso Grifo was the one with the Corvette engine, right?

 

[Gashlycrumb]

Yeah, I just watched an old clip from Top Gear and Jeremy Clarkson said they were very complicated engines, in a hard to work on kind of way. But still, they are a decent V8, with really good handling and are dirt cheap! I want one, but I can't buy one.

Why not?

$11k will get you this:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/1988-Porsche...ryZ10779QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It'll be way more reliable than your average Holden if maintained properly.

 

[nd 4 holden spd]

Why not?

$11k will get you this:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/1988-Porsche...ryZ10779QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It'll be way more reliable than your average Holden if maintained properly.

I highly doubt the reliability being better than a Holden, plus I seen one for $9k AUD on the Trading Post today. You see the problem with owning one would be the cost of keeping it. Sure they're cheap to buy, but then you've gotta pay the rego, insurance of a Porsche V8, and mechanics will charge high on the amount of time spent to fix something because the engine is complicated, and every time something breaks on it you'll pay through the roof for a replacement part becaue they're rare and an import, and finally- if I got one of them, it'd be after getting a Holden performance car and getting rich. I decided long ago where my loyalties lie and I'm an honourable person. Plus I love Holdens So as it stands I only just left school, haven't got a good job yet, and don't even know what I wanna do, and I already own a VR ute V6. But if life treats me well I may just buy one. Speaking of dirt cheap, at the Brisbane Motor Show classic car auction you could get a Ferrari mid-engined V8 from roughly the early '80s for $40k AUD. That's less than a brand new V8 Commodore

 

[Rue]

On the subject of Porsches, here's something I saw the other day which although I knew existed, didn't know existed in such small numbers. The 993 Turbo S was apparantly only produced in a limited run of 200. It also packs a 450 HP powerplant which propels it from 0-60 in a sub 4 second blast. I must say this must rank as one of the ultimate sleepers, seeing as the 993 bodyshape is so common on our roads, I almost didn't take a photo of this, thinking it was a standard 993 with a few body mods. It was only until I looked at the photo I noticed the yellow brakes and side intakes, exclusive to the Turbo S.

I also ran across this on the web whilst looking for info on the Turbo S. It is for sale on a French website for 140,000 Euros (US$204,000) and (if my schoolboy French isn't letting me down) is advertised as a 993 Turbo Cabriolet. Now, I don't believe I ever heard of Porsche producing a 993 Turbo in cabriolet form, but the high price would suggest that maybe they did for a very limited time. I would imagine a aftermarket chopped 993 Turbo would have a lower resale value due to the obvious problems of reduced structural rigidity and not being original. ANy ideas?

 

[TheCracker]

It doesn't have a 993 Turbo wing on it. I'd guess that it's an earlier Turbo Cab with 993 detailing.

However:

=Wiki
After the 3.3 liter G-model Turbo convertible (1987-89), Porsche never officially offered an air-cooled Turbo convertible again. However, in 1995 14 993 Turbo Cabriolets were sold before the introduction of the 993 Turbo coupe. They featured the 360 hp (DIN) single-turbo engine of the 964 Turbo 3.6, a 5-speed manual transmission and the wing of the 964 Turbo 3.6. This required a premium of DM 89,500 (or plus 62%) over the standard 993 Cabriolet's price.

So perhaps it's one of these?

 

[Rue]

It doesn't have a 993 Turbo wing on it. I'd guess that it's an earlier Turbo Cab with 993 detailing.

However:


So perhaps it's one of these?

Yes! The advert said it featured a 3.6L powerplant. So, you learn something new every day!

 

[nd 4 holden spd]

I seen on a used car website that the Porsche 928 had a convertible version too! They only made 3 of them in the entire world, want one? It's ten times the cost of a normal one in Australia.

 

[land sea air]

I always knew that Dusenberg built some of the best cars of the pre-WWII era and used large powerful inline 8 cylinder engines. however I didn't realize their these 2 and a half ton beast had a twin cams with 4 valves per cylinder and could top 100 miles per hour in the 1930s!!! Even more power and speed was available with a supercharger and some claimed the vehicles could top 120mph

 

[superberkut]

What's more, a handful of those Duesenbergs could put out 400hp with a ram's-horn manifold, I believe on the last of the SSJs.

As for the Iso Grifo/Bizzarrini AC/3: Gorgeous!

 

[Metar]

The Iso Grifo was the one with the Corvette engine, right?

Correct. A competition-spec Corvette engine, rebuilt and retuned for over 400HP and touching 8000RPM at times.

 

[Pupik]

I just learned about the Audi RS2 today. Porsche had a hand in tuning it, apparently.

My boss said he had lots of requests for it a decade ago, but alas, none were shipped to America.

The RS2 was the product of a co-development project between Audi and Porsche, based on Audi's 80 Avant (station wagon) and powered by a modified version of their 2.2 litre, 20-valve turbocharged 5-cylinder engine producing 315 PS (232 kW) at 6500 rpm. Although much of the car's underpinnings were manufactured by Audi, assembly was handled by Porsche at their plant in Zuffenhausen, Germany which had become available after discontinuation of the Mercedes-Benz 500E, which Porsche had manufactured under contract.

 

[Turbo Lag]

If I remember properly, the Subaru B4 Blitzen was also made with Porsche.

 

[Gashlycrumb]

Porsche Design did the body kit for the Blitzen

I highly doubt the reliability being better than a Holden

Don't get me started on the (un)reliability of Holdens

 

[Turbo Lag]

After checking wikipedia,

The Blitzen model was the result of a collaboration with Porsche, and featured many unique parts and paint schemes. The wheels, body kit, and interior were all designed by Porsche. It also featured an implementation of the Porsche Tiptronic automatic gearbox, the first use of sequential-shifting on a production Subaru model.

A wagon version was made available in 2001 with the EZ30 engine.

The model was refreshed in 2002 with an updated design.

From: Wikipedia

 

[Rue]

If I remember properly, the Subaru B4 Blitzen was also made with Porsche.

I saw one yesterday. The spoilers are very odd.

 

[Turbo Lag]

I saw one yesterday. The spoilers are very odd.

Theres a few of em' near my area, they do look weird as hell, but I simply adore the looks. The rims are awesome too

 

[nd 4 holden spd]

Porsche Design did the body kit for the Blitzen




Don't get me started on the (un)reliability of Holdens

Many Commodore V6s are quite capable of running way past 500 000km. You know it was a while before I found out about the rotary powered Corvette concept from a few decades ago