The Passat W8 is one of those wonderfully irrational Volkswagen engineering exercises: take a midsize B5.5 family sedan, install a 4.0-liter 32-valve W8 (with 270 hp and 273 lb-ft.), add 4Motion AWD, and then—because apparently that still wasn’t complicated enough—offer it with a 6-speed manual. You will have the only one in your neighborhood, and […]
This next car is an interesting value proposition. You’re basically buying a pile of Triumph parts that happens to still resemble a car. If the chassis is decent and the hardtop is usable, the economics start making sense, but you need to know what you are getting into because old British cars can be a […]
Our next feature is an interesting little footnote in S197 Mustang history: the 2006 California Limited Edition (CE) was a genuine Ford regional special, not the better-known GT/CS that arrived for 2007 (or the Southern California Special version also available in ’06). Contemporary enthusiast documentation puts production at 400 cars, but it was based on […]
There is something undeniably charming about a classic Japanese kei-car sized firetruck. I’m not sure you could extinguish much more than a small frying pan fire, but a used version converted into something fun is a different story. I’d love to turn one of these into a coffee cart, a waffle station, or maybe a […]
Our next feature is not just a random red W-body with a Petty autograph offered for cheap. Pontiac really did build a ’92 Richard Petty Edition Grand Prix to commemorate The King’s final NASCAR season, and the documented production total was 1,000 cars, offered in red, white or blue. Powering this classic plastic-clad Poncho is […]
The Toyota bB was introduced in Japan in 2000 and later became the basis for the first-generation Scion xB sold in the U.S. The Open Deck was the oddball branch of that family tree that removes the rear wagon storage area in exchange for a short bed, external rear structure, and exposed tubular-looking framework. It […]
Early 145s like this are considerably less common than the later 145/245 wagons most people picture when somebody says “old Volvo brick.” This example has been personalized without losing the basic character: bright blue paint, yellow headlights, mesh wheels, lowered stance and a wood/slat roof rack give it considerably more personality than the average surviving […]
The C30 was Volvo’s attempt at a proper premium hot hatch, built from 2007–2013 on the P1 platform shared with the S40/V50/C70 and related underneath to the European Ford Focus and Mazda3. The styling is the real hook: two doors, broad shoulders and that huge frameless-looking glass hatch, deliberately recalling Volvo’s 1800ES shooting brake. Today’s […]
This next feature started life as a Karmann Ghia, which means underneath all the Mad Max cosplay is still the familiar Vee-Dub formula: rear-mounted air-cooled flat-four, torsion-bar suspension, and a four-speed manual. The normal Ghia is one of Volkswagen’s prettiest cars, but this one has been transformed into something that looks like a Luftwaffe mechanic […]
Our next feature is an ’85 Mercedes-Benz 300D, the final model year for Mercedes’ legendary W123 sedan in the U.S. By this point, Mercedes had been refining the platform for nearly a decade, and the result was about as thoroughly engineered as an old diesel sedan gets. The car wears Euro headlamps and plus-sized Centra […]