Jakob

The Porsche 550 is a car that is well-known amongst classic car enthusiasts for winning numerous Grand Prixs and amongst the classic move enthusiasts for killing James Dean. Not as popular today - in fact unpopular enough to make it hard to find information about in the internet that isn’t in German - is its direct and successful competitor, the AWE R3.

Commodore? Does that ring a bell? I guess so. Nowadays the name Commodore is reserved for cars that have thousands of dollars spent under the bonnet just so that they could do a burnout as big as possible. However, that wasn’t always the case. The first-generation Holden Commodore actually is equivalent to the third -generation Opel Commodore. The car this post is about is the Opel Commodore A, more specifically the GS/E version.

With the eventual release of the next generation Supra coming closer and closer, you read it more often than once that people think what the Mk.IV was and what the Mk.V must be. Mostly these are people who weren’t even born when the production of the Mk.IV ended and will never be able to buy the Mk.V anyways, but that’s beside the point. In the post I’m going to refer mainly to the Mk.IV supra since that’s what people associate with it. I’m aware there are more than just that one.

If you are not from Germany or over 70 years old, chances are high you never heard of this car.

“Make love, not war” or how did that saying go again?

I’m not quite sure whether a car from the year 2000 fits under can be considered retro, but the Omega -Opel’s last executive car- certainly is a classic, so I will just leave it here.

Think of an 1980s European car. Just one. Done? Okay. You thought of one of the following: BMW M3, Ford Sierra Cosworth, Audi Quattro, Lamborghini Countach. I don’t blame you for it. These are by far the most popular ones amongst the cars that were driving around in the 80s, well, on this side of the iron curtain at least. But there are cars that have the whole 1980s flair too, of which I’m going to list ten examples. Not in any particular order though.

Your better half has got children now and you need something to carry them but a football mum van isn’t an option? Things like canoeing or transporting EUR pallets are your hobby? Don’t worry, we have you covered. Here you have a list with wagons for any demand and any type. Note: in this list, only cars that can currently be bought new are considered. Used cars are an option too, but for fair comparision, the catalogue price is taken.

It’s the late 1980s. The old Wartburg 353, albeit slightly revised in 1975, is still almost the same as it was over 20 years ago, with the engine originating from 1940. Exporting the Wartburg to important foreign markets, such as the UK, has been prohibited since it doesn’t match the modern emission regulations. A new engine is badly needed.

In a post yesterday, I did a small guess-the-car ( https://www.carthrottle.com/post/wp6m684/ ), and apparently not many people knew the car in question was an EMW 340. Well, I wouldn’t judge them for that. If you can name an EMW 340, chances are high that you either are from Germany or just are a die-hard fan of GDR cars… probably both. So I thought I’d make a small article about it.

Top Gear has conducted that driving under influence of a ‘stache can be dangerous, but these five F1 drivers did it nonetheless. 5. Keke Rosberg Keke Rosberg was a Finnish F1 driver of the 1980s. He became the F1 world champion in 1982 with Williams F1, despite only winning 1 of 16 races and having an DNF in 3 of them.

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1. Lower it to the point when it's absolutely undriveable anymore This the most important thing. When you want Street Cred, you want to have your cars nice and low and undriveable. No car with stock ride height will ever get a good Street Cred. Lower car means stiffer shock absorbers, which means less ride comfort, this results in absolute manliness for your and your car, thus increasing your Street Cred.

So apparently the North Koreans copied a Mercedes-Benz 190E in the late 1980s. The funny thing is that, outside of North Korea, we know almost nothing about it. What we know is that it’s based off a 1987 Mercedes-Benz W201 “Baby-Benz”.

Some of you may have heard of the Elise-base sports car with the funny name and the ludicrous price tag. But did you know that this surely wasn’t the first car of the manufacturer? The Melkus originally was developed in 1968 by the former racing driver Heinz Melkus as a celebration for the 20th anniversary of the GDR. RS stood for Rennsportwagen , racing sports car in English. But it was harder than expected.

Contrary to what some people think, the East German automobile industry was not always trash. In the early years of the GDR, there were many cars that were real dream cars. One of them is the subject of this post, the Wartburg Sport, factory designation “313”.

James Hunt, forever a legend

Mafia II, superb game nonetheless.

RR Merlin engine (as used in the Spitfire) generating 1600bhp, slapped on a chassis made of two Daimler Dingo scout cars. Reached over 250km/h in third gear , not tested any further.