Posts Tagged ‘Feature’

Rare Column-Shift 1981 Mercedes 280E plus bonus 1977 280E

July 18, 2013

Okay, after all that Italian nonsense it’s time to get back to being more serious and look at something that’s not just a toy, but a solidly built tank of a car. All those words pretty accurately describe the W123 Mercedes built in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and RustyButTrusty has managed to find one of the rarest iterations of the body-style. First off, it’s a grey-market (more on that later) 280E, which the owner says adds about 40 extra horsepower on the M110 engine. Further, this car has the unusual column-shift option. For some reason, Mercedes offered two different ways of shifting the *exact same* transmission – apparently the only difference is in the linkage. As a plus, you get this great little space to store your Scorpions cassettes where the shifter would have been. You can find this W123 280E for $3400 in North Oakland, CA.

1981 Mercedes 280E left front

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Sporty Fuselage – 1969 Chrysler 300 Coupe

July 6, 2013

Although I have a definite proclivity for European cars, since that’s my experience, here at RustyButTrusty we do not exclude any particular type of car. However, leaning toward oddballs often implicitly means you’re not going to see many American cars here, since collectively they’re pretty common in the US! There is some kind of opposites-attract appeal to the insanely large American cars – I used to hate these cars as a child, probably because they were all over the place, holding our Saab 99 up and belching blue smoke from years of service. However, at this point they’re fairly rare, and as such I think the remaining cars are interesting for what they say about the conditions under which they were conceived. In the fat years leading up to the late 1970s and onwards, US manufacturers offered all kinds of derivatives (models and sub-models) of what was basically the same platform. So for example, for the new fuselage bodies in 1969, Chrysler offered the Newport, Newport Custom, New Yorker, Town & Country, and the 300. Within the 300 model, there was a coupe, convertible, and pillarless sedan. Today’s car is a 300 coupe, listed for $1500/$2500 in Falling Waters, WV.

1969 Chrysler 300 left front

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Suckered – 1976 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT (plus bonus ’78!)

July 5, 2013

As regular readers know, I am a sucker for a nice Alfetta, or even a not-so-nice Alfetta, which is how I end up spending more on bodywork than I probably should! While they have their issues, which are well-known from when Alfa Romeo was trying to sell these as daily drivers, many of those are significantly diminished by the weekend driver status. When sorted, they are really quite reliable as a fun second car. With that, let’s see today’s example, a 1976 Alfetta GT listed for $1500 in Seward Park, near Seattle, WA.

1976 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT left front

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