The Interesting/Rare/Unique Car Configuration Thread

[GranTurNismo]

We already have a rare factory options and a rare color thread, so I was thinking more in the aggregate. What specs/configurations of a certain car pique your interest?

Here’s this 1998 SL 600 in Azurite Blue with the AMG sport package and a 6-speed manual.

The Porsche 911 has always been known for having a seemingly endless amount of possible configurations. Here’s this dream spec: a 1 of 15 993 Targa in Turquoise. Marble grey interior with the optional ‘18 turbo twist wheels.

‘99 NSX Type Zero in Lime Green with a red interior and wood paneling currently up for auction.

This ‘97 F355 Spider in Purple Metallic was commissioned to celebrate Scuderia Ferrari’s three year partnership with the UK luxury brand Asprey. It was driven by Michael Schumacher to Asprey’s “purple party” on Bond St in London.

While the 1992-1999 Pontiac Bonneville was not exactly the most attractive sedan, the optional ‘18 BBS-like gold rims really livened up the design.

 

[Joey D]

If you ask a Corvette owner wearing white New Balances, their car is a 1 of 1 and there's no other configuration like it.

However, to answer the question, for a couple of years, you could purchase a 1st Gen Chevy Colorado with a 5.3L V8 engine. For one year, you could get the LH8 (2009) and then from 2010-12 you could get the LH9. I think the only difference between those two engines is VVT and Flex Fuel.

There was also an Xtreme version of the Colorado that had the ZQ8 lowered suspension on it. You could get it in a single cab, extended cab, and a crew cab as well. I think I've maybe seen one in person before.

 

[McLaren]

That is scary that Honda may have actually granted someone's request to build a NSX like that. I recognize the JDM Navpod, but woodgrain was an option as well & Honda would put "NSX Custom Made, by Honda Tochigi Factory, C xxxx F xxxx" on the door sills.

When you look up the auction sheet for that NSX, it's in the description box.

 

[ScottPuss20]

 

[Tornado]

You could get wood in an NSX!?

If you ask a Corvette owner wearing white New Balances, their car is a 1 of 1 and there's no other configuration like it.

However, to answer the question, for a couple of years, you could purchase a 1st Gen Chevy Colorado with a 5.3L V8 engine. For one year, you could get the LH8 (2009) and then from 2010-12 you could get the LH9. I think the only difference between those two engines is VVT and Flex Fuel.

There was also an Xtreme version of the Colorado that had the ZQ8 lowered suspension on it. You could get it in a single cab, extended cab, and a crew cab as well. I think I've maybe seen one in person before.
View attachment 1479531

It's amazing how sauceless that is compared to the S10.

While the 1992-1999 Pontiac Bonneville was not exactly the most attractive sedan, the optional ‘18 BBS-like gold rims really livened up the design.

View attachment 1479502

View attachment 1479501

Considering the options available on other cars in GM's lineup while that generation was around as well as the amount of sidewall I have extreme doubts those are 18s. The Seville didn't even get the 17s that it desperately needed until 2000; and the BMW knockoff wheels that the next generation Bonneville had as an option on the SSEI that I found in a junkyard to use as snow tires were 17s as well.


They are very nice wheels but they just look like the same wheels that the top spec Grand Prix had standard starting with the Grand Prix Turbo:

Which are 16s.

 

[GranTurNismo]

You could get wood in an NSX!?


It's amazing how sauceless that is compared to the S10.




Considering the options available on other cars in GM's lineup while that generation was around as well as the amount of sidewall I have extreme doubts those are 18s. The Seville didn't even get the 17s that it desperately needed until 2000; and the BMW knockoff wheels that the next generation Bonneville had as an option on the SSEI that I found in a junkyard to use as snow tires were 17s as well.


They are very nice wheels but they just look like the same wheels that the top spec Grand Prix had standard starting with the Grand Prix Turbo:

View attachment 1479599

Which are 16s.

They are most likely 16s then, I stand corrected.

 

[TheCracker]

You could get wood in an NSX!?

I'm sure Danoff 'gets wood' every time he drives his

 

[Darla Starch]

I'm sure Danoff 'gets wood' every time he drives his

Stiff questions, for sure 😏

 

[GranTurNismo]

It's amazing how sauceless that is compared to the S10.

At least the Colorado Xtreme was a decent effort at a sport truck, not far from an X-Runner and really the only American offering in the segment. The S-10/Blazer Xtreme might have given off more authentic rust belt single dad with a beer gut energy, but its 190hp and a sluggish (albeit durable) 4-speed auto don't exactly scream sauce, especially by 2005.

 

[Tornado]

That generation of Tacoma wasn't a competitor with the S-10. The previous generation (which debuted at about the same time as the second generation S-10) with the 190hp S-Runner trim was. And you could get both with a stick:

That isn't to say you probably wouldn't have been better off with a Tacoma even then, but the Domestics:Tacoma sales ratio wasn't nearly as lopsided as it has been since the second generation came out and the S-10 was replaced with the Colorado.

 

[Joey D]

At least the Colorado Xtreme was a decent effort at a sport truck, not far from an X-Runner and really the only American offering in the segment. The S-10/Blazer Xtreme might have given off more authentic rust belt single dad with a beer gut energy, but its 190hp and a sluggish (albeit durable) 4-speed auto don't exactly scream sauce, especially by 2005.

I feel attacked

The Xtremes were sports trucks in a sense, but it was the price point GM was after. They wanted to attract young buyers and offer something inexpensive. While they weren't exactly fast, the ZQ8 suspension was pretty decent at the time. You got thicker sway bars in the front and rear, Bilstein shocks, and more frame bracing. The steering box was quicker, too; it was 12:1 instead of 12.7:1. You could get them with a G80 limited-slip diff as well.

They were just a continuation of the S-10 SS, although I think the SS came with a limited-slip as standard.

Really, they were all a step down from the Syclone/Typhoon, which were legitimate sports trucks. However, it likely would've made the SS or Xtremes way too expensive to continue. Although GM already had the means to make them AWD since the Bravada was AWD only, so that would've been possible. I'm not sure how they would've stuffed all the turbo stuff under the hood of a 2nd-gen S-truck, though. They were a pain in the ass to work on already.

I do miss my Xtreme, it was a fun truck and I'd love to get another one. All the used ones are just so beat to hell now.

 

[Tornado]

Incidentally I saw a Colorado Xtreme going home from Microcenter today, and I'm not sure if I've never seen one before or if they are so downplayed compared to the Xtreme/Sonoma GT (on top of not knowing they made one) that I've never noticed. One of those weird coincidences.

 

[Greycap]

My own 940 isn't interesting for the most part, but the combination is relatively rare and it has one really weird detail. It's already on the rarer side of 940s being the last production year Classic model, painted in Blackberry Pearl which was a pretty high cost option, but on top of that it has a manual transmission - automatic was a no cost option. Just about nobody bought Classics with manuals as it was so outrageously expensive, almost half a million Finnish marks at a time when "normal" cars were around the hundred thousand mark (pun fully intended) and if someone had that kind of money for a car they usually didn't want to bother shifting themselves.

But that's not the actual odd thing about it. What is, is that every 940 Turbo since 1995 had remote central locking as a standard feature and we're talking about the top of the line '98 model here with almost every option as standard - but it doesn't have it. And it hasn't been removed, certain details would be different if it had been installed but removed, it's never been there and it must have been a special order. I've seen a lot of 940s over the years, and this is the only one without it. The combination of a very expensive (for a family estate) car with a manual gearbox, manual air conditioning, and the lack of remote central locking sounds to me like the original owner having been an absolute control freak and specifically optioned the car without anything that was automated in any way. On the other hand I understand it perfectly well.