6 Amazing Cars Posted In The CT Garage Last Week

The E30 320iS is one of those brilliant regional oddities many won’t have heard of. It’s an M Car in all but name, something that’ll probably dawn on you when you see the ‘BMW M Power’ script on the engine.

Yep, that is indeed an S14 under the bonnet, albeit with the stroke reduced to get the displacement down to 2.0 litres. The reason? Italian and Portuguese car tax rules at the time, which heavily penalised engines above the 2.0-litre mark (and also gave us cars like the Ferrari 208 GTB).

There was even a four-door version, meaning you can sort of buy a factory E30 M3 saloon. CTzen Max’s is of the two door variety, and it looks very tidy.

The rear-drive Mk2 Escort makes for an incredible base for modification projects, as proven by asdasd’s 1979 example. A Garrett turbo feeds a 2.0-litre four-pot, resulting in a healthy 475bhp output to send to the rear boots.

What we like about this old G40 is the way that it uses a range of subtle exterior modifications to really smarten up the way it looks. There are plenty of changes under the skin too, and the 1.2-litre supercharged engine now puts out 140bhp: a decent figure in an 800kg car.

One of last week’s quirkier submissions was this 1966 El Camino. It’s been spruced up with air suspension, and is packing a 400bhp 383ci (6.3 litres) engine.

Despite rising prices, it is still possible to get an old 944 quite cheaply. The only problem? It’d have to be one of the particularly slow ‘Lux’ versions. However, there are a few solutions.

Darryl’s was to fit an engine borrowed from a 944 Turbo, along with a set of Gaz Gold coilovers, the manual steering rack from a 944 Cup and a set of Boxster brake callipers to improve the handling and braking.

Last but most certainly not least is our new staff writer Neil Winn. With him he brings a 2014 Subaru BRZ, injecting a much-needed shot of Japanese performance goodness into the CT office, which is increasingly being dominated by obnoxious BMW owners (sorry Alex…).