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Desirable limited editions


Mr Laurence

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The 1977 Volvo 244 DLS commands pretty high four-figure sums in Volvo circles these days,  as although it wasn't all that different to a standard 244 DL, apart from having the 264 GL's bonnet, headlights and front grille fitted, it has an interesting backstory.

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It was limited to 1000 examples, all of which were sold in the former German Democratic Republic, and was only available to the very few citizens with enough money to pay for them outright and to favoured people such as scientists, actors, musicians, sportspeople and the like. Many were very well looked after, so their survival rate is quite high. 

Rumour has it that Volvo were paid for the cars in East German lager as opposed to cash. At least they got paid for them, unlike the 144s the company sold to North Korea in the early 1970s :mrgreen:

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Following on from the post above, in the final few months of Anglia 105E production in 1967 they were available in Venetian gold metallic and blue Mink.  At the time these colours only available on the Mk4 Zodiac.

Not formally identified as 'limited edition' but only a few hundred made in each colour of the final production run (250 or 500, something like that).  I think they were all 1200 Supers.

18z36LY.jpg

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1 hour ago, dozeydustman said:

I’ve yet to see the Morris Minor Million on this thread.

DEA04418-8AB2-418A-ADEE-BE09EC549D5B.thumb.jpeg.6915943559b3267cb3f683cf77988933.jpeg
 

Would this have been one of if not the first limited edition cars? Special paint colour, interior colour and badge on an otherwise bog standard 948 minor

On a similar note I vaguely recall a Mk2 Punto '500000' special edition.

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On 1/27/2021 at 6:19 PM, anonymous user said:

Does my Panda Waze count, it's the normal Panda 4x4 Cross, minus the red towing eyes, but with a phone holder and a little badge

Fiat have done some really shit ones with Pandas. The Mamy instantly comes to mind.

A boggo 1.2 Dynamic but painted purple (or later the same orange you could get on the more interesting Alessi). It came with luxury editions such as a rubber boot mat, hooks on the headrest for bags and a 2nd small rear view mirror stuck on to keep an eye on kids in the back seat.

Also seem to remember Renault did a shit special Clio, music or something it was called, was just a base model with an MP3 compatible stereo.

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1 hour ago, JeeExEll said:

Following on from the post above, in the final few months of Anglia 105E production in 1967 they were available in Venetian gold metallic and blue Mink.  At the time these colours only available on the Mk4 Zodiac.

Not formally identified as 'limited edition' but only a few hundred made in each colour of the final production run (250 or 500, something like that).  I think they were all 1200 Supers.

18z36LY.jpg

It’s not often I learn something new about Fords of the 60 and 70’s. Thank you.

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On 1/28/2021 at 8:05 PM, dozeydustman said:

I’ve yet to see the Morris Minor Million on this thread.

DEA04418-8AB2-418A-ADEE-BE09EC549D5B.thumb.jpeg.6915943559b3267cb3f683cf77988933.jpeg
 

Would this have been one of if not the first limited edition cars? Special paint colour, interior colour and badge on an otherwise bog standard 948 minor

Might have been just the actual one mill one that wore this badge.

1000000.thumb.jpg.e6227e6b7c24b1e2e6432e5a521cee6b.jpg

1mhu.thumb.jpg.54b8dc232fe69649a0092150afaa6f37.jpg

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Back in 1972, my Dad bought one of these as his first brand new car. A VW Beetle Marathon Edition.

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Powered by the mighty 1300cc engine with 44bhp, but look at those wheels. As an 8 year old I was most impressed  with the silver coloured commemorative medallion it came with.

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On 26/01/2021 at 10:24, dozeydustman said:

205 Roland Garros, like the one Steph test drove recently, basically a plush trimmed XS with leather/part leather seats, electric windows and a few other bells and whistles.

I would also consider the 205 Gentry desirable but it came with a Heather Mills-o-matic ‘box only coupled to a lower tuned 1.9, which really puts me off and this lowers the desirability factor significantly for me.

Obviously before the days of every few weeks the 106 had another ‘limited’ edition.

205 Inca is for WINNARS, clearly*... 😃

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17 minutes ago, Inspiral_Mondays said:

Back in 1972, my Dad bought one of these as his first brand new car. A VW Beetle Marathon Edition.

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Powered by the mighty 1300cc engine with 44bhp, but look at those wheels. As an 8 year old I was most impressed  with the silver coloured commemorative medallion it came with.

My brother has one of those, technically it's his daughter's car, but she's hardly ever driven it. It's last outing was a couple of years back at her wedding 

20180428_120639.jpg

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evlYnm5.jpg

Already mentioned above, I saw this today when looking for something else, the Granada Sapphire.

A mate started work aged 17 at an electronics factory in 1982 and used to get a lift for the 18 miles to work from one of the managers who had one of these.  Sounds like a good way to start the day.

Manager used to smoke cigars and fart constantly in the car, with the heater always on full.  The passenger electric window didn't work.

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In other 'special edition' news, the Saab 96 in the 'hall of shame' below is #148 of 300 'Silver Jubilee' cars, painted actually-not-quite-silver and with lurid 70s-tastic upholstery.  I enjoyed it very much for a year in the mid-1990s and it still exists on SORN somewhere.

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On 1/26/2021 at 11:11 AM, Six-cylinder said:

There were some rumours that the last few had a LSD, but I have never seen a confirmed sighting.

2.0i 8v 109 bhp in a heavy car sounds like they had some to use up rather than a need!

Believe they were a cold weather special. 
heated seats

alloys instead of steels for rust prevention

windy windows in case of frozen seals

think the wentworth 940 had a standard lsd but the torslanda would’ve benefitted if it wasn’t standard fit

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1 minute ago, 2MB said:

Believe they were a cold weather special. 
heated seats

alloys instead of steels for rust prevention

windy windows in case of frozen seals

think the wentworth 940 had a standard lsd but the torslanda would’ve benefitted if it wasn’t standard fit

Heated seats were standard on all UK Volvo 240s.

Plastic covers hid the wheels on lesser model 240s.

I am not sure if Torslander had electric windows.

940 Wentworths did not have LSDs, I sold them new. No UK 240/740/760 had LSDs up to 1992 when I was selling them.

 

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2 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

Heated seats were standard on all UK Volvo 240s.

Plastic covers hid the wheels on lesser model 240s.

I am not sure if Torslander had electric windows.

940 Wentworths did not have LSDs, I sold them new. No UK 240/740/760 had LSDs up to 1992 when I was selling them.

 

That’s me told then! Can’t remember where I read about the spec of the torslander

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IIRC, the Torslanda was a way for Volvo to use up its stock of 240 parts such as alloy wheels and black exterior trim on a DL-based special edition. The idea that it was a 'cold weather' edition is a red herring perpetuated by motoring journalists who ought to know better.

Nice car, though, but nowhere near as nice as some of the run-out special editions in non-UK markets, such as the Super Polar (Italy) and the Tack (Japan).

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4 minutes ago, Shep Shepherd said:

IIRC, the Torslanda was a way for Volvo to use up its stock of 240 parts such as alloy wheels and black exterior trim on a DL-based special edition. The idea that it was a 'cold weather' edition is a red herring perpetuated by motoring journalists.

The last DL were 1990 2.3 Carb, 4 speed manual. 1990 was the year Volvo offered the option of a cat on everything and did not put it on carb 240s.

The Torslanda was actually based on the 2.0i SE but somehow was striped out and fancified. I just was not there to know the details by then.

I had a DL as a company car in 1990, solid Atlantic blue and it was a great tow car.

245 DL G715 VFC blue.jpg

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The Citroen CX GTI Turbo ‘Concorde’... a limited edition created for Air France in 1985, to celebrate 10 years of supersonic passenger flight...

Six were built out of a planned twelve and only two are reputed to survive. Here's one of them:
https://www.artebellum.com/en/articles/6929-citroen-cx-gti-turbo-concorde-auction-highlight

Desirable? Probably. Auction estimate was €50,000-€80,000 for a well-used car with over 550k km on the clock...

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Don‘t know whether they made it to the UK, but in Germany in the mid nineties VW marketed the Golf Pink Floyd, Golf Rolling Stones and Golf Genesis based on the Mk3 Golf. I guess the dull, flabby, middle of the road, past its prime nature of the Mk3 Golf fitted in well with the choice of bands. Here‘s the Golf Pink Floyd.

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12 hours ago, 2MB said:

Can’t say I’ve owned any kind of limited edition. Did hire a fiat panda 150th anniversary in Turin almost a decade ago for my girlfriend’s 25th birthday. It was nice enough, it can just be made out behind some old heap we parked behind

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ATCNBE etc... 

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In the early 90s, Mercedes offered the last of line W201 in Germany as a special edition called Avant Garde in the days before it became a trim level. It came in 3 flavours, Rosso, Verde and Azzurra. All came with extra toys and the Azzura was equipped with the 2.3litre 4 cylinder engine as standard and a really far out interior with each seat in a different colour.

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These are hugely sought after in Germany these days.

 

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