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5 collector cars to put into your garage this week

It’s that time again – we’ve spent the week rummaging in our ever-growing inventory of weird and wonderful collector cars and hand-picked the ones you should take a closer look at!

Shake the Blues

It's perhaps the purest Porsche 911 ever built. A car that set the foundations for later iterations of the 911. Without the 2.7 RS, there would be no GT3 RS. It’s a 911 in its rarest form, based off the 1973 911 S 2.4 coupé with the important bits given a fair few upgrades to say the least, and the result is nothing short of spectacular. 

This glorious Gulf Blue example carries some real heritage, delivered new in 1973 to German Rally Ace Heinz Walter Schewe, and contains an extensive amount of history. If you’re looking for the benchmark of a performance-orientated classic, the 911 2.7 RS is likely to be the only car you’d ever need to try!

 

Small car, big smiles

Let’s say you’re looking for a spicy hatchback that will turn heads but also keep you on your toes when it comes to the twisty stuff. There are plenty to choose from, but few hold their own quite like a John Cooper Works GP. One of just 288 for the UK market, and only 2,000 worldwide, the ‘GP2’ picked up where the, you guessed it, GP1 left off. It had some rather large shoes to fill, and after MINI ditched the intoxicating supercharger whine for a turbo-charged 1.6 litre engine the critics were out in force. Thankfully, they were silenced the minute they got behind the wheel. 

What makes a MINI so enjoyable to drive is their sheer willingness to perform on the right road, their go-kart like handling is mightily impressive from what is essentially an out-the-box hot hatchback. It was a bit of a looker, too. All finished in Circuit Grey Metallic, the GP2 boasts vibrant red accents throughout, where the racing theme is more than visible inside, thanks to hip-hugging Recaros and plenty of Alcantara.

 

California Dreamin’

We can safely say we’ve never seen a Jaguar XK 120 quite like this one before. Delivered new to California in 1953, this particular roadster was modified with Porsche Speedster style front headlights and a louvered bonnet, giving it a truly unique look to an already stunning piece of design. 

The colour? Well, let's just say it's a shade that's not without its patina, but it somehow suits the hot-rod nature of this XK 120. Like many Jaguars of this era, the design is sharp yet elegant, and gives the sensation of speed even when parked amongst supercars in Casino Square. We would always choose this one to go home in though!

 

Rallye to Riches

How exactly do you build on the success of the Volkswagen Golf Mk I? The design, marketing and sales bosses thought to each other across a board room in 1983. “Let’s bring out lots of unusual variants!” we’d like to imagine someone shouted from across the table. Somehow, that’s exactly what Volkswagen did with the MK II Golf. The compact body was morphed into a 4x4 synchro off-roader, a track-attacking hot rod in the GTi, and of course, the Rallye. 

Created in 1989 so that Volkswagen could homologate its cars for Group A rally competitions, just 5,000 examples of the Rallye were built, making it an exceptionally rare car today. Widened arches and larger bumpers all round completely alter the appearance of the Golf, making them Rallye instantly recognisable out on the road. It wasn’t just to exterior that was altered, though. Under the bonnet sat a de-tuned (for FIA regulations) 1,763cc 4 cylinder engine, which also had a supercharger mounted to it for some extra engine-note goodness. 

Likely to become of the youngtimer’s shining stars, now is the right time to invest in a Rallye!

 

Buy it before we do

Nothing screams ‘I can go off road’ like a set of listing photos showing the axle at full-tilt, and we are fully behind it in this case. This is a 1983 Toyota Landcruiser, a vehicle that has scaled the world’s peaks, offering a no-nonsense approach to a utility vehicle. The interior was well-known for featuring the essentials and not a single thing more. You can’t help but love it though, can you?

This short-bodied example has been treated to a full concours level restoration and is once again ready to scale the world’s toughest terrain. Move over Defender, there’s a new boxy adventurer on the block.