Circuit Capri
As the only RS3100-spec Group 2 works car ever to race in black, chassis BFC 002 is one of a kind at first glance. Its motorsport career is even more gripping. Built by Broadspeed to 1973 Cologne RS2600 specification, the right-hand-drive Capri wore striking BP colours and won the Belgian Group 2 championship in the over-1300cc class at the first attempt, with Claude Bourgoignie at the wheel. In 1974, Scandinavian legend Bosse "Bo Emma" Emanuelsson took it to the podium at every round he entered in the Swedish Touring Car Championship, now in STP livery. The ultimate accolade came over the winter of 1975, when the Cologne factory upgraded the car to the ferocious RS3100 specification, complete with more aggressive aerodynamics. Powered by a howling 475 hp 24-valve Cosworth GAA V6, the jet-black racer went on to shake up the DRM field at the Nordschleife. Now this aesthetically pleasing touring car with its polar bear graphics is looking for a new driver, as the specialists at Duncan Hamilton ROFGO are currently offering the works Capri for sale.
The Ultimate Sleeper Machine
Few cars embody the virtue of understatement quite as perfectly as the second-generation BMW M5, built from 1988 to 1995. BMW Motorsport GmbH chose to hint at the sheer power of its straight-six with nothing more than subtly reworked front and rear aprons and larger wheels. You'll search in vain for wild spoilers or vulgar wheel-arch flares on this sports saloon of the late eighties and early nineties. It's no surprise, then, that the 315 hp Bavarian would have made the perfect getaway car for bank robbers, and that drift king Giorgi Tevzadze later hurled one through the streets of Tbilisi. Whenever it wasn't going sideways, his E34 M5 attracted little attention in the Georgian capital. At its London Auction on 31 October, RM Sotheby's is offering an example that takes understatement to the max with its discreet black paintwork and elegant light leather interior. To the untrained eye, this 1989 car would pass for a humdrum company saloon. The auction house estimates the elegant right-hand-drive M5 at £45,000 to £55,000.
Rüsselsheim Rally Ray
While Lancia was still succeeding in the WRC with a purely rear-wheel-drive car in 1983, the rear-driven Manta 400 could no longer match the success of its closely related Group 4 predecessor, the Ascona 400, in a Group B increasingly dominated by four-wheel-drive machinery. The rally version of the cult coupé simply arrived a little too late. At the start of the eighties, its 2.4-litre four-cylinder with a Cosworth cylinder head would have given it a real shot at glory. Yet the Manta 400 was anything but a flop. With its playfully dancing tail, sharp looks and sonorous engine, it drifted its way into fans' hearts at numerous continental European and British rally events. At its Iconic Sale during the NEC Classic Motor Show, British auction house Iconic Auctioneers is offering one of just 245 homologation cars built, this one dating from 1983. It remained with its first owner until 2009 and was restored from the ground up by its second owner shortly after purchase, with the work carried out by the specialists at Retropower. Later converted to right-hand drive, this Manta ray is expected to fetch between £80,000 and £100,000 in Birmingham.
The Hulk of Hot Hatches
Think the Renault 5 Turbo, with its flared arches and turbocharged four-cylinder behind the seats, is radical? Then this creation by Franco Sbarro, an Italian who made Switzerland his home, will leave you gasping for air. Inspired by the legendary Group B monsters, he developed his own hot hatch in the first half of the eighties and made no compromises whatsoever. He shortened a Ferrari 308 chassis and clothed it in an entirely bespoke glassfibre body that looks like a blend of contemporary small cars, chief among them the Volkswagen Golf Mk1, with a hint of AMC Pacer and R5 Turbo at the rear. The tail lights, incidentally, come from the Vauxhall Cavalier, the British twin of the Opel Ascona C. In the Sbarro Super Eight, the 240 horses of the 308 GTB's Quattrovalvole engine, mated to Ferrari's own five-speed manual gearbox, have a mere 800 kg to contend with. As a result, the 3.15-metre pocket rocket sprints to 100 km/h in under six seconds and, thanks in part to its short wheelbase, is anything but easy to tame. This 1984 one-off goes under the hammer at French auction house Aguttes on 10 October with an estimate of €120,000 to €180,000.
Reborn Rally Royalty
The first car from Kimera, founded in 2021, is far more than a restomod. While other comparable makers are content with a careful modernisation of the mechanicals, the EVO37 is essentially an almost entirely new car. Both the underlying concept, based on a Lancia Beta Montecarlo chassis, and the design have been translated into the modern era with passion, yet when it comes to driving dynamics, the grandson of the Lancia 037 is vastly superior to its grandfather. In 1983, the first pure Group B season, the 037 won the manufacturers' title in the World Rally Championship, the last rear-wheel-drive car ever to do so. At the wheel of the light and agile Italian were none other than Walter Röhrl and Markku Alén. A twincharged 2.1-litre four-cylinder built by Italtecnica, with both a turbocharger and a supercharger, produces 505 hp and 550 Nm of torque. That's enough to launch the road-legal rally monster to 100 km/h in just over three seconds and on to a top speed of 310 km/h. State-of-the-art Öhlins suspension and Brembo brakes help keep the beast under control. Broad Arrow will offer this stylishly specified example at its Zoute Concours Auction in Knokke-Heist, Belgium, on 9 October, with an estimate of €950,000 to €1.15 million.
