SECOND-HAND THRILLS: Two performance-car icons of the 1980s turn up in a couple of our editors' garages

摘要

Believe it or not, working at a car magazine doesn't involve jumping from the driver's seat of one exotic car to another. Yes, we get paid to drive cars and then write about them, but it's really not the endless, 200-mph party full of hot journalism groupies that you'd think. Most of us live modest lives, have modest incomes, and don't get to drive a Ferrari or a Lambo but once every twelfth blue moon. (If that.) As a result, we have pretty modest tastes. More than anything else, we dig practical, fun, and affordable wheels - or anything that simultaneously hauls kids, groceries, and ass. So on that note, we bring you two examples of Real Cars. This is the reality check; these are the cars we own. But they are two very special cars. The 1988 BMW M3 and the 1987 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16 shown here not only kicked off the German horsepower war, they helped revitalize their respective makers - and in doing so, established themselves as icons.