The Carlisle Import Nationals wouldn’t be the show that it is without the hundreds of German cars and car fans that make the trip to Pennsylvania every year, some coming from as far away as Canada. And this year the field certainly didn’t disappoint, as the numbers of Audi cars alone seemed to approach 200. This was a great turnout for Opel as well, with more than 40 cars present. If you were there on Friday and Saturday, you would have seen just a tremendous number of cars in the German section of the field, perhaps the biggest turnout in the last five years of the event. And if you were there on Sunday you probably saw jack squat, because Sunday is the day that everyone drives back home. Which we warned you about.

Straying a bit from the topic of German cars, I feel compelled to note that the vendor area of the field grew quite unexpectedly this year, with seemingly double the number of sellers present on the field than in previous years. This was both good news and bad news. It was good news for actual car owners as they crowded that part of the field in what seemed to be a mini version of Hershey’s swap meet, and it was bad news for me because I was tempted to buy parts for cars that not only did I not own, but hadn’t even seen in years. Carlisle is tricky like that, it plays mind games on you, so you’ve got to watch out. Let’s gawk at some German cars instead after the jump.

Remember the S2 Avant? Of course you do, it’s that car that you really wanted, but since Audi couldn’t get its act together in the US in the early 1990s, we weren’t offered this model. This 1994 S2 Avant basically stole the show as far as German cars were concerned. The current owner purchased this car just recently, and has performed quite a bit of maintenance on it in the last few months. Being a 1994 car, this one must have been brought into Canada just in the last few years per its 15-year rule. The S2 Avant was offered from 1993 till 1995, though the coupe and sedan versions of this car were available for a longer period. The S2 of course served as the starting point for the development of the RS2 track demon, which was developed with input from Porsche. Okay, you really want to bring in an RS2 I’m hearing? It’ll be just a few more years guys, but start saving now.

This BMW E34 Alpina B10 3.6 was the runner up when it came to stealing the show. This car had appeared last at the 2012 edition of Lime Rock Sunday in the Park, where it managed to gather just as many crowds as at Carlisle this year. Yes, those are Hungarian plates it’s wearing up front, but on the back are Ontario plates, which leads me to believe that this car may have come through Japan. Vancouver is quietly becoming a city where it’s not uncommon to see kei cars, but European stuff is also being brought in from Japan. Namely rare luxury sedans modified by European tuning companies. These tend to be Brabus, RuF, and Alpina-tuned cars, ones that were bought new by wealthy Japanese businessmen.  They’re now being brought into Canada as they’re turning 15 and becoming importable (or rather registrable, as you can import whatever you like).

This was a stunning BMW Glas GT, a car that we had seen last year at Larz Anderson’s German Car Day, as well as Lime Rock’s Sunday in the Park concours. BMW had essentially put it’s engine into the Glas GT after purchasing the firm, merely tweaking a number of smaller details on the car. Not a lot of these were made, needless to say, and for a while the GT complemented the Neue Klasse range of small saloons.

Another rare sight was this BMW M5 in the E28 body. You will immediately notice that this one is wearing European-spec bumpers, so I am unsure if this is a car that was brought into the country back when it was new, or whether this is a relatively recent import. E28 M5s were indeed sold officially in the US, and having seen a couple original examples, they definitely had much larger bumpers. Only 2191 E28 M5s were made between 1985 and 1988, making the M5 a rare beast any way you spin it.

Here’s a ridiculously photogenic Opel Kadett wagon, complete with a charming little roof rack. This was a real head turner at Carlisle this year, and one of the best-looking Opels in the field.

A great looking 4000 sedan, one that has been modified somewhat, but in impressive condition nonetheless. I was uncertain whether this particular examples has been resprayed, as the paint appeared to be in excellent condition. There were quite a few sharp Audi 4000s at Carlisle this year, and it seem that this car is attracting more and more attention from the youngtimer crowd as well as from classic Audi enthusiasts. In fact, the 4000 right now is enjoying a sharp increase in interest among enthusiasts, almost to the point of overshadowing the Quattro, which has long been considered the only collectible Audi from the 1980s.

This was a sharp 1993 Audi S4. I am noticing that these are starting to once again gain interest in youngtimer circles, even among people who aren’t into Audis per se. The Audi contingent at Carlisle certainly grew this year, hosting more than a hundred cars, and it was nice to see several well kept examples of the S4.

This was a great-looking Opel Manta Coupe that made the trip from Wisconsin. The Opel turnout numbered well over 40 cars, and it was nice to see so many nicely-preserved examples at Carlisle this year. The Opel club will be holding its nationals event in Springfield, Illinois later this year, but every few years they hold their nationals here at Carlisle, like in 2010. By the way, Wisconsin: great color on your collector license plates, I don’t think I’ve ever seen neon red over neon blue on US plates before.

And speaking of the Quattro, here was my favorite example of this car from Carlisle this year, even though it wasn’t original everywhere. Perhaps I am just a sucker for white wheels over red paint. Regardless, this was a nice kept example that appeared extremely tidy inside and out.

Here’s a 1962 DKW Junior deLuxe (which should be the name of some kind of burger somewhere…. yes it’s lunchtime). This model premiered at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 195, and for a few years went by the name DKW 600. This car is powered by a 3-cylinder two-stroke engine with a 4-speed manual transmission (that’s a lot of gears for a 3-cyl, isn’t it?). The Junior deLuxe came out in 1961 and was made for just a short period of time till 1963 when the DKW F12 came out. We’ve seen this example here at Carlisle before, namely in 2011 and 2012. This little wonder is owned by Steve Sears from Ontario.

This was just a nice and tidy E28 sedan, albeit with US-spec bumpers which I don’t really mind that much. Some people drink waaaay too much haterade when it comes to US-spec bumpers, and on this car they’re arguably pretty low-key and don’t disturb the lines of the car all that much. At least from this angle It’s not the W116 Mercedes-Benz, or the Peugeot 604 after all. Now those was a disaster when it came to US-spec 55mph bumpers.

Here’s a great R107 Mercedes-Benz SL. Once again a US-spec model, but this one is saved by being in great condition with what could just be original paint that it’s wearing. Quite a lot of these were thrashed like there was no tomorrow and then neglected. Personally, I link such callous treatment of 1980s SLs to the rampant spread of members-only jackets around that time in history, as well as popped collars and Ray-Ban Wayfarers. This gent is doing it right as evidenced by his aviators (though they don’t appear to be Ray-Ban or Randolph). But it’s all good, it’s all gravy.

And here is a Gary Farias’ Opel 1900 wagon, which recently appeared in the background of yet another Hollywood film, and a car which we’ll be taking a closer look fairly shortly. That’s all I am going to say for now, so stay tuned.

Here’s a curious Opel GT, namely a conversion to a Targa top, based on the prototype by Opel which was never put into production. Even though the designers of the Opel GT at first intended for there to be a Targa top variant of the GT Coupe, Chuck Jordan put a stop to their plans when visiting their studio in Germany, as he wanted the upcoming Corvette to have that feature. Nevertheless, a number of Aero GT replicas have been made, and this car even wears a sticker along its beltline stripes that says Aero GT Replica.

That’s it for German cars, and next week we’ll be taking a look at the Swedish cars that turned out for Carlisle Import & Kit Nationals this year. And man, there were a lot of Swedish cars this year.

Enjoy the massive gallery below:

[Images: Copyright 2013 Hooniverse/Jay Ramey]