I saw today a car that might be a flathood. It is a 242 with

a flat hood, 2 round headlights, a sunroof, and decals on the back

that say turbo and intercooler. It's maroon, and has a full set

of extra gauges.

The present owner kind of knows what it is, but wants to sell

it. I might be interested, but only if it is a real flathood.

What would be a good price for such a vehicle, assuming it is

real and in good shape?

chris

With the round headlights, it is not an original 'flathood'. The 242 Turbo Group A cars were only made in 83, and all the 240s starting in 1981 had rectangular quad headlights (although some cars may have the big single rectangular Euro lights). Any way you look at it, this car has probably been butchered somewhat and you will need to check it out very carefully. It could be that the owner went to the older style round headlights just to be able to put decent lights in it - say a set of Z-Beams or similar. In any event, as noted, the VIN tells the real story.

Check the VIN and you can tell the year very quickly. The 10th digit of the VIN is a letter, and it represents the year:

A=1980

B=1981

C=1982

D=1983

E=1984

etc.... (FYI, the letters "I", "O", and "Q" are skipped)

If it doesn't have a D for the 10th digit, than it's not an original, rare flathood 242. If it does, you know it's an '83, but it still may not be an original 242 flathood. If it's pre-'81 and has a turbo, it's not the original engine. You can check the original engine by the 6th and 7th digits of the VIN, for example:

45=B21F

46=B21ET

47=B21FT

88=B23F

For complete VIN decoding, click the link below and look under "General Information."

Was it 2 round headlights with 1 per side, or 2 per side? If 1 per side, then it's almost certainly a '75-'80 model. If 2 per side, then the original headlights were changed at some point. By "full set of gauges", I'm assuming you mean the 3-gauge cluster that was in the turbos, so it would have to be an '81-on car, but it's always possible that the dash was swapped at some point.

It is not a homologated turbo. It is probably a 79-80 2 door with twin round headlamps and a somewhat flat hood. I have one of those. If you can get it real cheap, then it would still be a sharp looking car.

Just don tpay a lot for it, unless he can prove it is the real thing.

I think I misremembered what the car looks like -- I spent the

whole day at salvage yards and saw a number of cool older cars.

The person never told me the year of the car so I just guessed.

The distinguishing features of a true flathood are:

flat hood

4 rectangular headlamps

turbo / intercooler

(all easy to fake)

what about the head casting, motor model (how do you tell a b21FT

from B21ET without taking the motor apart?) or suspension stuff?

Do they have the lower braces and upper braces and such?

What kind of fuel economy does a B21 turbo get?

chris

It would have to be an '83 to be one of the ~500 homologation cars. The round headlights and the fact that the owner seems to think it is something special are not good signs from your point of view. A 242Ti with a new turbo, clutch, struts and a good history and fine body might be worth $3000 give or take. An average old turbo with all kinds of things on the to do list, maybe $1000 give or take. The 242 SE "flathood: is worth a bit more, but a turbo to which someone added a flat old hood and round headlights? That stuff is in salvage yards everywhere. Definitely less.