bidding for $14,100 reserve-not-met with 4 days to go, located in Aurora, IL.
The selling point of the kit car has always been the same -- you want exotic looks & exotic performance, but without the exotic price tag. So, you take a cheap used whatever, slap on a swoopy fiberglass body and presto...driving nirvana. Except that vehicle engineering is far more complicated than you or I might want to admit, and those fancy super cars have super prices because everything has been engineered to a super standard. Some might even say...hyper. However, today's beast has been through a few transformations, but it started out as a simple Porsche 914.
Sometime during the 1980s, a previous owner removed the Porsche body panels and fitted it with panels from something called an Eagle GT.that was designed/manufactured by Barry Goldstein in San Jose, CA. It was also given a Chevy V8 from Renegade Hybrids and it roamed the world confusing folks through 2007, when the current owner picked it up. Since then it has been re-engineered, the water cooled V8 dumped for an aircooled flat-6 from a 1985 Carrera 3.2 mated to a type 915 transmission with LSD. If the suspension is setup correctly, it should be a hoot to drive.
The interior is a form follows function setup with an 80s look to the upholstery...but with the right resources it wouldn't be too hard to spruce up a bit.
See a better looking kit car? tips@dailyturismo.com
Pretty interesting little car.
ReplyDeleteThe interior looks like it was put together with a hot glue gun!
"Grandma can you knit me a dash pad for my Porsche 914 Eagle GT?"
ReplyDeleteThe interior IS hideous.
ReplyDeleteThe eagle has landed, check that , it's a seagull painted to look like an eagle. Pile of poo.
ReplyDeleteThe eagle has landed, check that , it's a seagull painted to look like an eagle. Pile of poo.
ReplyDelete3/4 view looks ok, but the side view...yikes. The 914 windshield is to upright to fit with the body lines....It's like Saab tried to make a Ferrari.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but I'm betting it actually looks better in person than it does from these photographs.
DeleteQuick take: it's almost a gorgeous shape, a lot of 904/Ferrari 246, shame it looks like they screwed up the windshield/roofline to accommodate a removable roof panel.
ReplyDeleteInterior sucks. Just completely sucks. After all the work he put into the mechanicals...yeah, I know, just finished off the interior details on on of MY less-ambitious project cars eight years after it was mechanically complete...
It's worth something. The 914 platform is a good one, and the mechanical work looks good, and there are some turds that are worth polishing (you need the dry ice, or perhaps liquid nitrogen, and well-insulated gloves, of course.)
And while it's a shame someone bent the roof at the windshield header to make it flat behind that point, I'd bet it's got 95th-percentile adult headroom, unlike the kiddie-car Lotuses that've shown up here lately.
DeleteWow, what a shame that Porsche didn't use this body for the original 914. This thing would seem to be just a few fixes from greatness. The ad says "no rear brake" but a more thorough reading clarifies (I think) that he means "no parking brake".
ReplyDeleteNow with an all-Porsche drivetrain, and (for me) quite an attractive shape, it will all come down to where he set the reserve.
If I had never seen a Dino, this might be attractive. But instead, I look at it, am reminded of a Dino, and see all the ways that it falls short. And so I experience it as significantly uglier than it might actually be.
ReplyDeleteFun driver, I'm sure, but more fun for less money is out there if you search.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the panel gaps could be 'fixed' and how many thousand$ would a decent interior cost...