COTM March April 2014, Poll Closed - '73-914kid wins! Options

[shawn914]

Congratulations to Ethan ('73-914kid) for winning the COTM contest for March April.

Thanks to all for voting - great turnout for 5 superb examples of the 914.


COTM voting for March - April COTM. POLL CLOSED
Poll will remain open until midnight Feb 28 2014.

Each nominee was asked the following 5 questions - answers appear above each nominee's car.
1. Model Year:
2. Engine: displacement and number of cylinders
3. Color: an "official" name or paint code.
4. Brand and size of wheels front and rear
5. (optional) maximum 4 words you would use to describe car/experience of owning/building

[campbellcj]

Hi All! I first got this car in mid-2002, and it's now "version 4" in terms of major changes. Here's a brief rundown of the build.

Before

It started as a very clean, "no rust" SoCal 73 2.0 street car that had been hot-rodded a bit by the PO. He had put a big-bore 2.4L/4 with Webers in the engine bay, Eurorace headers, redone the seats in a nice corduroy fabric, short-shifter, and put on the rear reflector and spoiler.







Version 1

But, I had just sold a really nice stock 73 2.0 and that wasn't what I was after this time around. So, I almost immediately started gutting the car. In went a welded rollcage by TC Design. I also swapped to fiberglass bumpers, and put on a freeflow Dynomax muffler, removable steering wheel, new gauges, alloy pedals, race seats and harnesses, etc. Then I had Ottos do a 5-lug conversion with SC front-end and brakes, bigger t-bars and springs. I ran a few track events this way.





Version 2

I know the Type4 has its fans and merits, such as nice torque. But I was very worried about the longevity of this 2.4 in track use, and had the lust for a /6. So I bought a hot-rodded factory /6 engine that had purportedly been rebuilt with 2.2S parts. It was a mystery motor but turned out to be a great deal and gave me no trouble in about 6 years of use.

Ottos also installed the PMS fuel cell, giant oil cooler, metal fuel lines and other mods during the /6 conversion.

Somewhere along the way, Ottos (John W.) also built me a killer transmission for the car, with 904 mainshaft, short gears, Quaife TBD, billet intermediate plate. I also installed a Rennshifter and redid all the linkage bits, and added the Spa fire system. I added a fiberglass skin top at some point too.

I really loved the car at this point, and ran it this way from 2003-2009 or so without major changes.









Version 3

By 2009 the racing disease had gotten worse and times were good financially so I sprung for a very nice, 0-mile 2.7 built by JB Racing for a customer who'd fallen on hard times. This twin-plugged, Weber 46 carbed beauty went in in the car, with dual MSD 6AL boxes, an M&K "R" stainless muffler, and some trick Getty GT-style deck lids went on the body.

I left the lids unpainted amber for a unique "road warrior" look. Plus, I didn't want to deal with painting the car at that point anyway.







(To be continued)