BUILD OF THE BLUE CLOWN CAR, Rebirth of a 914 and its conversion to a /6. Options

[earossi]

And, so the story begins: In the beginning, I hated the looks of the 914. I had been a 911 guy for years, and was not very impressed when I first drove a new 73 914 belonging to a friend of mine. It was not a pretty car and it was pretty gutless in comparison to my 1966 911. So, I dismissed the 914 from mind and spent the next 40 years owning and driving all sorts of Porsche machinery. But, never a 914.

And, then one day, I met Brad Mayeur. Brad owns 914 LTD, a small independent shop located in East Peoria, Illinois. No big deal, until you begin talking to this quiet and humble man. Brad has forgotten more about Porsches than many of us will ever know. And, he is unique in that he has focused much of his life to the 914.

I would never have met Brad, had it not been for a visit to spend a weekend with my youngest son in the Fall of 2006 at Bradley University in Peoria. Of my three sons, Dave, in addition to being the youngest, is the only one who shares the love for machinery with his Dad. So, during that visit, we were looking for something to do, since Peoria is not the busiest of towns in the Midwest. I remembered reading a story about Brad Mayeur in a magazine, and remembered that he lived in Peoria. It did not take long to come up with Brad's phone number. I called and explained my situation and wondered if there was a way to meet him to talk Porsches. Brad said to come right over, which we did, with great enthusiasm.

We spent about an hour talking shop with Brad, learning very quickly that this guy was not only knowledgeable, but really truly loved the cars. Then Brad cast the hook.......he threw a set of keys to my son (belonging to Brad's personal 914) and said.....go ahead and take the car for a ride. That was in 2006, and the smile and memory of that first ride has never left my son. He wanted to immediately buy an "old 914" to fix up. I suggested that he first find a daily driver that had reliability. In the end, we found him a nice used Boxster S, which he still drives today. But, in his heart and mind, he still lusted for a 914.

Two years ago (7 years after meeting Brad) I ran across an ad for a guy in Salt Lake City, who advertised that he would fully restore a 914/4 steel flared GT for $15,000. On a fluke I called the guy and spent about an hour on the phone talking to him. Typical story. He was a hobbiest attempting to turn his hobby into a viable business. At that time, Gene Rice had about 15 cars at his disposal, and as we talked, I conveyed to him that I was looking for a "rust free 914" for him to restore. He said that he had one that was close to rust free. So, by the end of the call, I had enlisted him to build a car. His representation was that he could fully restore a 914 in 90 days for the price quoted. So, off he went. In the end, the car cost more than quoted and the 90 days turned out to be closer to 6 months; but, I am getting ahead of myself. In Gene's defense, I was an active participant in both the schedule stretch and the increased cost.

Unfortunately, the first photos I got were taken at the time the car was on a lift during the installation of the flares.







In reality, the car was not rust free. But, most of the rust was minor surface rust. And, more importantly, the car did not have evidence of any collision repairs.

The builder, Gene Rice, had prior experience doing restoration work on Corvettes, but believed that the 914 was a niche segment that he could compete in once up to speed. Now, looking back on it, I can say with honesty that Gene is an able craftsman. His welding and assembly skills were fine. And, as I will detail as this story unfolds, Gene's main struggles were his lack of experience with 914's. Mine was "ok", but his next one will be better as Gene moves up the learning curve.

As you can now tell, my story telling is less technical than many of the threads on this forum. Though I intend to talk about the build, I believe that half the fun on one of these projects is the "journey" and the people you meet on that journey.

I would appreciate any comments, suggestions, and words of encouragement that would help me in telling my story.

[earossi]

Today, I took the 914 to its first PCA autocross. Gave me a number of runs to further evaluate the car......and unfortunately, the driver! Well, the car did wonderfully. Now it just needs a decent driver. LOL. This was my first foray into auto crossing in over two years, and it was not pretty. I ended up with DNF's on most runs, simply because I missed gates on the grid. Not the car's fault. The car has great power. So much torque that I actually started off for each run in 2nd and there is where I left the gearbox.

The mods to my car, including the engine and staggered tires pushed the 914 into a class against 993's and Boxster S's. In reality, I think that the car can and will eventually be competitive against that kind of machinery. I just need to run more races and push the car more.

From a handling standpoint, the car has too much understeer at speed. So, I'll be researching what I need to do to reduce understeer. And, I need better tires, particularly in the front where it was too easy for me to lock the front brakes. Which goes back to the argument that the stock 914 front brakes were probably OK. Instead, I elected to add Boxster front calipers for more bite. I just now need to select a tire that has better traction. Right now I have got Continental DWS Extremes which are all season street tires. Great riding and low noise, but the traction is not up to the demands of auto crossing.

I've attached a couple of photos taken at the PCA auto crossing school from last week. [attachmentid=499
521]

What was the most fun, was all the conversations that started from folks walking over to find out about the car. At today's autocross, there were 73 cars running. I had the only 914, and would have been oldest car running save for a 1969 911T and a 1972 BMW 2002. I was especially glad to hear that the color of the car was the first thing that grabbed their eye. When they got up close, they really liked the workmanship of the project. So, I'm a pretty happy camper tonight. I just need to learn how to drive the car as it should be driven.

[Camaro Mike]

Ernie,

Good to hear you had fun today. It was great getting to meet you yesterday and see the car in person.

Mike