How important to you is it to keep things original?, OEM vs mild custom and car values... Options

[bmtrnavsky]

I'm at a stage where I am making some big decisions about some things on my car and having to decide whether I want to go back to how Porsche built it or if I want a mild custom.

The car in question is a 73 2.0 appearance group car. (The one in my icon) It has some banged up corners, but is basically rust free and has been garaged consistently for over 20 years. Absolutely needs body work and paint but is a structurally sound car.

So far I have only done a few things to it mostly as they needed to happen. I just turned repairs into upgrades. Here is how it sits now.

The engine is a balanced and blueprinted 2.0l with a mild cam and hydraulic lifters. It has an exhaust on it, but I am not sure which one but not the factory. 100% functional fuel injection with new vacuum lines. Hot start relay, and fuel pump moved to the front. Petronix ignition and blue coil.

slotted rotors, SS lines, 911 master cylinder, BMW front calipers.


Bilstine shocks and 100# rear springs (eventually turbo tie rods) I'd like to get into the suspension and replace the bushings and maybe do coilovers and upgrade the front swaybar.

I have a modern digital tuner and speakers installed. I'd like to add to the sound system.

I plan to update to LED lights in the dash and all exterior lights and update headlights also LED fog lights.

I'd like to add a roll bar, modify or swap seats, stiffen the body, and paint either Saturn Yellow (original) vs Victory Red (Hugely popular color I just like)

As I have been tearing things apart I have been cleaning things, repainting, lubing, and refinishing wherever I can.

I may update the interior with some billet aluminum pedals, carbon dash, etc...

Yellow or red I was looking to build a retro modern car that drives and handles well that I can take out on date nights with the wife and also autocross and track days with my two boys. It's not a serious "race car" but I do like to drive the hell out of it and I enjoy doing the work. The goal here is street performance that does well enough on the track. the 914 is a good car for most people it doesn't need much to really feel alive. I don't mind some road feel but I don't want to beat the wife to death.

Because its a fairly desirable year and model though I have some concerns about whether I should maintain the original color or not. I guess at the stage of modification I'm going to nothing is really irreversible if someone wanted a bone stock 73 2.0 but that victory red would be difficult to change.

What I'm considering is value... I don't plan to, but If I were to sell the car is a non-factory color going to negatively impact its value or with the other changes I'm making is it even going to matter. Honestly I only care if its a big difference. My gut says people interested in a 914 with that setup are not worried about factory color so long as it looks good.

Thoughts on setup, color, origional vs non etc all welcome.


-Brad