Crayford rhd 914, Genuine car? Options

[ClayPerrine]

So cool these exist.
In a rhd car, is first and reverse nearest the driver? On any car?
The dash is simple enough
Steering and brakes requires some engineering.

Really great to know these cars are still out there.

gear lever and gate stays the same.
even on "official" right hand drive production versions of left hand drive designed european cars. that all stays as it is left hand drive
in a 914 you don't touch the gear lever, linkage or anything on that to do the conversion.

we are used to this in right hand drive countries.
its often funny when it comes to the levers on steering columns.
j cars and aus manufactured cars (when we had manufacturing) had the indicator lever on the right hand side of steering column but most euro cars had it on left. they just put the whole steering wheel assembly across on right hand side. so it used to be funny jumping from one car to another if you borrowed a friends car. first intersection you got to you would set the windscreen wipers off. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

a right hand drive car is not a mirror conversion. its a transposition.
pedals, instrument cluster, steering wheel is simply moved across but not mirrored.
the main dash mouldings and assembly is a mirror. gear lever stays same.

you get some funny things in cars as a result.
my renault clio rs has the front bonnet release still over on passenger side. (left).
the brake master cylinder is buried down behind the engine and is virtually inaccessible, its real fun changing the brake fluid. the clutch cable gets scorched by the headers.
fortunately the throttle is electronic or it would be a contorted cable linkage.
and thats a factory car. thats the right hand drive models.
they basically design most cars left hand drive these days and do a compromised right hand drive version. only the japanese do a right hand drive from scratch. if anything their left hand drive versions might have the compromises. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Years ago I worked on a 79 Nissan Fairlady Z. It was a 280Z in right hand drive, imported by a US Marine from Japan. The Japanese designed the car so the driving position could be setup on either side. Even the firewall had the knockout ports for the master cylinder and the clutch master cylinder on it.

It was fun to test drive here. People would do double takes when they see no one in the driver's seat at 70 mph on the freeway.

My fathers manual for his 55 Chevy had all the information in it for the Right hand drive versions. Now that was a real kludge. The column shift linkage for the manual transmission was a bunch of monkey motion bellcranks and linkages to translate it from the right side of the column mounted on the right side of the car to the left side of the transmission.

[wonkipop]

So cool these exist.
In a rhd car, is first and reverse nearest the driver? On any car?
The dash is simple enough
Steering and brakes requires some engineering.

Really great to know these cars are still out there.

gear lever and gate stays the same.
even on "official" right hand drive production versions of left hand drive designed european cars. that all stays as it is left hand drive
in a 914 you don't touch the gear lever, linkage or anything on that to do the conversion.

we are used to this in right hand drive countries.
its often funny when it comes to the levers on steering columns.
j cars and aus manufactured cars (when we had manufacturing) had the indicator lever on the right hand side of steering column but most euro cars had it on left. they just put the whole steering wheel assembly across on right hand side. so it used to be funny jumping from one car to another if you borrowed a friends car. first intersection you got to you would set the windscreen wipers off. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

a right hand drive car is not a mirror conversion. its a transposition.
pedals, instrument cluster, steering wheel is simply moved across but not mirrored.
the main dash mouldings and assembly is a mirror. gear lever stays same.

you get some funny things in cars as a result.
my renault clio rs has the front bonnet release still over on passenger side. (left).
the brake master cylinder is buried down behind the engine and is virtually inaccessible, its real fun changing the brake fluid. the clutch cable gets scorched by the headers.
fortunately the throttle is electronic or it would be a contorted cable linkage.
and thats a factory car. thats the right hand drive models.
they basically design most cars left hand drive these days and do a compromised right hand drive version. only the japanese do a right hand drive from scratch. if anything their left hand drive versions might have the compromises. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Years ago I worked on a 79 Nissan Fairlady Z. It was a 280Z in right hand drive, imported by a US Marine from Japan. The Japanese designed the car so the driving position could be setup on either side. Even the firewall had the knockout ports for the master cylinder and the clutch master cylinder on it.

It was fun to test drive here. People would do double takes when they see no one in the driver's seat at 70 mph on the freeway.

My fathers manual for his 55 Chevy had all the information in it for the Right hand drive versions. Now that was a real kludge. The column shift linkage for the manual transmission was a bunch of monkey motion bellcranks and linkages to translate it from the right side of the column mounted on the right side of the car to the left side of the transmission.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
spot on.
three on the tree and still on the right.
i have actually seen those.
i believe a lot of the 60s chev impalas and pontiacs that came in from canada at the top end of the holden range had that set up. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)

holden did sort that out and so did ford on the local design and manufactured product.
still shifted like a pre side shifter 914 but.


yep - the J stuff is really set up with the mirror in mind. they knew where to spend their yens properly to get a return. australia has always been lucky with getting the J gear being right hand drive like them. a lot of good J gear got sold in australia. of course a lot of it has been taken back by prosperous j people since and returned home.

[914Nuts]

Hi - JD Classics in the UK have for sale a rhd 914 that they say is a genuine Crayford conversion. Registration number is NRX 538K. The car started life in the US and then was exported to Australia (doesn't say when) where the conversion was done. JD say that it is one of only 9 cars that were converted by Crayford. From the research I have managed to do it sounds like this cannot be true. I have asked for some proof of their claim but they have gone quiet. Could this car however have been converted under licence using genuine Crayford parts or is it more likely to be a conversion just done by some garage in Australia as I understand quite a few cars were converted there in this way.

Guys, hopefully this will help. This is from previous owner of the car that JD Classics are selling:

peterhmartinRookie
MEMBER

Location: Belfast, UK
Ride/s:914-4 (RHD)
Posted 4July, 2014
I live in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and am the proud owner of an ex-Australian RHD 914 (1972) - it won the Porsche Club GB regional concours last month - see "Best in Show" photo. I am interested in the history of this car and more generally in the history of RHD conversions of 914s in Australia.

My car was originally purchased in the US (traces of the US side repeaters can be seen within the front wings), it was originally Adriatic Blue but by the time it left Australia in 2009 (sold by Lorbek Luxury Cars of Port Melbourne) was its current "pearlescent purple" colour. The Australian reg. no was IXXI69 - indeed it still bears its last Australian tax sticker.

The chassis/VIN is 4722916129. The RHD conversion is of a very high standard - unitary dash and sill-inset handbrake - I suspect done using either a kit shipped from Crayford in England or using the Crayford tooling after it was sold off by Crayford. I am the second UK owner of the car, having bought it in 2012.

[wonkipop]

Hi - JD Classics in the UK have for sale a rhd 914 that they say is a genuine Crayford conversion. Registration number is NRX 538K. The car started life in the US and then was exported to Australia (doesn't say when) where the conversion was done. JD say that it is one of only 9 cars that were converted by Crayford. From the research I have managed to do it sounds like this cannot be true. I have asked for some proof of their claim but they have gone quiet. Could this car however have been converted under licence using genuine Crayford parts or is it more likely to be a conversion just done by some garage in Australia as I understand quite a few cars were converted there in this way.

Guys, hopefully this will help. This is from previous owner of the car that JD Classics are selling:

peterhmartinRookie
MEMBER

Location: Belfast, UK
Ride/s:914-4 (RHD)
Posted 4July, 2014
I live in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and am the proud owner of an ex-Australian RHD 914 (1972) - it won the Porsche Club GB regional concours last month - see "Best in Show" photo. I am interested in the history of this car and more generally in the history of RHD conversions of 914s in Australia.

My car was originally purchased in the US (traces of the US side repeaters can be seen within the front wings), it was originally Adriatic Blue but by the time it left Australia in 2009 (sold by Lorbek Luxury Cars of Port Melbourne) was its current "pearlescent purple" colour. The Australian reg. no was IXXI69 - indeed it still bears its last Australian tax sticker.

The chassis/VIN is 4722916129. The RHD conversion is of a very high standard - unitary dash and sill-inset handbrake - I suspect done using either a kit shipped from Crayford in England or using the Crayford tooling after it was sold off by Crayford. I am the second UK owner of the car, having bought it in 2012.

i saw your car at Lorbek's when he was selling it.
he called me up and asked me down to take a look.
i designed his showroom entrance and a few other bits and pieces back in the 90s.

in answer - there is no crayfords tooling apart from a dashboard mould.
they did not sell the tooling off. the mould came to australia via western australia way back in the 70s. there are other moulds (or were) that other people made here. and other technique for cutting up the dashboard. if the dashboard is fibreglass underneath the vinyl and external coverings and not steel it may be a dash from the crayfords original mould -- or one other that was floating around that was also fibreglass. if its a metal dash frame under there that has been cut and shut then its nothing to do with crayfords original parts.

i believe in the case of your car the conversion may have been done by a fellow called Ian Anderson. Ian did some conversions of 914s in melbourne back in the late 80s and early 90s. mostly he converted 911s from lhd to rhd. but there were some 914s in there. ian used 911 rhd pedal clusters in his conversions.

there was one other fellow who did a few here in melbourne. his are pretty much identical to ian's. he has been involved with 356 porsches most of his life.

the rest of the conversions are home garage back shed jobs by enthusiasts.

the crayfords cars and the crayfords conversion method is quite unique and a little different from how most of the aus conversions were done.

i had access to a crayfords car when i did mine.
there are two here, one at least survives intact and in good condition.
crayfords used the original lhd pedal cluster and modified it.
i copied that.

another giveaway on a crayfords is that they sliced the upper firewall where the steering column travels diagonally sideways to allow clearance. and covered this slice with a domed fibreglass cover that was pop rivetted to the metal.

generally speaking the conversions are a mixed bag.
the good ones were every bit as good as crayfords.

i remember your car. its a good one.

[wonkipop]

@914Nuts

to give you a bit more context re australian conversions.
its not like there was some big industry here converting 914s shipped in from the USA in the late 80s. there wasn't.

there was a big industry shipping in west coast rust free british sports cars (mgbs and triumphs etc). converting them to rhd and shipping them to Japan where there was a relatively large market. remember japan in the 80s. the economic powerhouse of the asia pacific. this was all pre the MAZDA MX-5.

its not hard to understand how mazda came up with that car and launched it in 89.
they were already obsessed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

there was a bit of a market for 911s the same way.

cars were hideously expensive in australia at that time.
protectionist policies to protect the local industry.

just about all the 914s that came in were personal imports.
not part of this larger cottage industry.
914s were still considered weirdo cars in the 80s/90s.
owners who got hold of them were niche enthusiasts.
owners then either did the conversion themselves or took them to one of the specialists doing 911s. a car had to rhd to be road registered in australia at that time.

i took my car to a mob that were doing mgbs for japan.
they did most of the heavy lifting. cutting welding metal work fabrication.
i did a lot of the minor work that required a bit of patience. dashboard trimming etc.
and sorted out all the detail of how to execute it dimensionally using the crayfords car as the guide. it was the one and only they did. verdict at the end of the job. TOO HARD.
fun but too difficult to consider commercially for japan. the kind of did me a favour doing mine as they wanted to test viability.

the whole industry of doing these conversions on older cars collapsed in the late 90s.
went away.

no requirement anymore to have cars in rhd with specialist club/historic registration.

i don't think its possible to find out much about your car.
i believe ian has passed away.
there is one other guy i can ask down here who is still around.
the 356 man.

[Dave_Darling]

... it seems very very very likely that one was certainly converted before it arrived in australia. leaves only japan enroute. and thats unlikely.

Why do you feel that's unlikely? You said the car came to Oz by way of Japan...

Years ago I worked on a 79 Nissan Fairlady Z. It was a 280Z in right hand drive... People would do double takes when they see no one in the driver's seat at 70 mph on the freeway.

A (now-former) co-worker of mine had a Japanese-market 240Z. He and another co-worker were taking it up go go skiing one day. He was just zipping along in the right lane, and the other co-worker was obviously asleep in the passenger's seat. Some little old lady passed them, saw someone sleeping in the left seat and .... Apparently her eyes got THIIIIIIIIS BIG and she put her foot down and sped off.

--DD

[wonkipop]

... it seems very very very likely that one was certainly converted before it arrived in australia. leaves only japan enroute. and thats unlikely.

Why do you feel that's unlikely? You said the car came to Oz by way of Japan...

Years ago I worked on a 79 Nissan Fairlady Z. It was a 280Z in right hand drive... People would do double takes when they see no one in the driver's seat at 70 mph on the freeway.

A (now-former) co-worker of mine had a Japanese-market 240Z. He and another co-worker were taking it up go go skiing one day. He was just zipping along in the right lane, and the other co-worker was obviously asleep in the passenger's seat. Some little old lady passed them, saw someone sleeping in the left seat and .... Apparently her eyes got THIIIIIIIIS BIG and she put her foot down and sped off.

--DD

..........and - you have lined up to quotes as if to make a point.

a 240z is right hand drive from the factory.
just like every car in oz.

so...... i guess you mean that japan has an advanced or had an advanced conversion cottage industry doing niche right hand drive conversions. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

i'll research it and get back to you. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)


and out of respect.
google norman hamilton.
and get back to me.

its not often i feel like stepping up to a yank, being an aussie and loving you guys.
but...........check it.
the destination of the car was aus. japan was merely a transit point.

[wonkipop]

oddly enough an older north antarctica rhd conversion has just popped up down here for sale.
wants a lot for it? approx = 45K USD.

https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/19...-22416782/?Cr=0

i'd say this one was not done so well looking close and def dates from back in the 90s.
its got VW pedals (and pedal box no doubt)!!!
strange arrangement of switchgear on dash. cigarette lighter!
i don't think the firewall was reworked or the fuel tank modified.
could be wrong but looks like it wasn't.
you would need to be a ferrari driver to fit in, long arms and short legs.
you would also need a very thin hand and wrist to grab the handbrake (no sill recess (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )

some funky ones out there.

[Dave_Darling]

..........and - you have lined up to quotes as if to make a point.

No, it was just to avoid posting twice in a row. The Z story is just another amusing RHD in the US story.

and out of respect.
google [/u]norman hamilton.
and get back to me.

Too many different results, none of which appear to have any bearing on 914s.
- Director of Comfy Living
- Owner, BFR8
- US Representative from Virginia
- Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland

.... and many more.

the destination of the car was aus. japan was merely a transit point.

Japan is RHD. Could the conversion have been done there? I know that they have LHD 914s there currently, but I don't see why that makes it "unlikely" that the conversion could have been done in Japan...

--DD

[wonkipop]

..........and - you have lined up to quotes as if to make a point.

No, it was just to avoid posting twice in a row. The Z story is just another amusing RHD in the US story.

and out of respect.
google [/u]norman hamilton.
and get back to me.

Too many different results, none of which appear to have any bearing on 914s.
- Director of Comfy Living
- Owner, BFR8
- US Representative from Virginia
- Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland

.... and many more.

the destination of the car was aus. japan was merely a transit point.

Japan is RHD. Could the conversion have been done there? I know that they have LHD 914s there currently, but I don't see why that makes it "unlikely" that the conversion could have been done in Japan...

--DD

japs didn't need them to be right hand drive to be road registered.
all the 914s were sold left hand drive there.
there really is no conversion industry in japan.
its kind of a perverse status symbol thing to drive a left hand drive car.
plus speed limits are very low in most of japan so its not really unnerving or difficult to drive left hand drive.
but - key point - the light set up was right hand drive and all the indicators, running lights etc were identical to australia (and UK).
for some reason the conventions on J cars from the get go was the same as the UK standards between WW1 and WW2.

the peculiar thing about australia and other english colonial countries in south east asia was the prohibition on left hand drive vehicles. i believe it was the same in singapore, malaysia and hong kong. in all the english territories. i'm not so sure about NZ, think it was more relaxed as it relied more on less on fully importing cars so it was a bit freer.

its hard to know exactly why australia was so rigid about this until relatively recently but i suspect it dates back to the 1950s and 60s when there was no speed limit on country roads. unlimited speeds. but roads were narrow and two way undivided. i can tell you its pretty unnerving to drive at very high speed on narrow australian country roads left hand drive. and probably not really safe.

the key factor in the question of where the right hand drive 6 originated from lies with the status of the australian distributor with porsche themselves.
as i said google norman hamilton. he (and his son alan) enjoyed a favoured relationship. they were at the factory door before anyone else, even max hoffman.
the first right hand drive 356s were built for australia, not the UK. there were two of them. they are still here. same goes for the 911s. the first pre production rhd 911 came to australia. before the production lines even swung into full scale output.
i think the second of those was sent to the UK.

if anyone was exploring a right hand drive 914 it was alan hamilton and the factory would have been assisting.

i have not seen the second of the 914/6s that originally came here. its been in sydney since the 70s and i was always told it had been written off. its been rebuilt and restored and i have seen photos of it. that was converted here and it was done later than the other one. for a while it was left in left hand drive form and sat in the showroom in melbourne. after a couple of years it was switched over in the distributors workshop.
all done locally.

but the car that is still here in mebourne is completely different.
these days it does not look like it did back in the 70s/80s and early 90s.
Brian Clerihan who owned if after the distributor sold if from his collection in the early 90s redid the interior to do it "properly".
he installed a 73 interior with backpad and corrected the hand brake.
when he picked it up from the distributor in the early 90s it looked completely different.
356 centre pull hand brake under dash. little racing buckets, which when i think back were probably GT seats. no backpad. just fuzz carpet. similar to a GT. had a hand stitched dash. and some other very unusual features. not least the 4 speed box.

the reason for coming via japan was simple. it was the same reason the other car that came in left hand drive came in via the rome porsche dealer. it was to qualify them as second hand cars. back then all the importers had severe restrictions on the numbers of new cars they could sell in any year. the local car industry which manufactured here was very protected. if a hamilton had bought the assessment 914s as new cars it was 2 new 911s less on his import quotas. since neither car was originally intended to be sold to customers but were for assessment the importation was done as "used" cars.

we had a very developed car conversion industry in the 1950s and 1960s as both Ford and Holden (GM) used to bring in the big USA cars for their top of the line models.
Fairlanes, LTDs, Impalas, Pontiacs as LHD cars in many cases and then convert them under contract to small workshops. they were sold new in the showrooms of the Ford and Holden dealers as top of the model range cars.

conversion was a serious industry in australia and very few other places in the world.

thats why australians didn't hesitate to convert a 914 in the 80s and 90s.
mind you there were a lot more LHD MGBs done here at that time than 914s.
and also fiat 124 spiders. not to mention quite a few 930 turbos and general run of the mill 70s 911s. plenty of them still around now. easy to spot due to the indicator/marker lights in the bumpers. the 911 is not a difficult conversion to do.

its still on the go now with the end of australian car manufacture.
all the dodge RAMs come in LHD and are converted here.
officially with a factory warranty.
you cannot tell them apart from the LHD originals.
they can't sell enough of them at the moment. walking out the door.

the japanese just don't this - period.
they have never needed to.

i am serious about googling the hamiltons. father and son.
i know america likes to think it was #1 with porsche as a market.
and it was. in terms of a market.
but australia was in front.
the story is well known and documented in books, but you can also find details of the account on the internet if you look around.

[wonkipop]

..........and - you have lined up to quotes as if to make a point.

No, it was just to avoid posting twice in a row. The Z story is just another amusing RHD in the US story.

and out of respect.
google [/u]norman hamilton.
and get back to me.

Too many different results, none of which appear to have any bearing on 914s.
- Director of Comfy Living
- Owner, BFR8
- US Representative from Virginia
- Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland

.... and many more.

the destination of the car was aus. japan was merely a transit point.

Japan is RHD. Could the conversion have been done there? I know that they have LHD 914s there currently, but I don't see why that makes it "unlikely" that the conversion could have been done in Japan...

--DD

try this link dave.

https://christophorus.porsche.com/en/2021/3...n-hamilton.html

looks like i was wrong about max hoffman being #2.
all the stories i got told was hamilton was in front.
aussies like to boast when it comes to yanks.
yanks being the international yardstick for us down here. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[wonkipop]

@Dave_Darling

this is the last time i saw the hamo 6.
went to a bit of a fun day at geelong back in 18.
a lot of b s has gotten in the way since then. covid blah etc.

luke wray who has a 914 himself and has a neat website called FUEL TANK must have been there. he has a whole lot of photos on his blog.



luke managed to take a sneak shot of yours truly getting out of my mate's speedster.
didn't know about luke at that time and didn't realise he'd taken a sneaky photo until i found this blog. unfortunately luke seems to have walked past the special hamo 6 countless times and failed to take a good photo of it, despite owning a 914. i remember this day because the very next week i pulled my 914 out of its lair where it had been under a cover for 16 years and got to work on it. took a year of a bit here and a bit there to put it back on the road. might have been the sight of the hamo 6 got me inspired to get it rolling again.



http://fueltank.cc/blog/porsche-hangar

[wonkipop]

i dug up a bit more for you @Dave_Darling from my files.

this is the other 6 that came in with the tangerine car.
came a similar way to aus dist. via another distributor in europe first.
was displayed in the melbourne motor show 1971 and was for a time kept in the showroom in south yarra on display. arrived lhd and stayed that way for a couple of years. was metallic red. disappeared off the face of the earth for 40 years.
its come back to life again and is in sydney.
(the tangerine car was originally a lot rawer in terms of its interior when compared to the lhd car here at the same time even though rhd).
from 71 until later in 74 these were the only two 914s in aus.
the two crayfords cars arrived in 74. both were 914 2.0s and had nothing to do with the distributor. both private imports those ones.




porsche australia set the rumour mill in confusion a while back when they posted this on their facebook. described the same car as metallic blue.



turned out some media type in porsche australia got the original b/w photo "updated" with colorization. photoshop jockey got it way wrong. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

-------

but to give you some idea of the mad stuff alan hamilton used to get hold of and have stashed during his heyday.


there is this. paris auto show. 74 i think. or whenever it was.



alan hamilton got hold of the paris car. exact car. from porsche.
had the RSR motor fitted to it by porsche when they finally made the engine and not a wood fake of it in the back. shipped it out. raced it i believe. lhd.
and then when he was finished with it, sold it off locally.

it looked like this for a while. note vic numberplates. thats melbourne.



some guy in the states has got it now.



the guy it was sold to after hamo finished with it racing was a mate of brian clerihan (who had the tangerine 6).
he converted the paris car to right hand drive. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
no one knew the fark what any of these cars were. they were just cars.


----
hamo had other stuff. i was led to believe there was a 917 turbo can am car stashed in the shed at the farm when i went out with brian when he picked up the 6. might have been b c bullsh$ting. we were only allowed so far up the yard and told to go no further. the farm manager went the rest of the way and bought the 6 out. verbotten to see what was stacked up out there.

i still remember driving back with the car. we went out in bc's brown targa. which was a (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) an american market big bumper converted to rhd. and i drove the targa back behind brian. after about 40 miles on the hume highway he pulled into a rest stop.
i pulled up behind. b c walked back to me. i remember what he said. "its a farken 4 speed. come and have a look". when we got it back to his place we spent about 4 hours looking all over and drank a few 6 packs to assist. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) we noticed the weird side wart light lenses then as i had the USA warts on my car. we didn't know what they were back then. i think b c got hold of brian johnsons book at some stage and we figured out they were J lenses.

the big mistake brian made was he didn't realise what he had at the beginning. he thought the conversion was a distributor workshop job done here. only much much later after he had "rectified" the handbrake and installed the 73 interior did it come to light that this one very likely was not done in melbourne. too late.

..

the other bit of key information was that alan hamilton spent almost the entire year in 1968 working at the porsche factory in germany. his father norman sent him there.
part of his apprenticeship before he took over the business.
1968 is the year they were putting all the early prototype 914s together and finishing off the cars. so alan would have had a very close behind the scenes look at the whole project. he knew what to get and how to get if from the factory.

i've got to hook up with the owners of the tangerine 6 again. stick a camera underneath it and take some photos for you. a lot of the interior is intact. b c never touched the dashboard or the pedal box area.

[flipb]

Came across this Outlaw Garage video on YT of a 914/6 RHD in Australia.

@wonkipop Is this you or do you know the guy?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8nkDFjMFug

[wonkipop]

Came across this Outlaw Garage video on YT of a 914/6 RHD in Australia.

@wonkipop Is this you or do you know the guy?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8nkDFjMFug

no not me.

lives down the bayside somewhere here in my city.
but i don't know him.
have not run into him or the car.
but i think i saw this car about 20 odd years ago when it belonged to the person this guy bought it off.

[JeffBowlsby]

Fun fact.

That silver 911 Turbo has the 1974 LE side stripes pretty sure it is the same car illustrated in Excellence Was Expected. 1st use of them that I know of.

The 1974 LE cars were developed in early 1974, with several different prototype side stripe graphics that never ended up on the production LE cars. This side stripe from the 73 Turbo was ultimately selected for USA and Japan market LE cars.

[wonkipop]

Fun fact.

That silver 911 Turbo has the 1974 LE side stripes pretty sure it is the same car illustrated in Excellence Was Expected. 1st use of them that I know of.

The 1974 LE cars were developed in early 1974, with several different prototype side stripe graphics that never ended up on the production LE cars. This side stripe from the 73 Turbo was ultimately selected for USA and Japan market LE cars.

it is exactly the same car jeff.

it was obtained by the australian distributor alan hamilton back in the 70s and came here. lived in my city. funnily enough belonged to a mate of my late friend brian who owned the tangerine 6 (only factory rhd 914? - the mystery car). i saw that turbo mock up car when brians mate dropped around once to his place years and years ago when i was still a good looking young man, (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

it no longer had the drop out graphics etc and i understand it got somewhat hotted up by the factory before the aus distributor obtained it, enjoyed it, and then passed it on.

i'm not sure who restored it to the paris show color scheme. but it lives in the USA these days.

there is a japanese guy not far from me here with a few cars in his little cafe/restaurant.
one of them is a silver turbo with a "homage" color scheme to the paris show car.
i should go and get a photo of it. looks fantastic.

[wonkipop]

oh yes - forgot to mention.
the paris show car got converted to rhd by brian's mate in typical cavalier aussie fashion.

dunno if that has been rectified these days with its stateside owner.
but it was rhd when i saw it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)