After the comment I was reading in the “914-6/904 project begins” thread I felt the need to inform some of the members of this board about the 914s in IMSA or the 914 GTU. I am currently involved in research to write a book about this very subject so I will share some of my findings.

Between 1971 and 1987 there were forty-two 914s built and entered in IMSA sanctioned events in North America. In 1971 and 1972 the cars sported the factory M491 option package or their equivalent built by the privateer. The extensive use of fiberglass in the hood, rear deck lid, bumpers and rocker panels lightened the car while the 911 engine upgrades gave the horsepower to make this car competitive against all racers.

Starting in 1973 the cars had started to evolve into homegrown and sometimes innovative thoroughbred built by Americans with that “can do” attitude. It was not that Porsche didn’t do a great job converting the 914 into a race car it was just that the development done in 1970 was becoming outdated.

Wheels and tires were getting wider and this would drastically affect its shape as the fenders became wider and body panels were constructed of fiberglass. The Porsche factory never constructed a tail or developed any aerodynamic aids for the rear of a 914.so this would become the area of most diversity.

The 914 competed in the IMSA GTU class which allowed a 911 engine starting at a two liter displacement and expanding all the way up to three liters by the end of its eligibility.
There were also some 914/4s that competed; they were allotted a chassis weigh savings for their lack of displacement and two cylinders.

As the handling, acceleration and speed of the 914 were enhanced by these advancements the chassis required more strength, this was accomplished by the extensive use of tube framing and suspension reinforcement. In some cases suspension components were borrowed from the 911 RSR and 935.

Once the cars became firm and fast they needed improvements in their braking capability. As has always been the case the 914 borrowed calipers and master cylinders from its Porsche siblings, a few examples even used aircraft brake calipers.

There are three cars that reached the pinnacle of success in their time.
The Brumos GT was the most successful having won most of the races outright in 1971 and winning the first IMSA GTU class championship. This car owes its success to legendary pilots Hurley Haywood and Peter Gregg.

In 1977 the Garretson built racer driven by Walt Maas won the GTU championship. Development was credited to Porsche Icons Bob Garretson, Bruce Anderson and Jerry Wood.

In the 1980 24 hrs of Daytona race Bill Koll pulled off and amazing GTU class win, 5th place overall. This was not a fluke as Koll had place this car 3rd in class in 1978 and repeated the victory in1981 driving a 911.

Another standout in accomplishment and innovation was the four cylinder racer campaigned by Wayne Baker from 1979 to 1982. Although he never won a championship he had many class wins and podium finishes. If you get the chance to see this car at the track it is worth a look.

The craziest example has to be the twin turbo charged rocket built by Harald Von Keszycki who took a factory GT and built this monster with custom fiberglass bodywork. Although this car did not have much success it was at the cutting edge of technology.

One of the most recognizable has to be the black Altec-Lansing entry, although it only accomplished a handful of podium finishes the illustrious poster with a Playboy Playmate has made it unforgettable.

Interesting Facts about the 914 GTU:

13 of these cars are currently being restored for vintage racing; some of the owners may surprise you.

14 of these cars are currently being raced or are more or less race ready.

1 of these cars was run at the Targa Florio as a trainer car for factory drivers.

1 of the three 914/6 GTs that ran at the 24 hrs of Le Mans became an IMSA racer.

1 2 of the cars had a complete tube frame developed for the Pontiac Fiero.

5 of these cars started life as factory built GTs.

2 of these cars started life as Ginther Roadsters.

3 of these cars ran 4 cylinder engines

3 of these cars have cages built by Chuck Gaa of Gaaco

Only 1 is confirmed to be scrapped…so far

Thanks Glenn

Bob Garretson also wrote the forward for the Caught By Camera book, where he talks about his racing experiences Glenn relates.

I believe his and others racing campaigns are what helped make our cars what they are today.

The 914 has risen from true underdog past the 924, 928, 912, 944, and 968 into what it is today... a classic street race capable car.

Thanks for keeping track of all those cars, it really was a great time in the IMSA series back then. I had the pleasure of crewing with a Mazda RS Challenge car back in tose days (my hearing has never been the same since playing with those unmuffled rotary engines), and always loved seeing the GTU 914s at the races. Kicking around the paddocks and seeing those cars and the 911s fueled my lifelong passions.

Great info Glenn
Doug Arnao of New Jersey was a SCCA National Champion in one of the cars mentioned.
He built the car and did all fabrication and development himself.
And, as I recall, was honored for his efforts by Porsche AG

Dave Finch also did a great job on the SCCA circuit in the 914s.

Thank you Glenn, this is good stuff. I look forward to reading your book.
I am understanding the passion behind the 904 arguments more.

As interest in our cars increase and values rise this is a part of 914 history that is timely and important. Thanks for doing this Glenn. Looking forward reading the book.

Can't wait for the book!

It better be a Picture Book for most of this Crowd!

My Ex - still in the World family

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Thanks for the 914 history lesson, Glenn. Best of luck with the book. I will definitely want to add a copy to the 914 library.

Doug started out with a 914-6 with a 2.7 and learned how to drive at PCA DEs. After a few mishaps, the car was morphing into a dedicated track car with a twin plug, 906 cammed 3.2. Over the next winter. He bought a set of tube frame Fiero plans, built a fabrication table in Jim and Kathy Foster's garage, and started welding. By spring he had a race ready 914-6 tube frame car. He took it to a couple of PCA events to sort it out (with a dis approving NNJR board of governors watching carefully). At Summit Point, one of the rear cast Fiero suspension uprights broke launching him through the trees damaging the car. He then converted his old 914-6 into a C production car and went SCCA racing. Over the following winter, he redesigned his tube frame car to use 914-6 suspension front and rear and developed it into a very fast C production car and IMSA car. Dr Frank Juhasz bought his old 914-6 based C production car and raced it for a few years. I remember driving it at Pocano and marveled at how well sorted it was.

Charlie

When I was a teenager I saw Doug's IMSA 914 at Summit Point when it broke an upright as Charlie mentions above. I was watching him drive when it happened, in fact. I'd turned my head for a second and next thing I knew it was upside down sliding across the grass. I'd looked at the car earlier that day with the bodwork off. It was the coolest 914 I've seen to this day. He used the Huffaker Fiero plans and chassis parts as mentioned. It had dual A arms at all 4 corners and inboard mounted shocks.

I thought he'd raced the car in IMSA in that configuration, but when I checked recently on racingsportscars.com or one of the other IMSA stats sites, it didn't show up.

After he converted it to run SCCA GT-2, he wons a lot of races with the car. I don't think we won a national championship but did place 3rd one of the years Finch won in his 944. I posted a video of that race few weeks ago over in the Paddock forum. Doug helped me build my own 914 (see sig at left) and I had the spoiler off the old IMSA car on my car at one point. He was definitely a go-to guy for building fast 914s.

I've seen pictures of another Fiero-based 914 that ran Sebring or Daytona I think, I thnk here on this forum actually. I don't know who owned or drove it though.

It was the Altman Bros, not to be confused with the Allman bros

here is a picture of the Altman car taken by Martin Arnaud at the 1987 - 12 hrs of Sebring. If anyone knows the whereabouts of this car please let me know.
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As T.C. pointed out this car is being restored by a board member, here is the link
Starting a 1971 IMSA 914 Restoration

The book will have lot of picture

That's the one. Very enterprising, the Altman brothers. They had a cool 911 as well (I guess before the 914?) that had a much wider front end than standard and custom bodywork. I think Jay Kjoller raced that car for a few years after they sold it.

http://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/Jay-Kjoller-USA.html
https://www.driverdb.com/drivers/jay-kjoller/
http://www.pbase.com/image/49903895

Wonder if the car could be located?

Wow, just noticed the horizontal fan, goes with all the other trick bits on that chassis.

The Altman bros were known for there motors. Titanium factory connecting rods, flat fans, and that kinda stuff..They had a pretty large budget compared to us lowly blue collar racers . Their fiero chassis based car was a direct result of seeing mine (as mentioned elsewhere), As they always had great power, but struggled with the 911 chassis.

Bruce Jones and Bruce Jankowitz drove my Fiero based car in the 2 or 3 IMSA races it ran, while I was behind on getting my FIA license to run in IMSA. I eventually entered one race with the 3 of us driving at 6 hours of (?) Watkins Glen, but something broke and I believe we never started the race. Then early that next year I wrecked it at Summit testing in a PCA event, as Scott mentioned. The rest is SCCA GT2 history.

Coincidentally, I found this while i was looking on the bird board for ideas for my 2.23L upgrade.
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This came today in the mail, it's cool.

Nice, how many millimeters are you going to have to chop out of it to "convert" it to a 904?

That's a super cool model...

http://www.forum-auto.com/automobile-prati...jet756-1855.htm

Damn!

Cogbill's convertible D is one of my favorite 356's, when I did the story on that car no one knew the history on it, not even Joe. I traced it to the original owner, Dr. David Helmick, who won Sebring. He took the car to Europe when he got drafted, raced it at Le Mans, and tracks all over Europe, he even took it to the Factory to have them put disc brakes on it. A very cool car!

Last Page.

Cool story, but what does it have to do with IMSA 914s?

--DD

It's one of the models in that pic from Europe, next to the 914 model like the one he received. Also P-car content, so no foul in my book.

The Cogbill 356 appears next to one of my all-time faves, the Jennings Speedster (pre-restoration?). Pretty cool that a model of the Cogbill D is sitting next to the 914 you now own, and that both are/were significant enough to have inspired models of them.

A friend of mine sold the Jenning's Carrera Speedster awhile back for at the time record money, about $250,000, wonder what it would be worth now?

Ditto, but let's stop beating around the bush here.

Adam didn't like us having a direct conversation about trying to stop him cutting up an interesting car in his thread, so now he's posting 356 crap in Glenn's 914 IMSA thread even though Glenn was super classy in his introduction.

This is not a "P-car" forum. It's frickin' 914-World. If I wanted to read about 356s I would go to bathtubs-r-us.com or wherever the heck people talk about those.

Adam from page 4 of his 904 "build" thread.
"2. If you don't like what I'm building then please get out of my sandbox."

Adam needs to take his irrelevant 914 hating drivel and go elsewhere.
He'll get no welcome from me here.

dug

Is that so you have something to remember it by?

Yep, just a Drama Queen! I can't believe that he is even posting in this Thread since he is destroying History.

This is a cool car! Love the modifications and efforts required....

(gratuitous attempt to get thread back on topic....)

This is from an email Bruce Anderson sent about the 2nd Garretson Enterprise IMSA racer:
"We did engine and chassis development for that car when Walt and Terry owned it, but we didn't have anything to do with the body work... Dave did that.

Bruce Anderson
one of the owners and General Manager of Garretson Enterprises"

a picture of Bruce looking the car over years later
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This whole 904 body on an IMSA 914 thread reminds me of the documentary “Banksy Does New York” that I saw about the British graffiti artist named Banksy coming to NYC and every day for a month he would do one of his paintings or sculptures somewhere in the city. The word would get out and everyone would hurry to the location to see the work of art. The reason they had to hurry was because there were people who enjoy shitty on everything others covet and enjoy who would race to the site to deface the Banksy work. The thing that shocked me is that some of the people in the crowd would cheer as the vandal was destroying the artwork. Does this sound familiar?

You know, I woke up this morning and read all of this bizarre ranting coming from a couple of you guys. It's not a p-car forum?

I guess for a few of you guys teener is really a good term, because you have some real growing up to do to be in the Porsche world.

But the good news is I didn't give this a 2nd thought as I showed up for a packed open house, full of all Porsches, even some 914's. We even had a celebrity, Frank Serpico showed up, how cool is that? And he did confirm to me that Al Pacino played him better than himself in the movie.

I posted history on a very cool car that was pictured in this thread, one that I did a lot of research on and thought I would share it with the group but I guess you guys don't want to know about anything built before your cars, because who would want to know about Porsche history?

Grow up guys, or remain teeners, but you sound really childish.

FYI - There is a forum named "the Sandbox" for all the off-topic threads.

I am relieved because I thought you were going to say it was the framework for your new project...a Cayenne on a SCCA national championship 356.


Frank Serpico did NOT race a 914 in IMSA so again not real relevant to this thread.

You're calling us childish for defending the clearly stated purpose of this board and thread while you are shamelessly plugging your business while pretending to care about Porsche history?!?

You've now posted more photos in this thread that are off topic than all the photos from all other posters.

Your accusation that we don't want to know about Porsche history is particulary hilarious given that Glenn created this thread to specifically discuss 914 IMSA history that he has spent decades researching, while you just regurgitated an old magazine article. Thanks for your profound teaching.

Again

Thanks again Glenn for researching this special time in 914 history. Your book will undoubtedly rock our 914 world.

Perhaps the thread could be split, then?

--DD

Glenn - you da man
Should be a great book! Please share more here as you can, especially pics!

It would be great to keep going with the accounts of 914s in IMSA, documenting it all in this thread with this title that will come up for those searching historic racing, 914 GTU and IMSA. Some day my bland, 1972 1.7 may morph into a historic racer, if I get enough $$ (hey, I'm a CSOB childish teener owner after all), and doing a tribute car project would be awesome. Restoring a real racer, with history, would be a dream.

Keep living the dream!

Rick & Chris thanks for your kind words

I finally have found my very own Altec poster
Thanks Pete!
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The IMSA information and pictures are interesting and informative. The more of this information I see leads me to think that it would be more advantageous for Adam to restore the authentic IMSA 914 he has as a historic piece. (I've changed my mind)

Adam's 356 story, while interesting too, doesn't belong in this thread.

I believe Adam's historic IMSA racer is his to do with what he wants, but he could have a great historic IMSA race car that would fit right into this thread some day.

Great job on digging this stuff up, Glenn!

Good to hear!
These are really fascinating cars (to me), each IMSA 914 approached a little different.
Some very successful...some not so much

I hear Bruce Jennings Speedster has a 906 body now.

I want to clear up a large mis-conception. It's not that I don't have reverence for the history of this car, I do. I can truly appreciate the significance of it's long history on the track. I even had a very nice conversation with Bob Garretson about the car the other day.
But I'm in the same quandry as everyone else who appreciates this car, while the heart yearns for it to stay true, the wallet can't be hurt. Had anyone really thought this car was valuable as an ex-IMSA car it would have sold sometime in the last 8 years, or at the very least someone would have stepped up and bought it from me. Considering 914/6 conversions running and driving are now in the $25,000-50,000 range this car with the successful conversion and the racing history should command somewhere in the middle of that range. But alas, the market has spoken, while interesting and in some ways fascinating, the history of this car does not in fact add value to the car, and I'm not able to accept having to sell this car for low money and having to pay high money for a 914/6 conversion, the wallet cannot be overtaken by the heart. And apparently, I'm not the only one who feels this way, because there have been no other wallets speaking or opening.

Then name a f@king price already.....that's right.....it's not for sale....