An acquaintance has asked me to help him sell his 4 cylinder 1972 GT5 prepped car. It was smacked in the right rear and the question is whether to repair it or sell it as is. It was not hit too hard, and if it is decided to sell it I will post an appropriate listing with many more details about the car. Another consideration is that it has been sitting, in climate controlled storage, for 10 years or so. It was running competitively in PCA Potomac at the time it was damaged. It was a good rust free car with a stout motor built by an experienced Porsche tech, and was racing the day it was parked. What would a GT5 prepped car be worth in ready to run condition vs one that had been sitting leaving the damage out of the equation? I am out of my realm here, I deal mostly with 356s and old 911s and 912s. Any input is appreciated.

6 or 4?

Long ago that was a class with a lot of fast six'
So real 6 , or conversion car is my next question?
Pretty wide ranges of values out there depending...

The pca club race cars don't hold their value as well as the vintage cars if they are modified to pca rules and not vintage legal as a result.

Plus the club race market for air cooled has dried up. So hit from both directions.

How modified is it?
If it was competitive.... Probably a lot I'm guessing.

Either way...it isn't going to be worth much - 914 club racers are hard to sell. Even when in stunning condition...not to many people are dumb enough to campaign an old chassis that provides hours of extra-maintenance compared to the alternatives. I know what i speak of - I AM one of the dummies!

Tony

It is a 4 cylinder. I think the best thing to do is leave it as it, get it running, and get whatever we can for it. I don't have the time to part it out for him, and he just wants to get rid of it.

Could you post up some pictures?

tough call...

its more work, but sometimes worth more $ to part out a non desirable race car....

is it something that could be made legal for vintage?
does it have roll bars/braces passing through any panels?
stock-ish body?

2.2 liter, 210hp or so. FG hood / decklid. Here are some pics.

Is the tub straight? I agree the PCA/POC audience would be tough. May have better luck pitching it to the vintage crowd or even returning to street config if it's registerable.

Man, cool car! If I were starting all over again, this would have been a prime candidate.

Well it looks like it has all the nuts and bolts...

Looks like it's nicely done overall. Good motor if it makes 210 hp. Not exactly built to the extent of PCA rules from the looks of it (narrow body, no wing, etc.) It may not be that far off from vintage legal. Damage doesn't look that bad. If I were on the market for a car like that, I'd consider buying it if the price is reasonable.

Scott

my guestimation is that it will sell if its cheap
but by that I mean less than the cost of parts to build it

by cutting a few bars out of the roll cage it could be made vintage legal

but still needs a different motor, body work, full paint job... so $$$ to get it running in vintage

Agreed. 4 cylinder 914 race cars are hard to sell, regardless of how well the engine is built and performs.

You just have to wait for the right buyer to come along.

Sell it as-is
The damage doesn't appear all that bad
Good luck!

I'll give ya $500 bucks for it, straight up, and it'll be going to a good cause, because I'm officially poor

Thanks for the input, all I need now is for the owner to make a decision.

If there was any way of titling it and making it road legal, THAT would be the best option for a sale IMHO.

Assuming the race motor could last in street driving applications, but that might get you some decent buyers looking for a "outlaw" kind of car.

Still not going to get ANYWHERE near the amount of money that is obviously in the car.

If you can afford a race car you are officially richer than I am!

Had a racecar. Now I have a kid

Love to hear specs on engine. I haven't seen weber 48 Ida in person on a 914.

Did you guys see this? IMSA GTU 914-4 for sale...$140K

I doubt it will go that high but you never know. Oh the difference some provenance and race wins can make.

http://www.sportscardigest.com/cars-for-sa...=JaId7qd36Os.C0

Thank you Chris...I needed a good laugh tonight.

Tony

Pretty famous and well-done car. You never know ...

Irrespective of provenance, it's a much different level of development. $140k seems extreme, but the Baker car being worth 5-10x more does not seem outrageous to me.

FYI, Mugs914 here on the forum is who services that car...
and boy are there a LOT of unique things on it...

Weird coincidence - Sunday I randomly grabbed an old Panorama off my unread stack, and lo and behold there was a feature article on this car! Good story and impressive build. There wasn't a ton of technical detail though.

The problem is that it's uncompetetive in pca and not built to scca/gcrs that would get it into a vintage class

Still a cool car
Just no where to run it

Brant - That is true but not all of us "want to race"...I was just talking to a "racer" friend yesterday and he was saying the same thing. I've seen the black hole racing can make of ones savings account. Becoming a better driver, teaching others and going fast (against my own times) is enough for me. A non-compliant "race car" (non-street legal), however, is a difficult sell...

T

But it CAN run in all the Vintage races, especially since it has provinence...

no it can't...
there are a number of illegal things about it
bars passing through body panels, modifications not allowed in 99% of the vintage clubs

most vintage clubs used scca period rules, not pca rules
so things like electromotive ignitions/crankfire ignitions are not allowed

a lot of rebuilding, including cutting away extra roll bars/braces would be required

etc...

wait, are we talking about the OP car or the Baker car?

ooops...
sorry...
I was talking about the OP car

sorry I'm sensitive to this subject
I raced a PCA 4cylinder 914 in club racing for about 10 years
when I tried to go outside of PCA I learned the hard way about pca -4 race car values

I ended up selling my whole drive line, and stealing all of the running gear from that car (had a shell with a wiring loom left and nothing else) to build a new car for vintage racing....

sometimes its better to start from scratch than modify an old race car

I put a street motor (djet and all) back into the shell a couple of years later
still drive that car (street registered) to this day
hope to drive it to AZ for the RT66 this month in fact.

in 2003, when I learned this lesson the hard way... the numbers just didn't add up.
Selling the car was less cost effective than parting it out (to myself mostly)

ah, OK...when you replied I was thinking "hmm..most cars with real vintage provinence can run in vintage racing"...referring to Ron's car (Baker 914).

But I hear ya...and its what we've been struggling with - I would REALLY like to run in the local Vintage series, and maybe in things like the Mitty and Hawk at Road Atlanta (now call the WeatherTech Vintage Race) but none of our cars are vintage legal. Papa Smurf is an absolute blast to drive (when the engine works) but its only PCA GT4 and SCCA GT2 legal. I was not thinking that when we built it...heck, was not thinking racing when we built it.

And Huey with the 3.2 engine...not legal anywhere and CERTAINLY not competitive.

so yeah, a PCA GT5 prepped car is either a PCA GT5 car, or just a fun, safe track car...