Friend sent this to me, but suspect it is a well known car?

dick troutman coulda shifted thousands of those down here in the 70s if he went into partnership with renegade hybrids?

Myron Vernis has the car now. Ex AASE Brothers.
Built by Troutman-Barnes

I wish RD or the like would make a metal kit. I’d do a beefy 6 or subie build and setup as a tow rig.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=4788&st=20

There's also the six-cylinder one that Gunnar Racing now owns.

https://www.gunnarracing.com/Misc/914-6%20T...uck/080411.html

--DD

Anyone knows if Porsche did this GT, one or it was also an aftermarket fix…?

Great idea as a tow car, jijiji
Click to view attachment

Orange one lookss like the official track car at Nurburg ring or a clone of it.

Unit body vehicles are not great for towing

El Caminos (or Rancheros) weren't exactly that hot a ticket either...it really wasn't about towing or hauling...

Making one of those isn't that hard a job for a bodyman with some talent. It's basically just removing the rear trunk and fabbing up tailgate and sills.

I saw one some years ago that was topped off with a full-length fiberglas hatch (with grills), pivoting off the stock engine lid hinges (or similar).

adjust your eyeballs mate.
thats the other dick troutman.

you are thinking of the reccaro car.
yeah, sort of, but not quite.
that one was the worlds fastest fire truck, ........

these two youtes by d troutman are the ants pants.
from an upside down and back to front aussie point of view.

funny thing is 30 years ago certain smart arse poschefiles down here used to try and stick it in to me over my affection for the 914 and my vehicle by calling it a VW ute.
yeah good try at an insult.

i used to think under my breath F%ck you. whats so wrong about that.

youtes.

This car was always in the lobby at Asse Bros (Anaheim) back in the late 80's, didn't get much use, but always admired it.

Dave and Dennis were the coolest!! RIP

Asse motors had everything you ever thought of.

Oscar

you guys don't recognise your own genius.

el caminos are just.......
and rancheros. even better.
i dunno.
,,,,,,,,,, i am just a north antarctican.

if you said "or rancheros" in brackets after el camino standing on the top of the hill at mount panorama in october, you would not walk out alive down here. that used to be a life or death choice in australia.

There was a 4 cylinder, Blue one in the Massachusetts area years ago..
When I saw it, it had been hit on the drivers side and was being
repaired at a shop I hung out at..
It had “shark gill “ type of air scoops in the lower quarter panels
to bring more cool air into the engine compartment.
No idea what ever happened to it…???

"Utes" were never really strong in the States; we preferred full-size frame detached-bed pickup trucks (we actually used to use those for "work"). In fact, we never even called them that.

You wonky Aussies came up with the concept in the 50s, and Ford tried it first in the USA with the Ranchero, with the El Camino right after it. They were briefly a lifestyle thing in the 60s and 70s ("it's was an El Camino thing, you wouldn't understand"), and Dodge even tried it a few years with the Rampage.

But when compared to the pricing and utility of a full-sized pickup truck, it was a hard sell. Further, they were classified as trucks, so there weren't any tax/incentives advantages versus trucks. Couple that to cheaper small import trucks (thanks Chicken tax) that started to invade the market in the late 70s (Mazda B series - R.I.P. the REPU! - and its rebadged cousin the Ford Ranger, Toyota, Nissan) and the "ute" was a hard sell here. It just didn't fit well in the USA market. I don't think they lasted much past the early 80s here in the USA.

But today we do look fondly at the options y'all got down under there. I wouldn't mind having one. - GA

Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) for a 914 is 2690 lbs

Gross Axle Weight Rating (GAWR) is 1433 lbs for both front and rear.

Let's just say that we have a vehicle curb weight of 2000 lbs and perfect 50/50 weight distribution to keep this easy. That means we have 1000 lbs of the rear GAWR used up before we even have a driver and passenger in the car.

Automotive uses 150 lbs as standard passenger weight. I haven't weighted 150 lbs since I bought my 1st teener in 1987.

Let's use 200 lbs as occupant weight for easy math and to be more realistic.

Curb + driver + passenger = 2400 lbs. And again, lets assume that the distribution stays 50/50. So rear axle weight is now at 1200 lbs.

That leaves 233 lbs as MAXIMUM possible tongue weight or a 2330 lb trailer using standard 10% tongue weight. Seems sort of reasonable but what isn't accounted for is that the 230 lbs cantilevered behind the 914 is going to take weight off the front axle, and it will shift to the rear as the vehicle squats under that tongue load. It will also lighten the front end of the 914 making the brakes and steering less effective.

I'm sure you could get by towing a single Jet Ski or small lightly loaded utility trailer. A double Jet Ski would be really be pushing it and that would be assuming you ditch the passenger.

And we haven't even talked about transmission and clutch durability.

Stick with just using the bed of the Porschamino to haul a keg of beer or something like that.

You left out the Subaru Brat! Was available until 86' or 87'

The jump seats and the hold on for dear life hand grips were the bestest Plus they helped the BRAT avoid the chicken tax.

Once I finish my current 914 projects I plan on doing one of these conversions...

https://www.classicautomall.com/vehicles/36...n-beetle-pickup


Super easy conversion

Oscar

Re: beetle pickup, if you got the 'crummy' 2.5 inline 5, you can get the IE PowerKit and make it sound like this 40 more hp/tq is nice too:

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


https://performancebyie.com/collections/pow...vw-mk5-25l-5cyl