Actually no - I think that looks like Doug Arnao's tube frame Fierro-based 914! I recognize the spoiler (Huffaker Fierro piece) on it because I bought it from Doug and had it on my car at one point. And I recall that he had a deal with Hoosier (note the sticker on side) which was unusual in road racing at the time. I posted on another thread that I thought he had raced the car but couldn't find evidence in records available online. But that sure looks like the car. Any shots of the front by chance? Fred's car would have Apcar on the front, Doug's would've had VCI (his automotive business).

I can check with Doug on this ...

It's mine alright. Exactly as Scott has mentioned. I actually still have the front hood off that car. Fred's car was actually sold to Bruce Jones in 1984 he raced it for a season (or 2 ). Then Bruce and I put our heads together and created this car a year later. My idea, and I built it, but Bruce had alot of input and co-drove it in the IMSA the races. Hence the similar paint scheme.
This car got half destroyed at Summit Point by yours truly . I used the basic lower part of the chassis over (cutting much of top stuff off) and created the SCCA GT2 car that became so sucessfull for me. The one I finished 3rd with in Porsche Cup USA points in 1989. Also won the SCCA GT2 N.E National championship 3 years in a row.
That tube chassis with a more conventional Porsche 914/6 suspension actually handled better than all that fancy Huffaker double a-arm stuff

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Thanks for the info Doug. I can now label my pictures appropriately. Very cool
learning the history.
Cheers,Dion

This has to be one of the coolest 914 race history threads so far. Thanks for posting all this.

And so this happened today...............

I'm selling a 76 project car and have it listed on craigslist. A local Guy from Indiana contacts me about it, I call him and we talk 914s and during that conversation he says he dad use to race a 914 in the IMSA series back in the day. It was Silver 914 #21 owned by Le Trianon Jewelry Corp. He has been looking for the car for years. I made a quick call to Glenn Stazak and he was almost 100% sure that it is the same car that you have.

I call the guy back and he says that he has pictures from back then AND the engine that was ran in it during the 24hrs of Daytona.

He is coming over tomorrow to check out the 76 and hopefully bring some pictures and info with him. I know this picture maybe small, but that is your car in the top photo.

I am working on getting him and John together to talk. Small world huh?

Open palm slapping forehead mouth open Great Story Garold. If I wasn't getting ready to sell off my house, shop and extra stuff to build a new house I would love to get an old IMSA car to restore and race with you guys .

Rick it is not my car, but the car John is restoring in this thread.

[quote name='Garold Shaffer' date='Nov 24 2015, 08:52 PM' post='2269291']
And so this happened today...............

I'm selling a 76 project car and have it listed on craigslist. A local Guy from Indiana contacts me about it, I call him and we talk 914s and during that conversation he says he dad use to race a 914 in the IMSA series back in the day. It was Silver 914 #21 owned by Le Trianon Jewelry Corp. He has been looking for the car for years. I made a quick call to Glenn Stazak and he was almost 100% sure that it is the same car that you have.

I call the guy back and he says that he has pictures from back then AND the engine that was ran in it during the 24hrs of Daytona.

He is coming over tomorrow to check out the 76 and hopefully bring some pictures and info with him. I know this picture maybe small, but that is your car in the top photo.

I am working on getting him and John together to talk. Small world huh?
[/quote

Holy Crap !
What a world
Keep us posted.

When I talked to the son, he was in So Fla. John has his info. Unless it is the son of the 2nd Driver

I should have more details today, but I believe he is the son of the 2nd driver. He asked me to pass along his number to John and I have. Hopefully they can talk and he provide some more info on the car for John.

I will try to get in contact once the holiday guests have gone home.

Would love to hear the story behind the car and get more pictures.

I have made more progress on it that I need to post.

John

John,

Is this your car? Don't know if you've seen this one before.

Paul

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Yep, that explains the Front damage!

That's it!

Is this a 4 banger car? More info or thread about it? I love the rims, so simple and not your typical Fuchs.

Neat encounter Garold, small world.

This car is a 1971 914/4 chassis, it raced as a 4 cylinder and as a 6 cylinder

What ever happened to the black IMSA race car that was in the vintage magazine pic?

Is that car still around?
Huge flares on it.

I've been battling some illnesses for a while now but I hope to get back into restoring
and driving again soon. The car has been safely stored in my garage. I will be selling
some parts for other projects that never got going to provide some funds to get this
one done.

John

Get back to work!!!!

1977 Sebring
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another 1977 Sebring

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Cool new pictures Glenn!

I've been thinking about this for a whole year while trying to recover.

Somebody buy some of the parts I have for sale and help out!

John

Everything OK? I've traded a few eMails with DarthE!

TC

Dec 2008

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After 7 years, I think this resto has reached the 50-50 point.

I've spent $50,000 and I am 50% done.

Has this 50/50 point shifted at all in the last 2 years?

I have been battling several illnesses the last few years so not much has happened.

I hope that is about to change soon.

John

We all wish you the best.

John, we need an Update!

agreed

Ten years ago my Son sold John a 2.5 L IMSA engine . I too would like to know progress. Al

OK, I am back again. I hope to stay again this time. The last 5 years I have battled three serious health issues which kept me from doing much of anything other than staying employed. In 2018 we decided we were tired of living 1000 feet from the ocean. We spent a year remodeling and selling our old house and now live 7 miles inland. Priority items for the new house were a dedicated shop and at least one working toilet. Found the perfect house that came with this cinder block construction, climate controlled shop. After working outside near the ocean or in my dinkly, non AC-ed garage, this is an unimaginable luxury. I feel super fortunate every time I walk into it. The day we moved in:

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Of course, it has a whole lot more tools and clutter in it now, but the cars are still the same:

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And here is the IMSA 914 I have been working on for 10+ years:

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More to come in a minute.
John

The engine that Blake Meredith built for me has been preserved inside my house or now inside my shop. I turn it over by hand every few months and it feels smooth. Looking forward to hearing it rev.

I did get a custom made ATL fuel cell, built to my exact dimensions, with 2 pickups, one in each rear corner. I have a lot of the fuel lines made. All the fuel components are duplicated until they reach the fuel Y connection. They go from pickup, to screen filter, to Holley fuel pump, to check valve, to Y , then Fram fuel filter and then they will go the back of the car using Chris Foley's AN fitting fuel lines.

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I had to remake the whole fuel cell containment structure and reshape the oil cooler shroud to go under it. The custom fuel cell will hold about 16.5 gallons. It was a lot of effort to accommodate the larger cell, but I think it will be worth it.

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Still more to come in a minute...

John

The oil handling system at the front of the car is nearly done as well. I have decided I don't want the oil return line going under my left foot, so it will come through the driver side heater tube and then up and over the normal fuel tank area. From there it goes to a thermostat, oil cooler, then an oil filter, then into the custom tank the original owners fabricated. The oil tank has a breather I need to make a mounting bracket for. The return line to the car goes out the bottom of the tank and then into the passenger side heater tube.

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Figuring out how to run these lines, and then getting them made and installed is a challenge with this thick braided line. I have a set of cool tools, vice jaws, special AN wrenches, aeroquip lube. All highly recommended. I made a custom shaped oil cooler shroud to work with my larger fuel cell.

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You can see the thermostat hiding down in there.

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But wait, there is still more ahead.

John

I had to remove more of the bulkhead to fit the larger fuel cell, so I reinforced the "strut tower structure" using some 1/8 steel strips, welded on to form a triangle shape. Look at the picture just above the fuel cell.

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The interior of the car looks like this. I cut out the driver side of the cross bar to fit the Kirkey Racing seat as low as possible. Done this way, it actually fits pretty low in the car, maybe as low as a stock 914 seat. The car needs a harness bar and a brace for the rear of the seat. Need to look at the rule books for various historic series to figure out what to do here. The original car had one eye bolt that went through the firewall backed up by a pretty big washer.

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The doors that came with the car are Marathon Blue metallic. The car was originally yellow if I am not mistaken.

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One more post for tonight.

John

OK, final post for tonight. Welded up an access hole that was cut for the oil return line. Like I said, I decided to not have the line under my left foot. Feels good to have the welder out and making some progress.

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Here is the hole mostly welded up and before grinding.

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You can just see the return oil line which I snaked down into the heater tube.

Still a lot of work to be done, but most of the welding and grinding should be over...

Another thing which took about a year after moving here was to re-restore my Rockin 914, which is running great and looks good from 10 feet away. It needed a lot of rust repair and a whole repaint.

John

Glad to see you back!

This is awesome. Glad to see you back at it John.

Alright John is back!

John, glad to hear you are back and feeling OK . can't wait to hear Blake's Engine run again. Al

Thanks everyone, I am glad to be here.

Getting my blue 914 running again really motivated me to finish this one.

There are a lot of amazing build threads going on since I was active.

I especially love the Sonauto #40 project being done by Marty. The perfect person to take care of that car.

John

John,
Glad you are better. You are still making more progress than me.

Peter

Been a long time since I read through this thread! Very glad to know you're okay and the project is still around. Looks good!

This thread, which I had not seen before today, brings back many memories. I raced a 914-6 back in the day when this car was raced. I do not remember the car but lots of the things done to it are what we did in the day. The fuel discriminator valve is one of those things. The rules back then said that the valve had to be in sight of the fueler. They were mostly mounted inside on the rollbar just like the original photos show. We could run a 26 gallon fuel cell back then. Car would run for over 2 hours on a fill.

Glad to hear that you are over your health issues and have resumed the restoration.

Old guys and old cars rock and rule.....LOL

Thanks for the comments, folks!

914World community has provided a lot of the motivation and information I needed to keep me continuing on.

Hey 9146GUY, do you have any pictures of 914s racing in the 70s and 80s to share?

John

Glad to hear you're doing better, John. Awesome new shop, too! Let me know if you ever need a hand with anything. I think you're probably a bit closer now that you're inland instead of beachside.

Welcome back, John. Glad to see that the IMSA project car will be going forward. You’ve come so far with it and it’s in the right hands.

Good to hear a health story with a positive outcome.
Welcome back.
Your big project continues...you've got an enthusiastic audience.
Roll on.

OK John, you asked ..... I don't have pictures of other cars but I do have some of mine

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Daytona 1972 Finale. Dave White at the wheel.

I bought the car from Dave in December 1975 and prepped the car and went to the 24HR of Daytona in 1976.
I had won the SE Division B Production in a 911 and worked a deal with Goodyear. We ran their new radial GT street tire and ran the entire race on one set of very bald tires.

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Notice that the headlights still pop up, nothing in the spoiler. At Daytona that cost almost 8 MPH on the banking. That was before they put the chicane in the back straight and added lights around the track. The driving lights on the front bumper were more for corner lighting than straight ahead.

Part 2 coming....

Part 2....

Fast forward to 1979, 24 Hr at Daytona. Rules changes over the years. Wide bodywork, lights in bumpers, rear spoiler.

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Part 3 coming......