Stopped by to see my mechanic yesterday and saw this car on a trailer on his lot. He says stay away from it. All appearance point to a kit car on a 914 chassis but I did not get a good look as I took my mechanics advise and kept my distance.

Click to view attachment

This morning I see the owner has posted a Craigslist ad asking for insight.
73 914 GT

The car does not look as nice in person as it does in the pictures.

Rare factory prototype....



















Notice I didn't say WHICH factory but bet the name of the car includes the word "Kit"

Man that's ugly...

bad ferrari dino kit may or may not be on a 914... maybe a kelemark?

anyhow, you are correct, worth close to nothing, and they are shit piles.

Ferg

I think I've seen the picture of the rare factory prototype that you mentioned in one of the Porsche history books. Doors open butterfly style, right?

Are those five lug wheels on the aluminum adapters?

from the side it looks like someone glued the ass end of an early 70's corvette to the front end of an 80's firebird.

$80-$160K!

The Tapiro Prototype. Which looks nothing like the car above.

Click to view attachment

Ohh that? Yeah that's the POS 5000, a very rare Scheisseboxer Edition at that.

Does that price include the Flux Capacitor?

Porvair ??

A guy had one for sale around here. Was a Dino kit car on a 914. I think he wanted about 10K.

I wonder why he thinks it's a porsche? It just looks like a kelmark midengine kitcar to me. Maybe I'm old and weird but that styling always looked good to me. I have a 914 but that kelmark always looked better than a 914 to me. I guess thats why I like gt fieros and gt40's.

It is a kelemark, and IIRC, they were built on bug pans with type 1 motors...

It's got the 914 popup headlights. Could very well be a 914 under there ...
Andy

That sure looks like a Kelmark GT with a few customized touches. Looks like it retained pop up headlights where as most of them had exposed or covered lights. Just do a quick google image search on "kelmark GT" and you'll plenty of them.

Value? Well there is one on the Samba for $5,300 at the moment.

As far as I recall however, those were built on VW pans, not using a 914 as a donor.

Except the front on the silver car makes me believe someone used that body kit on a 914 chassis ...
Andy

So far I only see ones with obove pictured style of headlights when doing a Google search.

Could be a 914 under there, so combine that with the GT portion of the Kelmark name and maybe that's why this guy thought he had something special.

I have to go back again later today so if anyone wants me to check it out further let me know.

I'll at least take a peek at the VIN.

Kinda weird that he keeps his $80,000 - $160,000 masterpiece under a blue tarp out in the weeded area of a field. Must be some special mice livin' in that exhaust!

I'd take one of those Tapiro Prototypes though. Looks like a Delorean in the back. Was sick in it's day...

It's a kelmark..not worth much...maybe 2-4k tops. The owner cant possibly be clueless about the car as the title should say 1970 VW

Nice first post!!!!!!!!!!!

Kelmark had a vw version and a mid engine version that used the toronado transaxle and whatever gm motor but usually 455's. If they had good experienced builders they came out pretty nice but the normal guy didn't have a chance to get one done nice. The interior, doors and door gaskets were really hard to make nice. Kinda like the v8 conversions on the 914 you can do one pretty easily but making it nice takes a lot of attention to detail.

If you look at the position of the headlights in relation to the front wheel from the add, it looks like the headlight are over the tire. Unless they completely moved the location of the pop up lights, I do not think that is a 914.

The pop up head lights gave me a clue as well. Could have started this way, but you would need two of them???

Click to view attachment
Honda Scooter with pop up headlight

I spoke with the owner for quite awhile yesterday. She said the car is a Kelmark. (I couldn't remember that to search). I informed her of the values of 914's and think I got her on the path to realizing she had a car closer to value of $1500 than the $60,000 she told me someone claimed it was worth. Very nice lady on a limitted budget. The car won't start and she's never driven it. She is very dissappointed and I'd imagine it will be up for sale unless the fix is inexpensive.

What kind of motor is in it? Did they move up to a SBC, or a t1/t4 ?

I don't find the lines all that offensive, but I think that they look cooler with the fixed headlights. As is, it looks kinda like an Opel GT, which I always thought was a cool looking car.

Zach

yes, but... Like you I've not spotted a photo (well other than the subject car of course) with pop ups, but realistically, I assume that many variations must have been built. In fact, here is an interesting variation with different front (and side, and... )

http://www.autoworldftmyers.com/inventory/Jimmy

Well - checked it out again today - no manufacturer VIN - Oregon State issued VIN
Definately a 914 interior and type IV engine.

And a non-914 windshield in front of the dash.

I also looked at the car in person today. Gotta admit I'm not too familiar with the 914 platform but it sure looks 914 based. Snapped some photos. Interior is reasonably nice. The whole kit car is a bit vague to me. I'm more familiar with 914's with fender mods to look like a 916, but a whole new body?

Woah... that is definitely a 914 "pan" - but based on the windshield, the shape of the longs in the cockpit and the shape of the rear glass and sail panels, I would love to know what it looks like under the body - how much of the car was cut away...

Looks like Rust & the Mice have been feeding on that Engine Mount Console for a while

T.C.

Who ever did that floor repair must have one sore jaw......judging from the amout of bubblegum holing it on

Definately 914. Wire dangling from under the dash and a 'holy' bottom. Car's probably not safe to drive.

I thought I knew a thing or two about kelmark but I don't remember there ever being a 914 based kelmark kit.