Looking for a Project Car! Aircooled VW Bug!

 So, the red 1976 914 I posted about last week, which was for sale locally for $3k, has sold. There is one other 914 project for sale, but its a bucket of parts and a bare shell that was acid dipped and then left to corrode. So, I am continuing this "Looking for a Project Car" idea with a follow up post about another aircooled car, the VW Beetle or Bug. 

In Brazil they are called a "Fusca" which is the Portuguese word for "beetle". One thing I'm noticing, is a theme with where my mind goes when I think of getting a project car, which is that I get very nostalgic. You can't get much more nostalgic than to go back to where it all began for me and my first car, this 1972 VW Beetle (Standard). I say "standard" because in the 70's, VW also sold the Super Beetle, which had a different front suspension and (McPherson strut style) slightly different body panels (vented lower nose and rounded windshield) that help tell them apart.

Let me give a brief review of how I got into Bugs in the first place. My dad wasn't into Bugs at all. But, he did have that 914, which uses a VW Type 4 engine. I got some exposure to the aircooled Vdub world through my short stint at Mark Stephens High Performance as noted before. While those 2 things may have been a minor factor, the key factors that got me hooked were 2 things. First, a kid a year older than me in school, who I knew from Church, Steve Keene, had a 2-tone black and white 1967 (again, this is memory I'm relying on) VW Bug that was lowered, nice exhaust and it sat on really cool polished Centerline wheels (like in this photo below).

Steve worked at "Great Wall" Chinese restaurant in town. He was the link for me getting a job there as a delivery and take out kid. I remember getting a ride in Steve's bug once or twice. I can still picture that experience. The car was really nice inside and out. It was low and it was loud. I also recall getting a ride in his dad's split window early Bug. It was primer grey or some kind of light color like that. I remember sitting up front. If you have ever ridden in an old VW bus, its a unique experience. With that flat nose, you sit up high and very far forward. The steering wheel is like a big school bus steering wheel and its very horizontal. There is nothing like it. 

The second factor, which I'm guessing came after this initial experience with the Keene's bug and bus is reading and buying VW Trends and Hot VW's car magazines at the local grocery store (Save Mart in Tehachapi). I got seriously hooked on the feature cars and how-to tech articles and cool wheels and parts that were advertised in these mags. The first car I can remember really wanting to buy as my first car was the Type 3 Squareback. I don't really know why, except to say I thought they looked really cool, especially slammed with some cool Porsche Fuchs wheels or maybe some steelies, hub caps and white walls. Here's a couple of cool examples I found on the internet. 

What's funny is that performance wasn't a big part of my enjoyment of these Vdubs. It was stance and old car interiors and simple mechanicals and customization. There is a part of the aircooled car world that is into drag racing and I was interested in that aspect too. I liked the idea of having a bug that could pop a wheelie at the drag strip. haha

In small town Tehachapi in 1996 there wasn't any Squarebacks for sale. I recall going to see one that wasn't running, but I guess the cost and work involved to get it running wasn't appealing or possible to me. There were more bugs around than anything, so that was a natural go-to for me.

I think I actually found my bug in the paper in the Classifieds section. There was a very small ad with the year/make/model, the price and a phone number. 

Sorry for the picture of a picture here. This was the night I bought and brought home my 72 Bug. A quick Google search says this color code was "54D Marina Blue". I bought it for $600 from a family friend, Steve Guenther, who lived in Stallion Springs. I don't know if I knew it was Steve's car that we were going to see when we called and arranged it. I can't remember. I had just been hired to work at Scott Bomar Machine in Tehachapi, California about 2 weeks after I graduated from High School. So, I had a job to get to and some income. I was waiting to turn 19 to serve a mission for the Church and was trying to make some money. I still have a memory of going to look at it and test drive it. I remember my dad drove it and when he stomped on the brakes to feel them out, it swerved hard to the right. He said something like "welp, the brakes need to be adjusted". LOL You can see the sign in the window that says "$750". I had the money and my dad helped me figure out what to offer. Steve took the offer and we drove it home! This picture was after we had returned home and I was showing it to my siblings. That's almost 12 year old Lexy posing with me.

Here's some additional photos below showing how my dad and I repaired the huge dent in the passenger side door and rear side panel.

My dad was able to get a lot of the dent straightened out. He also attempted to heat and cool the metal to get it to shrink up a little. You can see it took a lot of bondo to do the rest. Yikes! 

In this last photo, you may notice the front was lowered. We removed like 2 or 3 of the 7 or so torsion bars that are in the front beam. I love a raked bug!

I left on my Church mission for Brazil in February of 1997 and the car was used by my sister to drive around, including delivering Domino's Pizza. I wish we had a picture of it with the delivery sign they used to put on the cars. 

As the time for my mission to finish got close, my dad started asking me about what color would I want to paint it. I remember Burgundy and off white 2-tone was an idea. Its funny because I hate burgundy. I call it "Grandma Red". haha The red paints were more expensive, so we talked about other colors. I think painting it in the original Marina Blue was another option discussed. We ended up going with a Corvette Yellow. I didn't realize that my dad was actually in the process of repainting the entire car and re-doing the interior and freshening up the engine. When I arrived home in January 1999, here is what I came home to:

Dad even picked up these cool 8 spoke Empi wheels from a Vdub shop in Lancaster where he got other parts, like interior panels and headliner. Dad got the heads reworked by the same Mark Stephens High Performance shop in town and a cool exhaust. I was blown away by how cool the car looked and how good it ran! I took it up to Utah where I went to school. I had it up there for a year. I got engaged in February of 2000. I needed money and we didn't need another car, so it went up for sale. I told it to a guy and his teenage son for $4000 or so. I haven't seen the car at any shows or online on any of the local VW clubs Facebook pages. 

Here's a pick of the bug with then girlfriend Christy at the 1999 August Wasatch Vintage VW Club Car Show.

So, here we are 26 years later and looking at potentially picking up another aircooled Vdub. They are still cheap to own and fix. They're still pretty plentiful. They are simple to build and repair. They look super cool when lowered and modified. It would be a lot of fun to pick up a project Vdub and get it going for less than $8000 would be the goal. Something I could cruise around town and take to Vdub events locally. Here is one that is currently for sale an hour away for $3000. It looks to be mostly there and with a rebuilt engine that looks clean, it looks like it could be close to getting running with elbow grease.

I have a message into the seller on Facebook Marketplace, but nothing yet. What is with people who don't respond to legit interest in their cars for sale. Also I don't get the people who try selling cars with terrible pictures and essentially no information in the ad. Like, help us out with at least some basic details on what you are selling. It drives me crazy!

Here's some really cool aircooled Vdubs for inspiration! Here's a "Cal Look" raked style, a slammed white walled style and a road race style bug. Did you know Germany and Brazil had a "Bug Cup" race series for bugs? Heck ya!!!!

Looking for a Project Car! Porsche 914?

PMB Performance's shop 914-6 flared racecar (Salt Lake City, Utah) 

 
Welcome to 2026! I've been doing this blog for 18 years.  My first post from this Hechtspeed blog was in May of 2007. Yikes! It's been a really fun blog to keep all these years. Its just a journal of my car hobby and you can see, I'm all over the place. I think that makes it fun! It's been over a year since my last post in December of 2024. I still have the 2008 Mustang GT. It's "winter" so its rocking the winter wheels and tires right now. It's fine, I don't love the look. I can't wait for warmer weather to put the 19s back on it. 

Photo taken at the Nov 1 Sandy Mall Cars-n-Coffee

The Mustang has been "done" for almost 2 years now. I'm enjoying it. It's a great car. It's the nicest car I've owned so far (not including my wife's new Honda family cars). Sure, I could put more money into the Mustang. The thing is, I already have $23k into it and its maybe worth like $15k (if that, honestly). Its an 18 year old Mustang GT with 138k miles. Its nothing special. You can find stock Mustangs from 2005-09 for under $10k. I just turned 48, 3 of my 4 kids have moved out and my youngest is 16 and driving, working and hanging out. So, I have more time on my hands and have been working on saving some "fun money" for something. I'm bored! I'm looking for something fun to do with my extra time.

I'll walk you through where my head is at lately. There are lots of cool things I could work towards as far as my car hobby goes. Here's some of those ideas in no particular order:

1. Keep building the Mustang (ideas such as: Coyote swap, supercharge the 3V 4.6L, gut it and make it more racecar, change up the wheels and get some expensive, really cool wheels (like $2500-$4000) like, Volk TE37s, Apex forged 18x11s, etc.

Pros: Scratches the project car itch, means the Mustang can stay parked in the garage year round. Make the Mustang even cooler. Cool wheels are the most viable option here, and cheaper than a 5.0L swap or Supercharger.

Cons: Engine swap is scary, will mean the car is not operational for some amount of time, might mean it can't pass emissions. Supercharger makes the car more nose heavy, even more powerful and thus even less useable on the street, its already pretty fast for city speed limits. 

2. Keep saving (probably at least another 5 years of saving and not touching the Mustang) and get a Factory Five Racing kit (Daytona Coupe MK3, Shelby Cobra MK5 (lots of leg room now)

Pros: This would result in the coolest future car to own in the future. Assembling a FFR kit is just sounds so insanely cool. It's the ultimate obtainable dream.

Cons: This option takes the most patience (many years away, so what do I do between now and then) and the most money! ($25k+ for the kit, plus a donor car, or buying new/used drivetrain parts separately) It requires the most space (you have to put the fiberglass body somewhere while you are building up the frame. Many boxes of parts needing to be stored somewhere. You need to store the Mustang donor car somewhere until you have a shell and either sell it or take it to the dump.

3. Get a "cheap" project car, something that's not likely driving but could be fixed up to get it on the road for not too much money.

Pros: Cheapest option to get another car, to get me a project that doesn't take the Mustang out of commission. Will provide the most satisfaction (taking a non running/driving car and get it driving). Let's me build up the car over time as I have money and time. Provides a chance to have "the hunt" for the perfect project car. Once its to a good driving condition, could potentially be sold for a small profit to keep funding the next project (maybe? is that wishful thinking? stars would have to align).

Cons: Means the Mustang has to park outside (Dad says just get a nice car cover for it). Could mean the repairs end up more expensive than I thought or planned or have budget for. Could end up selling it for a loss (but the idea is to by a cheap project so the costs are low and thus the financial risks are low. Not zero, but lot you know).

So, with Option #3 here, a cheap project car, let's talk about what cars sound interesting to me:

Aircooled VW Bug/Squareback/Karman Ghia, Porsche 914, old Ford or Chevy truck from the 40s-80s, MGs, Jensen Healey's, Fiats, Japanese cars (old Corollas, Celicas, Datsun 510s, 240Zs, Civics), old Volvo 242, old Ford muscle cars (Falcons/Mustangs/Cougars/Mavericks/Pintos) and so on. That's a lot of options and there's even more than that (like old VW Jetta/Rabbit/GTi). In this large group of options, there's a lot of different types of cars too, cruisers, trucks, hot rods, commuter cars, etc. 

Whoa! That's a lot!

Yesterday, Corey and I actually drove across town 10 minutes away and looked at a 1965 Ford Ranchero with 289 V8 for sale for only $3000. It had been posted Saturday evening and I ended up messaging the guy around midnight. Here is a picture I took as we walked away with the "Thanks for your time, I'll think about it" farewell. It's definitely worth the $3k asking price, it runs but doesn't drive. But, the work involved, according to the seller, sounds pretty simple to get it to be a running and driving car (trans not hooked up-they tried swapping from floor shift to column shift and bought wrong column, water pump). Peeking underneath and around the windshield and in the interior, the rust repairs needed eventually are the hold up for me. Which will be a normal discovery with any of these projects I'm looking to buy, I know. It looks really good from a distance eh? Cool cars! I dig the GT wheels too.

For the rest of this post, I'm going to explore the Porsche 914 idea for Project option #3. Why the 914? The 914 is a cool sports car that is budget friendly (relatively speaking obviously, compared to some other options). It's a Porsche! But also, its not fully a Porsche. So, sort of best of both worlds when you're on a budget. My dad had one as well, which gives me some really cool history with it. I really like aircooled Vdub Bugs, Karman Ghias and Type 3s (Squareback, Fastback, Notchback, Type 34 Ghia) and the 914 is the peak of the aircooled VWs. I love that there is a wide body racecar version of the 914! It has real racecar cred'! Another point is I already have a V8 muscle car! I like variety! After building my Mustang into a pretty decent track prepared street car, but only having gone to the track once, I've learned that I'm not a committed track driver guy. I like the idea of it! At this point, I'm not ready to commit to the track life. When it comes down to it, I want to tinker, I want a project, I want something that I can get running and make it look really cool. I am interested in joining up with like minded people. If I got a 914, I would be part of the Porsche world, albeit on the bottom of the todem pole, which I wouldn't mind at all. I think I would enjoy the sports car enthusiast culture that the Porsche world brings. 

Let's get into my 914 history. I'm surprised I've never really dug into my dad's 914. It looks like I posted one picture years ago of his car in my blog. My dad owned a 1975 (or was it a 1976? memory is fading...) Porsche 914 with the 1.8L (technically 1795cc). A quick search tells us that there was the "1.8L" 76-84hp option(depending on the market, which we know the USDM got the lower hp rating) or a "2.0" 88-95hp option. I interviewed my dad about a year ago to write a life history. Below is the info I got from him about the car (I got basic story and info on each car he's owned), plus some additional details after talking to him on the phone tonight.

1975 Porsche 914: Bought in 1993 for his 40th birthday (35 mpg with a/c on). This was a car he wanted since they were new in the early 70s. He commuted in it 100 miles per day to Edwards AFB and back. On a hot summer day, Rodger picked at a paint chip and it quickly escalated to a full repaint in the garage in the same Copper Metallic (L99K) color (reading a BaT post of a Copper car for sale, it says this was a 1975 only color). The engine was out of the car about 5-6 times as well during a rebuild with fresh cylinder head work and a new camshaft (first cam wasn’t right). Engine parts were bought from a small VW shop in Tehachapi called “Mark Stephens High Performance”. I ended up working there for 2 weeks during the summer but they weren’t busy enough to keep me employed. It was a killer cornering car that drove like a go kart. The only downer about the car was the transmission needed a rebuild as it had difficulty shifting into a couple of the gears. It had a 4 tip “Pacesetter” exhaust that sounded nice and gave it a deeper tone. Dad says it was too loud and droned going up the hill on the way home from work, the one thing that was annoying with the car.

I'm looking at this pic of dad sitting in his 914 and I'm now a few years older than my dad when this photo was taken. Yikes! Time flies eh! Here's some recollections I have on the car. In 1993 when dad bought the 914, he had been driving a 1990 Geo Metro xFI hyper commuter car. He was commuting 100 miles per day 5 days a week. In like 3+ years, the Geo had over 100k miles on it. He was bored of driving the Geo and wanted something more fun and had always wanted a 914. After his mission, dad and mom had broken up temporarily and he said "screw it" and went to buy a new red 914, but was going to need to have his mom sign with him on the loan. For some reason it didn't work out at that time in the mid 70s but 20 years later he made it happen. He paid around $3000 for this copper one. It was in town in Tehachapi. He continued commuting to Edwards AFB in the 914. It had an a/c system installed and with that small interior compartment, it was ice cold for those Mojave desert commutes! Dad added a bumpsteer kit to correct the geometry when lowering it. It had ride height adjustability in the front and he had lowered it a little. The brakes were meh, but the car being so nimble and light (under 2100 lbs) it didn't need much brake. Dad started running into an issue with having to adjust a lifter too often. One day when trying to adjust the lifter again,  a valve seat fell out and the piston was running into the valve. That's when the can of worms opened up as they say and the "while I'm in there" situation unfolded. Dad had the heads reworked with the trademark Mark Stephens valve seat mod, along with bigger pistons/cylinders to get the displacement up to about 1900ccs. He also put a cam in it. The cam must have been defective or too big because it broke the end of a valve twice (which meant the engine had to be pulled out several times. So in went a smaller cam. and all was well for the rest of his ownership. He chose a hydraulic cam because adjusting lifters was a pain.

I was 15 years old when he bought it. I soon got my permit. This 914 was the second manual car I ever drove. I still remember the first time I ever drove it. My dad and I were driving home from Bakersfield right as the sun was going down. He pulled off the 58 freeway out near the orange groves and parked the car and said, "Ok, you're turn to drive it". It was a really cool experience! The synchros were toast so shifting into 2nd and 3rd gear were slow and annoying. I also remember the e-brake didn't work that good. If the car was parked on the driveway, which had a slant, and you went to put the clutch in an start it, it would start rolling down the driveway. So, you had to do this heel-toe dance to keep a corner of your foot on the brake, but blip the throttle to help it start up and stay running for a second. Well, one day I was taking the car somewhere and we had a family friend with his truck parked behind the 914. It was a little to the side and I thought I would have room, but when I started it, I got distracted by this heel-toe start up sequence and it rolled back ever so slightly and bumped into the truck and cracked the passenger side taillight. Well, that taillight is a Porsche part wouldn't you know it. That was like $150 back in 1996 or so. Oof! Sorry pops! Don't worry, with 4 boys, Karma has paid we back just fine! haha

I remember feeling so cool when I would drive the 914 around town or to the high school. While its known as the "Poor Man's Porsche", its still a Porsche and a very cool looking sports car! That with the nice sounding exhaust and targa top removed and stored in the truck, that's one cool machine!

One final memory of the 914. I remember riding shotgun with dad up and over the hill from Brights Lake to Stallion Springs. There is a nice winding mountain road (Touge! or Die Alpenstraße if you're german! haha). Dad starting taking the corners hard and at one point, we were 4 wheel drifting the 914. It was scary and thrilling and I was impressed with dad's racecar driving skills! I was hooked!

Beautiful restomod 914-4 by PMB Performance in Salt Lake City

One of the beneficial attributes of the 914 being the "Poor Man's Porsche" is it does make it affordable to the everyman like me. Really nice examples with the factory VW Type 4 1.8 or 2.0L engines can be had for around $15k-20k. So, this makes picking up a project car somewhere in the $5k range, give or take, depending on condition.

My Pantera buddy, turned Porsche buddy Corey and I have been talking 914s. His idea is to do an LS V8 swap or a Porsche flat 6 swap, like a 3.4L water cooled flat 6 engine from a Boxster (which is mid engine too), with either option using a Boxster transaxle. While that sounds amazing, the swap idea is not something I'd be doing anytime soon. My thought is to get a 914-4 and just get it running and driving as is with the 4 cylinder. I think a modified 2.0L with dual carbs making about 100-130hp would be plenty of fun in a car that weighs 2000 lbs. I would want to do the metal box fender flares, which can be bought in steel for about $1000 from PMB Performance (no, PMB is not sponsoring this blog, but they should eh?! ha)

Another clean 914 spotted at the PMB Performance Cars-n-Coffee in November 2025

The 914 still has pretty good support for replacement panels and parts. I think it being a Porsche sports car has helped keep the aftermarket alive through all these years. There were 119k total 914s made from 1969-1976 world wide and they were raced as well, which always helps a car live on after its production is ended. 

The box flared flares are a big draw for me. I love the factory "narrow body" lines for sure, but I'm a huge fan of wider is better with wheels and tires for that aggressive "bulldog" look. So, if I picked up a 914 project, I would plan to do flares at some point. Just look at this thing!

Gorgeous 914-6 with box flares at PMB Performance event

I've been watching the local Facebook Marketplace here in the Salt Lake City area for a long time. There are certainly 914s which come up for sale, but not many. So, the pickins' are slim as they say. Right now, there is this red 1976 914-4 project for sale down in Pleasant Grove (about an hour from home). It looks mostly all there, looks to have a mostly straight body, but its not running and likely has rust in the usual areas. But, what are you going to do, any 50 year old car is going to be similar. This one is for sale for $3000.

His ad says "Definitely a project." haha You got that right. I've sent a message enquiring for more photos of the engine bay and floors to try and get an idea of its condition. It's been listed for about a month you can see as well. It would be sweet if I could pick this up for $3000 or even less and get it running with minimal investment. 

OLD 3V S197 Mustang: Painted front and rear bumpers and passenger side fender with Install

 This post is a long time coming! Last spring I bought a passenger fender and front bumper from LMR.com. The passenger front fender had a nice dent which broke the headlight brackets. The front bumper had broken mounts for the driver side corner light (there was duct tape keeping the corner light on). The front bumper also had some normal wear and tear from 130k miles and 16 years of use. Nothing major but a fresh bumper with proper mounting of the corner light. Then after deciding, hey, a quart of base color could also paint the rear bumper too, so I ordered up a rear bumper from Rockauto.com. 

I bought the paint supplies from Superior Paint in Salt Lake City in May and Corey put down the primer in his garage in May 2024. 

I spent the next month plus sanding and prepping the primer for paint. We had planned to paint the parts in Corey's garage as well but it got really hot (not in June and July time frame) and Corey got busy with his own projects. 

Here's the rivnut with the mounting screw verifying I got the right size of rivnuts. I then used Corey's rivnut gun to install 3 rivnuts for the antenna base.

So, I reached out to some local shops in my area and nobody wanted to touch it because the paint wasn't legal materials to paint in a high volume shop environment. I reached out to my friend Andy who has his own paint booth and we tried to set up a time. That didn't work out so he talked to his boss at FRC Customs and they agree to spray my base and clear for me. I think he quoted $90/hour labor cost and the final cost was $585, which included polishing/buffing the paint. 

Here's a look at what I was working with to swap the corner lights over to the new bumper cover. Ford uses 2 rivets to mount the bracket to the bumper cover. I had to drill these out. In the process of drilling the rivets out, it did open up the holes a little and that meant, I wouldn't feel confident that the 1/4" rivets would hold securely. So, I went to Ace Hardware to get some bolts, washers and nuts.

The driver side corner light bracket definitely had some damage. You can see the 2 screws holding the orange corner light to the bracket. Normally there is an alignment pin and 2 clips. Those were broken off and the previous owner rigged up these old rusty nuts and bolts. I went with some stainless hardware. Hopefully the bumper won't be coming off for a long time (famous last words!).

Here's the final set up to mount the corner light and bracket to the newly painted front bumper cover. You can see my hardware for the corner light and the 2 screws for the bracket. I ended up removing the outside screw because there is a stud and nut to mount the bumper to the fender in the hole right next to it and didn't think it was necessary. I did put some blue thread loctite on the little screw and nut so it hopefully doesn't vibrate loose. Again, time will tell! 

I picked up the newly painted body panels on Friday morning. FRC Customs had some fun projects going on. An old Vdub Bus, a Dodge Challenger, a 70's Corvette with a wild paint job and a 240Z as well. The FRC guys wrapped up the parts in my blankets for the drive home.

I got home and immediately unwrapped the parts to check color compared with the car's color.

The parts look great. I paid for FRC to polish the paint and it looks great!

Here I am mid install. The fender was the biggest pain in the butt. I fought with it fitting right until I realized that I hadn't made sure the bracket that hangs over a stud from the inside of the passenger door was properly installed. Once I did that, it went right together. 

Here I am getting the bumper mounted. I got it in place, connected the lights and started to get it in place.

Installing the upper and lower grilles was pretty straight forward. They just snap into place. There were a couple of broken clips, but there was plenty left to mount them securely.

I had applied some painters tape in this corner because the side skirt was wanting to rub up against it. Unfortunately, as you can see, when I pulled the tape off to finish mounting the side skirt to it, well, it pulled paint off. :( I'm so bummed! I'm worried what this means for the rest of the parts. Luckily, the tape I applied to the surround the antenna did not have the same outcome. Phew! Disaster avoided! Luckily for me, the side skirt covers this spot. Ugh! 

You can't even see it!

Outside view of the new front bumper. The benefit of the Vapor Silver Metallic is that in light, every angle of the body changes color and brightness. So, this helps blend in the colors. 

And the side view of the new fender. I haven't put the "GT" badge on yet. I need to remove it from the original fender first. A project for another weekend. I still need to install the rear bumper too. 

You can see a slight difference in the color from this view. It's pretty close though and nice to have no dent!

I still have the front lip to re-install and the "Hechtspeed" black painted fiberglass canards that Brent made. They are his original canards he made a few years ago. He has since made new ones for his own car that I think are slightly revised in shape. 

Until next time...

Shelby Cobra!

This Shelby Cobra replica was spotted at the local Bountiful, Utah Car Show a couple of years ago. I remember when I first spotted it. It left a big impression. The color is gorgeous! The shape of this car is beautiful! 

I knew it looked slightly different than the standard Shelby Cobra 427. After doing some research online, I'm pretty sure this is the FIA 289 version of the Cobra. To get a good explanation of the 289 vs 427, check out this link from ERAREPLICAS website.

Some of the tell-tale signs to look for are the front radiator and oil cooler scoops, side pipes (or lack there of), both front and rear fender shapes, Driver side roll bar and taillights and molded in hood scoop (as opposed to the 427's riveted scoop). Geez, after reviewing the ERA Replicas website page, the differences really stand out now. haha 

Even the gauge layout in the dash is different and seen from this angle here. Notice as well the trunk shape. That is to allow the "suitcase" which was part of the regulations of the race class. It actually would work well to add a little flat angled rear spoiler. ;)

"JOY RDE", what a perfect license plate!!! I love it!

The FIA 289 car is more sleek looking to me! If I were to build a Factory Five Racing Cobra, it would probably have to be the 289 variant. What I can find is that this light blue color is Viking Blue (Viking Blue code "E", Ford Alphanumeric M1448, PPG 12494) according to what looks to be the same exact color on a Factory Five Forum post. 

I did get to see the owner drive it away later that day. It was an older gentleman and his wife and it sounded stout and just looked killer driving away! 

I will be very honest, while building a Factory Five Cobra kit car is very much doable (cost and skill), I don't think I could do it because of the convertible, open top design of the car. It seems very dangerous, especially knowing this car can go very fast. I'm sure the roll bar will do its job, but I don't trust the windscreen and being tall, that combination does not go well in my mind in a roll over crash. I know you can buy bolt on hard tops, but that's not going to do enough in a crash. The obvious solution to this problem is.....

The 1965 Shelby Cobra Dayton Coupe!!! A quick search online brings up this beautiful example being sold by Hillbank USA for $170k in what appears to be the same Viking Blue! This car is stunning!

To quote Rosita the Tiki-Room bird, "Your profile is out of this world!" haha Just look at it! You can easily pick out the Shelby Cobra body lines. I love the additional features that the Daytona Coupe brings, the more aerodynamic nose, the roof line and big spoiler...

The Kammback rear end design was one of the key aerodynamic features of the car that improve high speed stability. Apparently Pete Brock and company scrounged up some old german aerodynamacist theories and applied it to the Shelby Cobra and boom, the prototype Cobra Coupe went 3.5 seconds faster than the previous track record set by a Cobra at Riverside. 

Photo credit: Hillbank

The Daytona Coupe is a beautiful car and Factory Five Racing just so happens to sell a kit. FFR is now on their Mark 3 version of the Coupe and this latest model increased interior room for us tall guys! 

The other obvious answer to the open top issues of a Cobra is the GT40! While we're loving on Shelby today, this green GT40 from SuperFormance and Lemanscoupes.com is one of my favorite!

A couple key points on building a replica GT40. Its considerably more expensive to do than a Cobra and Daytona Coupe. Factory Five Racing does not (yet?) offer a GT40 kit, so you have to go through the small number of other kit builders, SuperFormance, CAV or RCR. The other issue is the mid engine transaxle. There just aren't many options and the options that do exist are very expensive nowadays. Hence, I do lean towards the Daytona Coupe as the most likely option for me personally. I think a Daytona Coupe in this light green would be a killer combo! A boy can dream!

Photo credit: Lemanscoupes.com