I saw this 359 for sale on Ebay and have always disliked the body style of this car and still do but this one appears to very well built and I am finding it hard to hate. Do I want it, Heck no, but I thought I would share this with you.
1980 Volkswagen Kit car Replica Other Makes Speedster 356 359 959 CMC Roadster | eBay
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LoL I get the same feeling towards this particular car/build.
With all that grill room up front, this would be perfect for a suby out back.
I would back the front grill openings with a black mesh to keep from being able to see through the front of the car if you understand what I am saying.
i agree with all you guys on this one. Looks like a very careful and well done build. Interesting mirrors. Wouldn't buy it though.
Nope...no tingling going up my leg......
I never liked this style but someone put lipstick on a pig and it works & has some eye appeal. Kinda like riding a moped , it's sorta ok as long as no one finds out :~)
Purely on the car as a design, I'm sure there are those like it. The 15 year old me would have probably been on board.. now, this falls under the category of "just because you can, doesn't mean you should."
option 1: More effort into the car's performance would be required for this much 'swoopiness" (is that a word) in the body. - full double wishbone front end, more windshield and weather protection, MORE motor and probably a stronger chassis would be starting points to improve it. (again not directed at this build, just the car in general)
option 2: just get a Boxter
Current bid is at $15,100......the seller should take it and run ~
It is...kind of...interesting...but no.
The work somebody put in this car is staggering. In addition, when the builder turned on the money gun, he let it spray continuously for weeks. Unless he's an upholstery guy, there are many thousands of dollars just in the interior.
The paint is black and deep and flawless. It's amazing paint.
Wheel selection is spot on. The badging is cool. The black windshield frame even works.
So what lets this thing down so badly? Why does it look like "KIT" (aptly named) from Night Rider?
For one - the fender behind the rear wheel is hanging in space. It doesn't roll under the car to give the illusion of tying back into something (as on a Speedster), it actually flares out, looking like a flying buttress behind the wheel. The big world is easily seen from pretty much every angle.
... then there is the slotted front end, making it clearly visible that there is nothing behind it. At the right angle, I'll bet you can see clear through to the beam, which is about 3 ft behind the nose of this thing.
Which is the main problem for me. The overhangs on these cars are enormous. A Speedster has a wheelbase on the order of 10"-11" shorter than a Beetle, and this is built on that same pan. It looks to me like the design should have kept the stock wheelbase, and made the body about the same length. If they had, the overhangs would be about right.
Final grade? Like everybody else here: A for effort, D- for desirability. If the builder had put this much time, effort, and money into a Speedster replica, he'd get $50K for it. As it sits... probably way less than half that.
I agree with everything Stan has said above. I had mentioned earlier about how I would install some type of decorative mesh or grille work behind the openings on the front of the car. It would do wonders to make the car appear more solid and not wide open under the front. The work done to this car is amazing and appears high quality. It has potential for sure, although it is ruined for all of us "Speedster Guys" who have grown to think of the 359 as the ugliest of all ducklings.
@Stan Galat The 359 actually has a unique wheelbase, not quite 83" Speedster but also not 94.5" stock Bug. It's somewhere in between. But totally agree about excessive overhangs. A lot of today's cars have SUPER short overhangs. The 359 is unfortunately designed.
It looks like the front grille was cut out to reveal openings. Suspect the mold was solid there. I recall reading that the pan was only cut 5". The engine compartment is huge - just waiting for an H6 Subaru engine!
The 959's wheelbase was reportedly 89.4 inches. So cutting 5 inches out of a Bug pan would be spot-on.
As for the overhangs of the 959 vs the 359:
The kit car looks a little shorter.
@edsnova posted:The 959's wheelbase was reportedly 89.4 inches. So cutting 5 inches out of a Bug pan would be spot-on.
As for the overhangs of the 959 vs the 359:
The kit car looks a little shorter.
I wondered if somebody would bring up a 959's overhangs.
I'm glad you did, Ed - because this gives me the chance to rag on a $1.6M car I'm supposed to love, but never did. I know when it came out. I know how important it was. I know all the reasons I'm supposed to love it, but I just can't get past the fact that it looks like a 1985 Jr. High-School boy's sketch of a "cool" 911.
It could very well be the ugliest car Porsche ever made, and that includes the 968.
Even silver/black can't save it.
fwiw the overhangs did get pretty ridiculous in the 1980s. Front ones in particular.
It was a stupid time.
@Stan Galat posted:I wondered if somebody would bring up a 959's overhangs.
I'm glad you did, Ed - because this gives me the chance to rag on a $1.6M car I'm supposed to love, but never did. I know when it came out. I know how important it was. I know all the reasons I'm supposed to love it, but I just can't get past the fact that it looks like a 1985 Jr. High-School boy's sketch of a "cool" 911.
It could very well be the ugliest car Porsche ever made, and that includes the 968.
Even silver/black can't save it.
I feel attacked and need a safe space. I was just on Facebook Marketplace looking at 968 Porsches. LOL. I feel the same as you do about the 959
I like 968s.
@Derrek Johnson posted:I feel attacked and need a safe space. I was just on Facebook Marketplace looking at 968 Porsches. LOL. I feel the same as you do about the 959
@Michael McKelvey posted:I like 968s.
It was a slip of the finger, gentlemen. I meant to type 928, not 968.
This is the world's most expensive AMC Pacer, and what I was talking about:
My apologies, especially to @dlearl476.
I just took another look at the Pacer. It might look better than the 928.
@Stan Galat posted:It was a slip of the finger, gentlemen. I meant to type 928, not 968.
This is the world's most expensive AMC Pacer, and what I was talking about:
My apologies, especially to @dlearl476.
LOL. Accepted. “Eye of the beholder” and all that. IMO, the 968 Cab is only topped by the 550 in the Porsche convertible looks dept.
I was thinking about dropping the top and taking it out, but 8 think I’ll wait until we get one more big rain storm there’s still piles of salt everywhere. (Today is the first 60°< day this year)
The 928 is indeed a strange bird, same with the 924. I hated them for decades but I’ve been thinking lately a $2500-$3,000 924 would make a great beater car. Along the lines of an early 320
I kind of like the looks of the 924 better than the 944.
They are not my favourite at all and they are a mix of tech with couterbalancing shafts etc ... etc. The later models are better but hey not for me.
@dlearl476 posted:LOL. Accepted. “Eye of the beholder” and all that. IMO, the 968 Cab is only topped by the 550 in the Porsche convertible looks dept.
Regarding the all-time best looking Porsche drop-tops, I humbly submit the 2016 Boxster Spyder
@Michael McKelvey posted:I kind of like the looks of the 924 better than the 944.
I do, too. I looked at a 924S with 45,000 miles on it last year but it had an automatic. Pre even Tipronic automatic. IOW, an old school Sportsmatic.
@IaM-Ray posted:
A recent meeting of the Morton, Illinois town planing board?
@JMM (Michael) posted:A recent meeting of the Morton, Illinois town planing board?
Pffft - all that is yesterday's news, Michael.
The town saw the solid logic of my position
... after I hired a lawyer. And bought a 5 ft strip of my neighbor's backyard. And tore out a freshly poured patio. And hauled off all the rubble.
My fence permit was granted, just as the weather turned, the frost went into the ground, and I couldn't do anything more on it for the year. Then I tried to get a knee. Then I tried to get a knee again. Then I got a knee. Then I got another knee. Then winter ended.
Now, the weather is absolutely perfect for fence building, but I'm hobbling around like a pirate with a peg-leg. It'll be a month or more before I'm fit for fencing, and then I'll need to go to work.
I'm just waiting for the village inspector to be by to tell me my permit has expired since it's only good for 90 days.
Yessir, the logic of my position is rock solid.
@Stan Galat the funny parts start right after the humbly quote and then they complaint that there is no electricity caused by the incompetence of one tribal clan's issues. Having just had 3 days of no power I thought what is all the hullabaloo to have everything run on electric power and yet we don't even have the infrastructure that can sustain a small freezing rain storm...
@Stan Galat posted:Regarding the all-time best looking Porsche drop-tops, I humbly submit the 2016 Boxster Spyder
I'll take it in white. I prefer the earlier version(was it 2010 or 2012 maybe?). The earlier car is lighter and a bit more raw, just like the OG Spyders were.
