Not mine. You either like or hate the FF/CMC 959 replica. There were under 300 produced at $14k per kit. This one in Bonxville NY is 1 running one. Looks like it just needs new carpeting. Looks like great price for a clean build.
TheSamba.com :: VW Classifieds - Porsche 359
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It's a 359. Not a 959.
I get a tad queasy when I see these things~
Gramma' always said, "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all".
So, in that vein:
I like the dual grills on the engine deck-lid. It's functional without pretense.
I gotta say, I don’t hate them. (And I’ve never been a real big fan* of regular wide bodies.)
I think one dropped on one of Carey’s GTS/SC frames, or that sweet one with the Mendeola f/r suspension bits, a 300-400hp 911 motor or, for that matter an LS, and a set of properly wide and offset BBS Turbofan wheels would make for a pretty sweet ride.
You could make a sweet Auto X-er of track day toy out of one.
*The more time i spend here with all the nice ones posted, the more I’m liking them. I’d never own one, but I think they’re ok. OTOH, I’d own a 359 described above in a heartbeat.
I just don't understand those personally; they SCREAM kit car to me.
This is a kit car forum....
Ed, of course you are correct.
The 359 holds the same appeal to me as a Perry D Spyder.
NONE! Zero, zilch, nada!
Yup.
359 
Other than the convertible top, the styling is right on to the 959 (which was a fast BUT not pretty car). I can't tell the wheels on this 359 but the look like the gold basket weave BBS style.
Hey Greg, why don't you buy it and build it up, since you seem to have so much love for this ugly duckling?
Trying to convince my Bro in Barnegat NJ to pick it up. He doesn't like the rear end. Said if it didn't "grow" on him (your thinking like a wart I bet!), I'd pick it up on next trip to Carlisle! Roll bar and big T4 ...
Like I need another project! I looked at a '48 Ford 600 Jubilee tractor the other day --- and actually walked away from it (it even ran too).
Oooo……. Wouldn’t that re-start his 30 year completion clock?
It's well past 30 years isn't it?
Greg, just FINISH your Speedster!
My friend Walter used to say: "you've got too many pans in the fire". Pick one(the one you already have) and finish that one. Then start another meal. But not before finishing the first one.
Abomination on wheels
I wonder if it has propellers under the back. Remember those?
The 359 doesn't do much for me, maybe because I never really saw the appeal of the 959, nor gold chains, popped collars and Members Only jackets. But a fun and interesting car could be made from this kit by way of an IRS rear, a turbo Subie and a five speed.
Two-point-five liters of four-cam STi boosted and tuned properly would give the period-correct(ish) 400+ horses. You'd want to cage it, of course. Big sway bars, big brakes, BBS 16s and wide sticky rubber.
Re-design the dash to look '80s Porsche and fill it up with 944 turbo gauges. Paint it guards red with matte black accents and gold trim (as one did) and you'd have a fair rival for the jet black McBurnie Daytona that would somehow inevitably find you cruising down that dark two lane one fateful Summer Friday night.
Strap up and strap in, boys: last one to the boat yard gives up a brick of Tony Colombo's finest.
@Gordon Nichols posted:Oooo……. Wouldn’t that re-start his 30 year completion clock?
Wolfgang Greg buddy....there is light at the end of the tunnel, Connie and I are driving the BMW to Florida ...West Palm Beach, North Port,The Villages Trenton. February 19th and heading back to WV March 15th !
Well, it did make the top 5 list all time loved Porsche inspired cars of the PCA…..
Great list. Laser 917 probably the ugliest at least in color combo used. Gulf livery colors are only way to go!
I would have added the Porsche 914 based 904 replica - this is the worse of those!
Here's a nicer looking 904 replica on a 914 donor -
More Ferrari looking from the back!
That's actually a Dino replica.
BUT it has Porsche all over it? Guess owner was confused.
These are confusing times, identity-wise LOL!
It identifies as a Porsche because under the Fauxrrari skin is a Porsche.
@WOLFGANG posted:I would have added the Porsche 914 based 904 replica - this is the worse of those!
Help me out here, Greg. You like the 359s enough to post every single one you see for sale, but you don't like the car pictured above.
Curious.
Guess I like the 917 and 959 just because they are legends. As replicas they are rare and interesting. You won't see another on road or at car shows. Being ugly ducklings they seem reasonably priced. (I got burnt buying an MG-C (6 cylinder rare car) - so you think I'd learn - it was daily driver and very British (unreliable) and never appreciated over repair costs). I didn't realize the red PORSCHE marked replica was really a Ferrari replica until I looked at classic rear Ferrari taillights. The 914 904 replica is ok looking but kit car is evident - while on the Porshe-Ferrari isn't until you look at unaltered 914 interior (which isn't bad but not Ferrari).
If the 359 were within 400 miles of me - I'd buy it! As Branum-Bailey said - there is a sucker born every minute - so maybe it would increase in value/rarity. That said (at my age), it might just be part of kid's inheritance!
@WOLFGANG posted:If the 359 were within 400 miles of me - I'd buy it! As Barnum-Bailey said - there is a sucker born every minute - so maybe it would increase in value/rarity. That said (at my age), it might just be part of kid's inheritance!
I got a big laugh at that, Greg! It took me back to cleaning out all of my father's treasures 
I'm sure I'll leave some head-scratchers for my son, too.
It's interesting what got made as kits and what did not. The O.S.C.A. MT-4, for example, was a simple and beautiful little shape and was a "giant killer" before Porsche unveiled the 550. The O.S.C.A. weighed mid 1300s and reportedly made 130 hp at 6200 RPM out of 1500ccs' displacement. Lots of races won (most notably Sebring in '54), lots of iconic drivers and owners (Sir Stirling; Briggs Cunningham, etc.). Very few made as they cost something like $10,000 new (compared to about $7,500 for a 550RS).
Oh yeah...and the brothers who made them? Their last names were Maserati.
Just eyeing this thing it's hard to see why you couldn't pop a mold off it and fiddle it up so that could be made to work with an old Datsun chassis, or even scratch-make something redolent that would fit a Midget (which has a shorter wheelbase) or an MGB (six inches longer). But afaik it's never been done.
Guys, if there were something that looked a lot like this that could be grafted over the ground-down remains of an old Miata without requiring an engineering Ph.D and/or yacht money, what would you think?
Ed - Check out Simsondesign.net
The just prior NC Miata model seems to be most used (it's a little bigger than older NA/NB models - including the latest ND. A beautiful Aston Martin DB4, Ferrari inspired Italia, and some more basic classic looking race cars like the Swift. No prices are given.
Also check out - Miata Based Kit Car Directory - Kit Car Directory (miatakitcar.com)
which has an MG TF listed and Lotus 7 look cars.
My guess is as mainstream automakers move away from ICE - these kits will become even more popular.
I know about Simpson. Cool guy. Cool projects. Not kits. I think the first couple Italias might have been but not since.
Here's your NA(?) when stripped of body and unibody cage. I think you'd have to lose the cage and re-make the edge structures out of tubing for an O.S.C.A. project to work.
Obviously this offers some flexibility in terms of wheelbase. I believe it's 3-4 inches longer than an O.S.C.A. was. No doubt it's at least that much wider. So best idea would be to leave it that length and make the tribute car a bit longer and wider than the original.
The Miata motor, by the way, is an O.S.C.A.'s spitting image:
It'd be down to building the suspension pickups and engineering—there's that word again—proper geometry, strength and dynamics. Two-inch square tube?
@edsnova, I think you're right. It's a match made in heaven. Now if they could just see a market in it.
Turns out the bodies on these cars—even the Morelli bodies—were all different, so you could totally just riff.
Framing in 2x2 box steel would be very stout as compared to the original conduit tubing the Italians used:
The small tube is probably why they were 1300 pounds with a watercooled inline-4.
I would think it would be fairly rigid until an impact, at which point it would crumple like a beer can.
@edsnova posted:
That's the money shot, right there ^.
It's actually spelled Moretti, and used a Gilco chassis at first, then modified Fiat 750running gear on later cars. Gilco used elliptical chassis rails which supported a thin tubular structure to support the aluminum body.
Update: Someone, apparently, is taking a crack at it.
Also, @molleur, Morelli made O.S.C.A. bodies. Moretti made other cars and motorcycles.
And beer……
