My Outlaw Speedster is now live Bring A Trailer, check it out and comments are appreciated ! Note: The heads are not CB Performance Comp Eliminator but are, Strert Eliminator heads. I've requested that correction ..
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Lots of well earned support in the comments section on BaT. GLWTA, buddy!
@Alan Merklin posted:My Outlaw Speedster is now live Bring A Trailer, check it out and comments are appreciated !
@Alan Merklin happy selling. Hope it gets to 80k plus 👍. Beautiful car.
Very nice car and write up on BAT. Hope it brings in a super nice price to match all the work and extras you put into the car.
I’m going to give it a day or so before I weigh in so it doesn’t seem like the forum is shilling for you.
GLWA Alan. Like I posted previously, I’d give a kidney for this one of a kind car, despite not being thrilled about the colors* or the polished wheels.
* Nothing at all wrong with the colors. They’re excellent and very elegant. I’m just more of a light (Aetna blue, Ivory, pale yellow) with dark (red, blue, green, brown) kind of a guy wrt Speedsters.
@calmotion posted:@Alan Merklin happy selling. Hope it gets to 80k plus 👍. Beautiful car.
Heavy on the plus bit. I doubt you could get any of the established builders to touch this for $80K. AFAIK, cost on the chassis has to be ~ $20K. That’s before you put it together.
Given that it's already at $40k I'm predicting $75-85k, but my luck predicting the BaT market is demonstrably poor. I tried to comment earlier but couldn't remember my BaT password so I'll try again tomorrow following @dlearl476's logic about not wanting to appear like a shill.
Best of Luck on the Sale of the Speedster Alan!!! She’s Beautiful!!!
From PapaSpeedster
GLWTA!
GLWTS for sure... beautiful, hope whoever buys it realizes just how custom this is and you get rewarded well for your work Al .
Since we're speculating here, I'll play - I'm going to guess hammer at 63-68k.
Reason being that I think theres a very small group of die hard enthusiasts who actually understand why this build is considered top notch. The vast majority of people will have no idea. The majority of people who are bidding on these things on BaT will think this is somewhat similar to a VMC only in terms of general spec and low miles. The fact that it ISNT a VMC is only going to hurt its value. If you look at auction results, everything over 70k in the last 3 years has been a VMC.
In order to fetch 70k+, the ideal buyer for this car is someone who is already on this forum and owns an older FF/CMC and wants an upgrade to something that was built to a specific spec. However, anyone who falls into this category isn't dumb enough to bid on BaT against first time owners with deep pockets.
Regardless, its a beautiful car and the build looks solid. Wishing you a good hammer price!
I have a friend since Junior High who has worked his ass off for over 40 years and done very well in life. He sold his businesses a little over a year ago and is flush with hard-earned cash.
He bought a very custom, 1940 Studebaker Pickup truck (off of BaT) because he liked the workmanship and paint (which I would describe as psychedelic, but it is a show car, after all).
He later bought a '33 Ford Gasser 1/4 mile racer (off of BaT) because he liked the heritage (It was a New England top award car five years in a row at New England Dragway back in the 1970-1980's - It is also not street legal) mostly because he admires the workmanship that went into it and the builder is no longer with us.
He calls me up and tells me to ride on over to his garage to see his newest BaT treasure - A Boyd Coddington built 1932 Ford Roadster. A little research tells me that Boyd won the Grand National Roadster Show with one of these and then promptly started making "Boyd-Ster" clones to sell. It is truly a beautiful car, as beautiful to look at (and admire the workmanship) as a well done Speedster.
Can Dave work on any of these cars? No. He is strictly a gas and oil-change guy with a lift for convenience and trailer to shows. He doesn't understand what went in to building his cars, just that everything looks "professionally done" and from his business of making advertising signs for people for over 40 years, he knows good workmanship when he sees it.
He has always wished to be more like me and Hot Rod Ron, our mutual friend, because we know how to work on cars and he's afraid he'll somehow screw something up and then, what's-he-gonna-do? So he buys things he admires, keeps them in pristine shape for a while and then re-sells them, usually for a small profit, but he isn't in it for the money. He just admires beautiful things and has the resources to buy and admire them for a while.
THAT is what a lot of buyers on BaT are like. BaT just makes it easy for them to buy and sell.
@Gordon Nichols posted:I have a friend since Junior High who has worked his ass off for over 40 years and done very well in life. He sold his businesses a little over a year ago and is flush with hard-earned cash.
He bought a very custom, 1940 Studebaker Pickup truck (off of BaT) because he liked the workmanship and paint (which I would describe as psychedelic, but it is a show car, after all).
He later bought a '33 Ford Gasser 1/4 mile racer (off of BaT) because he liked the heritage (It was a New England top award car five years in a row at New England Dragway back in the 1970-1980's - It is also not street legal) mostly because he admires the workmanship that went into it and the builder is no longer with us.
He calls me up and tells me to ride on over to his garage to see his newest BaT treasure - A Boyd Coddington built 1932 Ford Roadster. A little research tells me that Boyd won the Grand National Roadster Show with one of these and then promptly started making "Boyd-Ster" clones to sell. It is truly a beautiful car, as beautiful to look at (and admire the workmanship) as a well done Speedster.
Can Dave work on any of these cars? No. He is strictly a gas and oil-change guy with a lift for convenience and trailer to shows. He doesn't understand what went in to building his cars, just that everything looks "professionally done" and from his business of making advertising signs for people for over 40 years, he knows good workmanship when he sees it.
He has always wished to be more like me and Hot Rod Ron, our mutual friend, because we know how to work on cars and he's afraid he'll somehow screw something up and then, what's-he-gonna-do? So he buys things he admires, keeps them in pristine shape for a while and then re-sells them, usually for a small profit, but he isn't in it for the money. He just admires beautiful things and has the resources to buy and admire them for a while.
THAT is what a lot of buyers on BaT are like. BaT just makes it easy for them to buy and sell.
Talk him to buying Alan’s Speedster so he can be just like you. Explain that it’s one in 10,000 Speedster and the guys he’ll be bidding against don’t have the inside story on how special it is.
I am astonished with all the comments both here and on BaT, I am hesitant to think there are many on BaT that can appreciate the chassis etc. My thoughts are that it will be a struggle to reach into those high numbers mentioned but maybe I'll be wrong.... Unfortunately there is no valid tag or Insurance on it so the road test miles are few but handles like it's on a rail and it is extremely quick. Funny that Connie and I did a quick trip in the neighborhood and tried to video running through the gears and between 2nd and 3rd is when she got shoved against the seat and the phone went flying ~ https://www.facebook.com/12510...eos/948995562997444/
@dlearl476 posted:Talk him to buying Alan’s Speedster so he can be just like you. Explain that it’s one in 10,000 Speedster and the guys he’ll be bidding against don’t have the inside story on how special it is.
I would bet that someone like Gordon's friend would be better suited with a real 356 speedster, restored by Willhoit or the likes. Every 356 owner I know loves to listen and tell a good story. The best story I can come up with for my VMC was that I learned how to drive a manual in it. 
As someone who currently owns a VMC, I look at Alan's build and can appreciate how much better handling his car would be. I push mine as hard as I can on the twisties, but it just doesn't handle that well. (gt3 is the other summer daily). If I reflect back on before owning a pan based replica, I would have no idea why Alan's build is far superior to anything that comes out of VMC/Beck/etc. etc
I think Alan should post info on why his suspension is above the standard VM
I would put Alan's car on par with the new Beck chassis.
I would honestly put the suspension under Alan’s Speedster on a par with @cwazy1’s GT3, and at less than half the weight of the GT3 It should accelerate and handle like a rocket.
@IaM-Ray posted:I think Alan should post info on why his suspension is above the standard VM
I'm certainly not an engineer but the VW based speedster suspension works very well as originally designed. Then there is the Mendeola engineered tubular A - arm & trailing arm design with adjustable coil-overs Kafer bars, sway bars along with R & P steering ...it's just two very distinct designs. The couple of short drives, I wanted to push it to the max on it but went conservative leaving that task to the new owner.
@Gordon Nichols posted:I would honestly put the suspension under Alan’s Speedster on a par with @cwazy1’s GT3, and at less than half the weight of the GT3 It should accelerate and handle like a rocket.
Like a 992 GT3? What?
@Lane Anderson posted:I would put Alan's car on par with the new Beck chassis.
So would I.
My Outlaw on Bring a Trailer auction ends Thursday afternoon ! Bidding just went to $50k The reserve is less than what you could build this one of a kind Speedster Outlaw ! https://bringatrailer.com/listing/porsche-356-speedster/
Drive video https://www.facebook.com/10000...eos/891012632652784/
https://bringatrailer.com/list...replica-by-fiberfab/
Alan here is one for you to buy with Roll up windows ... priced right @Alan Merklin
@Stan Galat 20 mins and counting on bat
Ok , any reason the Convertible D did not do well , even when it sold a year ago it only sold in the low 30s…..
@IaM-Ray posted:https://bringatrailer.com/list...replica-by-fiberfab/
Alan here is one for you to buy with Roll up windows ... priced right @Alan Merklin
@Stan Galat 20 mins and counting on bat
Ray... The car is a roach, needs of work, the drive video sounds like it is well past due for a clutch and sounds like it is on it's last miles.
@IaM-Ray posted:@Stan Galat 20 mins and counting on bat
I'm lost. There's 2 days left on the auction...
Stan:
I think Ray was referencing the red fiberfab auction that ended with a no sale.
@Panhandle Bob posted:Stan:
I think Ray was referencing the red fiberfab auction that ended with a no sale.
Yes sorry I was. I had no info on the car except I like the roll up windows
I do not spend any time on BAt
Outlaw Speedster short drive video on a narrow mountain road, to use this road as I just hung my pick up truck tag on it and off I went. carbs are dialed in and runs smooth, the clicks you may hear the phone not taped tight against the windshield. https://www.facebook.com/10000...eos/891012632652784/
Alan, FYI - the link says the video is no longer available.
@MusbJim posted:Alan, FYI - the link says the video is no longer available.
Try this ... (4) Facebook
Link still doesn't work and it also doesn't work on BAT
@Alan Merklin posted:Outlaw Speedster short drive video on a narrow mountain road, to use this road as I just hung my pick up truck tag on it and off I went. carbs are dialed in and runs smooth, the clicks you may hear the phone not taped tight against the windshield. https://www.facebook.com/10000...eos/891012632652784/
Alan, FWIW, driving a vehicle with a false tag on it is 10X as illegal as driving one without. Felony vs misdemeanor in some jurisdictions. But the really serious offense is driving w/o insurance. As long as it’s insured you’re relatively good. In NYS, driving w/o insurance is an impoundable offense.
ps: Same here on the video.
Awwwww.... Shoot.
Alan's done a LOT worse things in his 70+ years.
Me, too.
@Alan Merklin - try a YouTube link.
@Gordon Nichols posted:Awwwww.... Shoot.
Alan's done a LOT worse things in his 70+ years.
Me, too.
Me, too. My Monster still has the 4/99 tags on it. (The mo/yr it was manufactured) I keep the current ones in my wallet. But at least it’s registered to that bike.
Alan - in case you don't know, the Facebook link you added in a comment on BAT doesn't seem to work. I just tried it and got a message that says the video is no longer available. If you have a peppy driving video I sure hope you can figure out how to allow people to see it before your auction ends in 19 hours. Jon
50 minutes to go. Still at $50k. Driving vid link still ng. This car ought to go mid 60s at least.
Waiting for last 10 minutes - clearly $65k car.