Now that it's almost time for the last Classics & Coffee of the year on Sunday. October 27, we're finally getting around to reviewing September's gathering. There were lots of old friends and increasingly familiar old cars, a sign that the event now has lots of regulars...
...including this Bugeye Sprite heading up a row of Austin-Healeys.
Big Healeys were represented by a 100-6 with graceful body design by Gerry Coker, who also designed the Bugeye. By the time the Bugeye appeared in 1958, Coker was surprised to see that BMC had deleted his retractable headlights as a cost-cutting measure that, ironically, gave the car its character and name. By the time the less curvy Sprites like the red car above appeared in 1961, Coker had been working in America for 3 years.
This black Ferrari 355 is a reminder of what a loss it is that Pininfarina no longer designs or builds car bodies, A mid-engined V8, it offered cleaner detailing than the previous 348 and was built from 1994 to 1999.
Familiar faces include now-vintage BMW 3-Series, Alfa GTV6, Karmann Ghia VW, and a pagoda-roof Mercedes SL without its famous concave-surface hardtop in place.
Another familiar face from my neighborhood is this metallic yellow Alfa Romeo Type 916, a front-drive roadster never officially imported into the USA. Featured in more depth in a previous post, the Pininfarina design was built in coupe and open forms, and the 916 series was offered from 1993 to 2004.
A row of Brits includes the '76 Lotus Spring in the foreground, a Triumph Spitfire with Honda S2000 engine , a Triumph TR4A in white, and a yellow TR6. The Lotus and Spitfire have been featured in earlier posts, but it's worth noting that the Lotus Type 907 engine was a pioneer of the 4-valves per cylinder twin-cam four in the US, and notable for making 140 to 160 hp from 2 liters. Nearly a third of a century later, Honda's S2000 engine with 4 valves per cylinder could make 120 hp for each of its 2 liters.
A De Tomaso Pantera is a less-familiar visitor. The black car with gold wheels is a reminder that Lincoln Mercury dealers sold a mid-engined V8 with Italian bodywork (designed by American architect Tom Tjaarda for Ghia) from 1971-'74. It's parked next to a red Ferrari Testarossa...
There were plenty of air-cooled Porsche 911s, but none pleased this writer as much as the 993 below. Last of the air-cooled Porsches, the 993 was offered from January 1994 to early 1998, which has always seemed like a short run, considering that it smoothed out the visual hiccups in the original, like headlights that were neither vertical nor contoured into the fenders (see above), and finally integrated the 5-mph bumpers into the fenders and nose, avoiding the clunky look of 911 bumpers that arrived to meet US standards in 1974, and stayed until they were smoothed out a bit on the 964 in '89. Another thing Porsche changed on the 993 was the Targa version, which substituted a smooth, coupe-like roof form with sliding glass roof for the visual interruption of the anodized B-pillar / roll-bar featured from 1965. This coupe specimen has an especially fetching form because it doesn't have the "wide body" option which involved increased rear track. It's parked next to a Lancia Delta Integrale HF that we'd also like in our fantasy garage...
The other Porsche that attracted our attention was an early 912. Well, sort of. Designated a 912 Super, nothing like it was ever offered by Porsche. It has a special 4-cylinder, twin-plug, 2.4 liter version of the air-cooled SOHC 911 engine designed and built by Dean Polopolus of Polo Motors in Temecula, CA. The idea is to have 911 performance with handling more akin to the original 912, because the Polo engine weighs 100 lb. less than a 2.4 liter 911. The original weight difference between a standard 912 and 911 engine was 120 lb.
In addition to this engine, the Polo 912 has a number of other design tweaks to denote It's a special car, including the custom engine vent grille, 912 Super insignia, and flush-contoured license plate panel, and the piece de resistance, the "NO911NV" license plate. At the front, you can barely see the specially contoured vent grilles next to the parking lights.
The label on the fan shroud tells the story of the Polo engine, which has been made in sizes from 1.5 to 2.4 liters. As the engine alone costs around $30k, we wondered if an easier way to achieve more balanced handling in an air-cooled Porsche would be to simply find a nice example of the mid-engined 914-6, with near 50/50 balance. Admittedly, you'd need to get used to the humorless, boxy styling of the 914, but then again, you're inside looking out when you're flinging a Porsche around a twisty 2-lane...
Another approach that occurred to us had appeared at a Classics & Coffee last year. Farland Classic Restoration in Englewood, CO converted a similar short wheelbase (87") 912 to a full electric power offering about 100 miles of range in normal driving. One goal of the conversion was to avoid making structural changes, like cutting into the floor platform. As a result, as with Jaguar's prototype electric E-type conversion*, one could theoretically convert the car back to IC power. But that's hard to imagine, as the 912 EV offers much better acceleration than the original along with better balance. Also, you can keep shifting gears if you like. Unlike many EVs, the 912 conversion* uses the original 4-speed transaxle. 912s were also offered with 5 speeds.
Farland quoted a price of $45,000 for converting a 912 (or 911) like this one. That's more than the roughly $30,000 you'd pay to buy a Polo engine for a 912. But to make a fair comparison, the yellow Polo 912 features other impressive (and expensive) mods, and in either case you'd need to pay for a 912 to serve as your project base. And two features of the Farland 912 EV jump out as advantages. First, instead of just removing 100 pounds from the rearward weight bias, it changes the whole weight distribution from something like 40% front / 60% rear to the ideal 50/50. Secondly, with the Farland approach you'll never need to stop at a gas station except to air the tires, clean the windshield or buy a chocolate bar...
*Footnote:
The Porsche 912 EV was featured in our post for July 31, 2023. Other classic conversions to electric power, including some Porsches and that Jaguar E-Type, are reviewed in "Classic Cars Go Electric", posted here on July 31, 2021.
Photo Credits:
All photos are by the author.
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