Fauxrrari - The Eagle has Landed

I debated starting this thread now as I have only a couple pics from yesterday, but this story needs to be shared and I suppose I can knock out my typical long-winded project intro post, even though I won't begin building until sometime after this year's Challenge.

Enabler #1 - Interesting Kit Car
Simple enough. 'Kit car' always conjures images of terribly proportioned bodies for Beetles and Fieros in my mind, with most trying too hard to be something they aren't(I don't associate cars from the likes of Factory Five as typical kit cars, FWIW). I clicked anyhow, flipped thru the ad, hit save, closed out FB, and went on about whatever I was doing elsewhere.

I did some digging and came back, or at least tried to, later. The targa roof caught my eye, but the ad was gone. I assumed the car had been snapped up by someone who knew already what I had only just discovered.

Eagle GT History
TL;DR - What we have here is a Ferrari 246-ish replica originally hung over a Porsche 914 tub. The particular car in question had a large amount of 914 removed due to rust, which has been replaced with a primarily square tube chassis.

I couldn't shake the want. By the time the ad came back up, I was full lizard brain. There were no thoughts about if I should; only actions and reactions. A bit of FB stalking, and I was able to make phone contact with the seller.
Enabler #2 - Patrick agreed to go scout the car as he was much closer than 6hrs away. Once he had confirmed the condition and some details from my previous phone conversation, a deposit was placed.
Enabler #3 - I enlisted one of my Challenge build partners, with a trailer and a flexible schedule, for a turn-and-burn to retrieve the car.
Enabler honorable mentions go to my boss for letting me rotate a day off on short notice, and a couple local friends who lent muscle to get heavy, non-wheeled things unloaded and into short term storage.
 

We rolled out shortly after 4am heading halfway across Indiana, crossing nearly the entire width of OH, almost to the PA border, and arriving about 9:45a to meet with the seller at his shop where the car was stored.
Have you ever run across an individual or a situation that is surreal enough to cause doubt in reality? The faded racing business sign on the front of the building harkened back to a different era. Stepping into this shop was like entering a twilight zone where time had stopped 35yrs earlier, except random bits of normal shop stuff were just...gone. The center run was dimly lit by the glow of old florescent lights; too high from the floor, with bulbs covered in decades of shop dust. The shadowy edges of the room contained ungotten round-to-its, and piles of debris filled the dark corners. Scattered locations where several large machines had been, stood barren, but the adjacent areas appeared completely untouched.
The seller came thru the building on a fork truck. Purposefully, though not gingerly by any means, using the machine to both lift junk and bulldoze a path to free the car from this prison, all the while apologizing that he hadn't handled this a day earlier. After checking to ensure the tack welds securing the car's frame to the stands were solid, the whole mess was lifted up to begin maneuvering toward the door. In this moment, the tow motor ran out of propane, of course.
While the tank was sent for a refill, we began sifting thru the piles and boxes of parts that went along with this project; staging them near the truck, to be loaded around the car once it was on the trailer. Despite a constant barrage of offers to sell us pieces of shop equipment, it didn't seem to take all that long getting loaded up and strapping everything down. We were back on the road home before 12:30p.

I have a nagging inclination that if I had returned to Youngstown today, I would find an empty lot where this shop stood. Like it never actually existed at all...

A couple hours outside Indy, I sent a distress signal to a couple guys who live close by. None of this stuff was on wheels and we needed help getting unloaded without a forklift!

After carefully working our way to this point, we were able to lift the front of the car just enough and drive the trailer out from underneath. With the car off the trailer, we used a combination of muscle, furniture dollies, and a sheet of OSB to inch the stands across the gravel into the garage. Getting it back to my shop behind the garage will be a situation for future me to handle.

https://www.automobilemag.com/news/15-forgotten-targa-top-cars-to-remember/

Very cool!

What are the plans for powertrain?

oh yes, loads of potential, as LS motors find their way into 914s often, there must be space to have fun in this. 

That is a surprisingly good looking kit car . . .

I didn't need to see this.....

Now im going to be lusting after old kit cars even more. 

Hell yeah. I don't suppose you could fit a cross-flow'd and turbo'd 200-6 in the back?..?

Moar Challenge fiberglass! This is a Challenge car right? That chassis jig setup on a flatbed is exactly how Paul delivered the Free Range Lotus to me.

That thing is pretty.

Once or twice in my life I've been in a shop like that. You feel as if you're on a movie set turned real life. Weird.

In reply to gumby :

Ok, I'm gonna make myself sad by asking this question, but how much was it?

Not a Challenge car. I love building on a budget, but am also comfortable with not every budget being $2k. Also also, tracking a Challenge budget on a bonkers build kinda sucks.

Shaun, you referring to the potential engine whose cylinder head has been locked up in machine shop jail for nearly 2yrs?
Don't think I haven't considered it, but even without a tape in my hand I am confident there isn't enough length available for that, plus a bellhousing adapter, plus a longitudinal transaxle. As things stand at the moment my automotive ADHD has divested interest in that project and I am approaching 200" liquidation status.

No transverse layouts are really speaking to me for this one. Pretty much anything longitudinally oriented is on the table.

• G50 plus Kennedy adapter and a SBF or LS
• A lesser Porsche transaxle and another Kennedy adapter to my 2.3T
• Subaru H6
• Several interesting Audi options

Despite a generally unproductive LM thread, I am still drawn to the Audi 4.2/01x idea. The timing belt 40v port injected variety seem to have quite a following in Audi circles. I have found a fair amount of 818 and gt40 kit discussions about them, and even one that was swapped into a Lotus Esprit.

Interesting that you're not considering transverse layouts yet. The original Dino that this kit is emulating had a transverse V6, which Ferrari shared with the Lancia Stratos, also transverse layout. I'm going to toss in the suggestion of Toyota 2GR V6 with E153 manual and whatever exhaust Lotus uses on the Evora for that proper supercar symphony. I've gone so far down that research rabbit hole and could talk you through it if interested.

gumby said:

After carefully working our way to this position we were able to lift the front of the car just enough and drive the trailer out from underneath. With the car off the trailer, we used a combination of muscle, furniture dollies, and a sheet of OSB to inch the stands across the gravel into the garage. Getting it back to my shop behind the garage will be a situation for future me to handle.

https://www.automobilemag.com/news/15-forgotten-targa-top-cars-to-remember/

I clicked the link hoping for some Eagle GT info, but stayed for the incredibly misinformed and false info. There's so much trope and so little reality in the blurbs on so many of those cars! Amazing. 

Anyway, this seems like a pretty neat project. One question: will you be badging and styling this as a Ferrari? That's my biggest struggle with kit cars: the poseur aspect. I'm not making any judgements here, it's an honest question. 

Mezzanine said:
One question: will you be badging and styling this as a Ferrari? That's my biggest struggle with kit cars: the poseur aspect. I'm not making any judgements here, it's an honest question. 

Same same. This is not a Ferrari and I have no desire to try to make it any closer to one than the general styling cues already insinuate.

The link to the Eagle GT history site contains a vast majority of the internet's Eagle GT knowledge, and a gallery of a few cars. Unfortunately all the links to full rez pics are broken.

Audi is a no brainer, as there is everything from diesel 4 pots, to V8s, via twin turbo v6s and 1.8Ts,  and there are a range of transaxles available that will handle most things you can throw at them

the O1x etc have a fair distance between the bellhousing and the driveshaft, but the OB series have the driveshaft right at the flywheel so  you can move the engine back for clearance



Some good info here

and Homebuilt by Jeff is currently fitting an Audi 4.2 in a boxster, so there#s lots of info there

Such a good looking little kit, unlike a lot of others from the time period.  The interesting thing is that since it Porsche based I almost thought it was supposed to be a 904 kit car instead of a Dino.  If you look at the shape of the front fenders/headlight scoops and the relative height of the roof to the body line it is almost as if they made a compromise between the two then added the door/fender air intake to make it more Dino like.   

Eagle GT:

904:

Dino:

In reply to SEADave :

Gumby should call it the Din04.

In reply to SEADave :
Ugh, the wheel fitment and stance of that Eagle GT example are atrocious. Common kit car malady. 

Let's try this one:

Classic picture of a picture, but it still fits your red theme.

That picture with the car on mesh wheels does look pretty good.  

Really cool project.  Watching with interest.

very excited about this project. 

Interesting, I'll be following as well.

In reply to gumby :

I knew it was a long shot, but I also know that sometimes you like to jam too-big ford lumps in small fiberglass kit cars. 

Oh boy here goes another one!

Awesome to see the purchase went through. Looks like fun!

gumby said:

In reply to SEADave :
Ugh, the wheel fitment and stance of that Eagle GT example are atrocious. Common kit car malady. 

Let's try this one:

Classic picture of a picture, but it still matches the red theme.

Wow, that's hawt. Good luck with the project. 

Moto build do a Singer style conversion on genuine Dinos

Jay Leno drives it here