When is a Porsche 959 not a Porsche 959? When it’s really a Karmann Ghia, that’s when! Before clicking through, we recommend protecting your keyboard from any materials that may spontaneously be ejected from your gullet upon viewing this abomination. Ordinary kitchen plastic wrap works great.
Totally a 444 HP 2.85 liter twin-turbo six, right?
Holy moley! Xenon lights and 18” custom wheels? Red paint that would make an exotic dancer’s lipstick blush? An open top so the air can waft through your scalp plugs? IT’S EXACTLY LIKE A PORSCHE 959!!! In fact, it’s better – no troublesome all-wheel drive, and a simplified non-turbo flat four for added fuel economy. Indeed, it does look like “a Million Bucks,” as per the ad.
Yup, coulda fooled me!
Likewise, the seller points out that “These kits take many hours to build and you need lots of money to invest. Why do all the work when you can buy this one all done.” We know that despite the lack of a “?” that last sentence was a pointed question – why would you do all the work yourself, indeed?
Far better to put a Porsche in a Karmann Ghia. http://www.bader-racing.de/en/home/home_news.htm
Well… it is 'cheap'…
The only problem is the poseur-ness of the car. It's just that it's trying to be something that it's not. It's not a bad looking car, and if the 959 had never existed, it would just be a nice looking body kit on a VW.
The wheels are a little too big, but they almost work, and I'd consider $5600 a fair price for an un-kitted Ghia in similar condition.
But at $5600, I would much rather have a real Ghia than a fake Porsche.
My hypocrisy shows when we talk about the 550. I would love to have a fake 550.
It's not really being a poseur though, when there are enough VW performance parts to make a VW perform like a 550, and you're not going to cause a ripple of heart attacks through PCA members if you decide to cane it a little. Likewise, this'd be less bad if they'd started with a stock '80's 911 and built from there.
Then again, I sort of like this, the same way I sort of like Fiero kit cars. It's a cool looking toy to play around with, and won't cost you much money. Nothing to be really proud of, but I can appreciate the idea.
You could probably make a pretty good 959 replica from a 993 Carrera 4. Throw a turbo or a supercharger on there, and it'd have the performance to match.
If you're going to Porschify a Karmann Ghia, then I suggest you follow the Equipe Dacon recipe. Take one Karmann Ghia, add fibreglass panels for lightness, uprate the brakes and steering to corner and stop better, add one 4-cam engine from a Porsche 904 to increase it hoon worthness, then hand the keys to the Fittipaldi brothers and stand back.
<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3375/3597517099_1caec2c5d3_o.jpg">
Hott sexx. I love it!
Whoa, that's amazing! Thanks for sharing.
What a waste of a perfectly good Karmann Ghia. You'd have to pay me to take this thing.
I agree with you. Ghias are nice little cars, and this one's ruined. Somebody should be ashamed of himself. Fail.
Worse still, the other day, I found a 959 replica on eBay that was made from a 1971 911E. There should be a law against cutting up early 911s. And what's the point of a 959 replica, anyways? No-one in the US knows what a 959 is. If you had the most authentic-looking replica in the world, it wouldn't matter because it would still "look like every other Porsche on the road". Also, the air-cooled clatter would give you away.
Way to beat me to the punch.
I couldn't agree more. Somebody should be ashamed of himself, doing this to an innocent Ghia. It's like seeing a nice girl forced to get tarted up like a stripper. This is just terrible.
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2224/1800234736_7861106fbe.jpg?v=0" width="500" height="400" />
If only I had an orbital nuke …
Geesh, they could have at least put dual-port heads on the thing. I mean, I expect it to be bog slow, but at least give it enough beans to get out of its OWN way! This doesnt even qualify as crack pipe.
What a mess, looks like pile of bondo…..look at those door gaps. Retro windscreen, RUF logos, ricer steering wheel, "hidden" gauges behind dash pleather, boxy scoop, those wheels……
Poor car, and poor stupid soul who will purchase this POS (currently 9 offers, @5900 still below reserve).
I'm with Tomsk, Nuke it!
as a replicar its not that bad. Sure it has problems, but still. i think this guy faces the problem of 'it works for me', it doesn't seem to work for anyone else. Especially at 5900.
Kill it with napalm. Then salt the earth it sat on just to make sure it doesn't come back.
LOL! I dig the intercooler in the front that has no plumbing attached to it. Very nice feature to top off this gem!
Kit car. $500 and take to LeMons and add a bigger intercooler…..
If you believe anything worth doing is worth doing to excess, I should note that a while back, Bader Racing discovered that the powertrain of a Porsche 993 would fit in a Karmann Ghia with fairly minor modifications…
I am trying to imagine the effect on performance of putting 18" wheels on it.
It is certainly different than every other Speedster replicrap that is around.
I’ve been reading a few posts and i’m adding your blog to my rss reader , thanks !
Nice post it’s very, i have just created my own blog and it looks like this will help me a lot, do you have any free traffic tips?
impressive blog! Getting a bit harder uncovering quality blogs in the sea out there now! In 24 hours or less you can have a guaranteed unwavering rate of new prospects landing on your site. If they can assure 10,000, 35,000, 100,000 or even 150,000 visitors to your site, can you fetch the sales?
Hello dude How are You ? I like your post and i want to stumble it for my friend but i cant see your social bookmark widget in this blog. Please help me dude Thanks