U.S. legislators in the late 1960s scared the automotive world with their promises to ban convertibles due to how dangerous they were becoming. The ban never materialized, but many automakers – Porsche included – decided to play it safe and abstain from designing new droptops over the next decade or so. Thus, the world had never seen a Porsche 914 cabriolet – that is, until an enthusiast built one.
The listing on Bring a Trailer points out that the car was bought in 1976 near the very end of production and almost immediately had its top chopped off. The tuner who did this also widened the bodywork and dropped the suspension about as far as it would go. Braces and struts were grafted to the body in multiple places to keep it rigid – you can see one in the trunk in the gallery above. A cloth top was designed specifically for this model to keep it going in bad weather.
The engine also underwent a significant overhaul. It was expanded to 2.2 liters of effective displacement and upgraded with dual Weber turbos. It’s just a shame that we don’t know how much more than the standard 130 PS (128 hp / 96 kW) it outputs now, after all these years. What we do know is that the car still has a five-speed manual transmission and a rear-wheel drive, as it should.
Interior modifications boiled down to a new pair of seats wrapped in Pepita fabric. As we understand it, most of the work was done back in the 70s, so the car is more of a time capsule than a restomod.
The auction closed on Thursday with the seller bringing home a cool $65,000.
