My Car Quest

March 28, 2024

A Few Photos From Amelia Island

by Mike –

Don Meluzio sent in photos and comments from the recent Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in Florida where he was showing his Fiat Stanguellini Berlinetta.

Text and photos by Don Meluzio

Pete Brock and Don Meluzio

Pete Brock and Don Meluzio

I was reading Pete Brock’s new book and he wrote that Harley Earl borrowed the idea of a split window from a prototype by Franco Scaglione at an auto show in 1954. I asked Pete Brock if he would like to see one in the flesh. He came over to my Fiat Bertone, and we took this photo, above.

What a really nice guy, he later came back at the end of the event to show someone else the car.

Porsche 914 Pickup

Porsche 914 Pickup

Porsche 914 Pickup

Porsche 914 Pickup

One of the classes was Porsche 914 – above is the the Troutman Porsche 914 pickup.

Peter Gregg's 914

Peter Gregg’s 914

Porsche 914 8-cylinder

I believe this is the factory Porsche 914 8-cylinder

Porsche 914 rally car

Porsche 914 rally car

Porsche 914 rally car

Porsche 914 rally car

Lancia

Lancia

They could light up the night!

Lancia Stratos

Lancia Stratos

Lancia Stratos

Lancia Stratos

Hot Rod

Hot Rod

Hot Rod Engine

Hot Rod Engine

Hot Rod Engine

Hot Rod Engine

The owner bought this Woodill Wildfire Kit Car, below, in 1954 and built it with a 1939 Mercury engine, of course he won his class!!

Woodill Wildfire

Woodill Wildfire

Woodill Wildfire

Woodill Wildfire

Naturally there were lots of race cars.

Porsche Race Car

Porsche Race Car

Nissan Race Car

Nissan Race Car

Comments

  1. Hi Mike,

    I was not aware that Porsche produced an 8-cylinder 914; can you shed some light on this?

    Thanks,

    Ray

    • Robb Northrup says

      Ray:

      Porsche produced 2 prototypes using engines from the 908 (I believe) sports prototype race car. On the outside they are distinguished by the 4 headlamp front end. Inside it was that engine, a development of the racing version of the 901 (911) six cylinder (not the 2 litre 8 that was derived from the short-lived F1 car of 1962).

      One car was built for Ferry Porsche to drive around; it had Weber carburetion and a street exhaust with over 220 hp. It was not only very quick, but tractable as well.

      The other was built for Ferdinand Piech, Ferry’s nephew and then head of the racing department. It was Piech who engineered Porsche’s march to Worlds Sports Car Championship domination and Le Mans wins via the 917. His first car was the Carrera 6 using a race prepared 911 engine. His car had mechanical fuel injection and nearly a race exhaust. It was fast!

      Robb

  2. Don Meluzio says

    Thank you for clarifying that Rob. I knew of the 8cyl 914, assumed it was the 908 based engine, but really didn’t know. Obviously it never made production. That 914 display was great. You can always count on a great show at amelia!

    Don

  3. Bill Cooper says

    The car that was on display with the quad headlights is the 914-8 built for Ferry Porsche.
    It is powered by an 8 cylinder DOHC race derived engine and appeared to have the same mechanical fuel injection that was used in the period Rennwagen. I noted that some modification of the engine bay had been done to accommodate the engine.
    Ferry reportedly did not like driving it, probably because the engine was “peaky”, and without the good mid-range torque desirable in daily driving. To make the engine more “Streetable” would have required manufacturing a new set of cams, lowering the compression with revised pistons and a general re-tuning of the engine, something which, to my knowledge, was never done with this engine type. The street engines were the 6 cylinder SOHC design.

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