[Jeff Higgins]

One of the coolest long hoods I have ever seen belonged to a fellow R Gruppe member many years ago. I believe it was a '68 (but I could be off by a year or two) 912. Its first motor was a big bore (again, memory fails, but I think 2.4 liter?) Jake Raby type 4. What a beast. When that proved to be, ahem, "insufficient", a Subaru WRX motor found its way in. I'm not sure what kind of power those things make, something like 300 hp? Whatever it was, it was a rocket ship at something under 2,000 pounds. I had the pleasure of riding along in it on many sessions at Buttonwillow Raceway. All home made, too, he designed and fabricated everything himself. The purest essence of hot rodding.

But... and this, to me, is a big "but"... That was back when longhood 912's were $5,000 cars, on their best days. Kind of a "blank slate" when found in less than complete or running condition. My own son, at the ripe old age of 15, bought his '68 (with a blown motor and some rust) from a very generous local club member. $2,500. We built it into a 911 (with the 2.4 out of my '72), repaired the rust, etc. as his high school senior year project. That was 20 years ago, and he still drives it.

But (another "but"), those days are long gone. I've seen 912's approaching six figures on BAT. Insanity in my opinion, but that's a discussion for another day. The point is, we used to spend three times what they were worth to fix 'em up and get 'em going in those days. Because we loved 'em. Today, we spend a little more fixing them up, but the tables have turned, "bigly" - now when we are done they are worth three times what we spent (assuming we do the work ourselves).

So, yeah, super, super cool conversion, the true spirit of hot rodding. But, well, the value proposition has changed so much over the years, that the reasons for doing this are down to just the "cool factor". Which is good enough. Let's just not kid ourselves that this makes economic sense. It doesn't. But, well, that's the beauty of this hobby - it doesn't have to. It just has to be cool. And, well, this one is a solid "win" in that regard.