"917" based on 914-6 for sale!!!

I hear you P. My kit car is a Porsche 550 spyder that I built abotu 20 years ago. Pretty basic car; nothing special at all - except for teh knuckle meat I left on it when I put it together (more than once - it never really is finished). I don't care what the Porsche enthusiasts say about my VW based replicar. It is nice to look at and fun to drive. I give the Steve McQueen salute to them...

Timbo - agreed - in my mind the 917 rules, followed very closely by the GT40, then a whole bunch of others.

Mike
 
The 917 replica has returned (advertised in Jan 09 (what?) Motor Sport Mag)---the sad people in Manchester have dropped the price to £72,500, which is about £70,000 too much!!
 
Timbo, let it go Brother. Somebody put a lot of sweat equity into that car and for that he should be applauded. I myself do not like the car either but should i waste any time worrying about it? I think not!
I have no intention of trying to buy it so as far as its value goes I could care less. Funny thing is that someone may just pay the price you never know and besides beauty is in the eye of beholder.
Take care Timbo and try not to let this thread ruin your day.

cheers
 
CRC,
You are so very correct we never need to like everything out there but a big old curse of the online car forum is how some people get all obsessed with being all negative you know bashing and trashing something they don't even have an interest in,
I find it sad that some people kind find something good and positive to get involved in.
 
That car is a Laser 917 kit from Melson Motor Sports. They manufacture tube frames and suspension packages from around $13,000.00 and body kits from a bit over $7,000. Don't know if these are the folks who purchased the rights to the laser a few years back. Their web site is not very complete yet and that car based on the 914-6 looks like the car on their web page. Being and old laser 917 fan since the early 70's, I sure hope they can breathe life back into the old girl. Also, their gt-40 kits look promising too.

Mr 13 bat's, always enjoy your well thought and worded coments on the various forums i've seen you on over many years. I'm in orlando too and in the process of purchasing a laser to complete. Hope to run into you some day. Cheers.
 
Bob,
Thanks for the kind words,

Not to rain on your picnic but I do not believe Melson/csi has built anything and I know they did NOT build the car this thread is about,
He sent me some pictures of a hack jobbed Fiero with a Kellison GT40 body and when I didn't want to pay him something like 12K for it he stopped talking to me,
Melson uses pictures of cars they have never been near, the same pictures are member posted cars on the Laser 917 site,
The car Melson dreamed of producing was a revamp of the Laser with a replica price tag...no one has to ask why that is all defunct,....a person with that green will go see RCR for their 917.
Ironically I was just contacted a few days ago from a fellow who said all the contact info on the Melson web site is dead.
Of course if you have documents that Melson has built a Laser please forward it to me...so I don't spew nonsense.
Otherwise I will go on believing all he has is the Laser molds and the body they were working on....and pictures of other peoples work.

I live in College park near Rio Grande and Princeton....perhaps you would like to pop by sometime and take a look at Area 51 and my Laser,
But most of my time is spent on the vintage vette stuff, I am still working on my Motion/Silva Mako Shark....
 
Hi and thanks for the warm welcome, I won't debate on who actually built the 917 in question, but i've been studying the picture off this thread and the pictures on the Melson site and i've never seen two vehicles that look more alike than these two. So all i'll say is that wherever the car came from, i believe both pictures to be of one and the same car. I will try contacting Melson this week. I am not interested in purchasing one of their kits, but if they are going to be producing lasers in the near future, they may come in handy as a parts source for the older lasers. With a bit of luck, i'll have my laser in a few days.
 
Mr. 13 Bats, would love to come down sometime and check out you cars. I have a stable of 11 classic and custom cars including a not so exciting 76 vette with the usual vaccum problems. Have wanted to build a laser since i was in high school. Got my hands on an assembly manual back in 1974 but thats as far as i ever got with it. Owned dozens of beetles over the years. Converted some to Porsche power, corvair and even a couple of mid-mounted small block v-8's, but never got to the laser project till now. Time to dust off my old assembly manual. It will definatly get a motor upgrade. Have a built Mercury 60 degree v-6 mated to a 914 transaxle with a Kennedy adapter plate and clutch that should power it quite nicely.

Did I ever meet you at the Old Town Classic car show? Does your laser have a Loewenbrau paint job on it? I talked with the owner of that laser several times a few years back.
 
Bob...Don't believe everything you see on a website.....

I have spent many hours in emails and phone calls with Dan Melson...I deeply wanted it all to be the case...he said he had the old LA Exotics molds and I was jazzed.

Melson post pics of things they simple did not build, the pictures on the Melson site are of this threads car he got the pictures off the net the same place I saved them from....I have a file on this car....an amazing build. They did a custom drive train, frame etc.


The car in this thread started out as a Laser 917 and someone overseas dumped a pile into it....they could have just done a RCR for what they invested in a VW kit car....they were also asking a pile for it....the car while wonderful in my eyes has never been respected in the eyes of the replica purist.
I will repeat Melson did not have any hand in the build of this car, he is just using the pictures on his site to make it look like he did, in fact the way Melson was revamping the Laser it didn't look like that car....he added a scoop in front of the rear wheel....would you like to see the private pictures Melson sent me?

Nope...never had my Laser at old town....and would not paint it in logos...unless perhaps the company paid me.
My Laser is a custom Ordered "D" body....it's on a full custom frame...no bug pan.

You will sadly learn that a mid engine Laser is not going to be practical....look at the rear axle centerline in relation to the seat and windscreen....I guess if you are short and can move things forward it might happen...a real 917 had much more middle....a 914 has an okay gear ratio but not the best for the torque of a V8....lots of taking off in second.....I would think a transverse drive train in a laser like Winston was planning would be hot.

I have owned Avengers, Valkyries, Kellisons, Sterlings, Kelmark, Mid and rear engine, too many vettes kits and customs to count.
I sold off almost all my "yard art" ( projects ) I don't have the bucks, time, or nerves to have a "stable".
I will sell off the laser to fund my next project....that and my Mako will be my toys.

Mike offers Laser/vette parts...the headlights covers/windows Tim and Melson offered were sadly not great. ( I have a set )
I have a fellow who does windows and screens for aircraft to get my stuff from....I have a rare tinted set of headlight covers....
 
I definatly don't believe everything i see or read on the web. All I'm saying is that the 2 cars look so much alike, it's hard to believe that they're not one in the same, but anything's possible.
as for the laser that i hope to purchase this afternoon, i plan to install a v six with a 914 transaxle that i pulled out of my chopped top 67 bug after i t-boned a few years ago. It won't be mid-mounted. It will sit out back just like the bug motor and will require modifying the front suspension and adding some extra weight up front along with a ghia front end for disc brakes. Floor pan will have to be re-enforced, but that's nothing new for me. Done it all with the beetles in the past. I am hoping things will line up ok . Won't know till i have the laser here and can see the underside of the rear section of the body and take some measurements. I don't want to butcher the car. I am open to other forms of power like an older flat six with tri-webbers if the v six doesn't work out. I would like to modify the rear section to tilt up. Seen some pictures of a build on the web where the owner has already done that. And air conditioning, a must down here. I can imagine it get's quite hot in that cockpit with only tilt out windows. Must of been hell driving it in Arizona. Want all body lines to remain original, after all, that's what I fell in love with as a kid. I love the laser for what it is, not because it happens to resemble a Porsche. When I first saw the Laser years ago, I didn't even know what a Porsche 917 was.
Anyway, wish me luck this afternoon. Hope I win the auction. If I don't, there's still the other two up in Pennsylvania.
 
Ok, got the laser. Can't wait till it arrives. If it's as good as the pictures show it to be, i may just drive it awhile before i do the motor conversion.
 
The car in this thread and the car on the Melson web site ARE the same car BUT Melson did not build the car, never saw the car in person and is not connected to it in any way,
Melson just used pictures that he found on the web...I hope that clears that up.

Look at the car...it's a modded "D" body...over painted windows and covers add to the illusion the body isn't a laser.

You threw me off saying 914 tranny which IS a mid engine car...turn the tranny around backwards for rear engine and you will have four reverse gears.....one forward....never heard of anyone swapping the ring on the 914....no point to that...it no stronger than a VW tranny.
The better news is you can use the stock VW tranny and hang the V6 off that...many have done that with many water cooled engines one of my Avengers had a buick v6 in the rear...cool car....took off in second...


Very cool...you won your toy....The first kit car I ever saw was an Avenger with a Crowbar flat 6 the car spanked several bad V8 hot rods at our local cruise but what I got all turned on too was how low and small it was...the first kit car I owned was a Sterling, I bought it out of Vegas and drove it home to FL cannonball run style...the story grows from there but by far the Laser is in my view the most radical looking of all the VW based kits.
A tilt rear on a Laser really adds to the "cool" factor.
 
I would like to point out that the silver car is not an Avenger, but rather a Valkrie. It is a beautiful , as are the cars that on shown on this forum. I always believe that it is the get together and sharing of information, that makes groups like this a scene that I like to go to. It doesn't matter the individual tastes of the builders...but rather the huge amount of love and labor that they put into their cars. All are to be commended for their efforts. So my only comment is "hats off to all of the guys". I only wanted to give the correct identification of the car shown.
Remember though, please, let's keep the focus on safety and sound mechanics, someone's life could depend on it! That is my only concern!
Happy motoring and talking guys!
 
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