NOW SOLD! Congratulations to Joe from Alabama! Our 309th!
This is a unique and special Bugeye! This is “Liberty” (AN5L 31508) and this car was fully restored by Liberty Motorsports in California about five years ago. If you are into 356 Porsches, you might have heard of Jim, he is a master restorer, and he always wanted a Bugeye, so he built up this one.
What I love most is that he restored it like a crazy hot-rodder might have done in the 60s or 70s… but with the quality workmanship for which Liberty is known. In other words, he let his imagination run wild, and then executed a one-of-a-kind restoration with bells and whistles to meet his taste, and since he is so skilled, it’s an impressive package!
On-board we have in-period stopwatches and extra gauges, as well as Brooklands screens and most notably a Judson supercharger. The Judson is a fantastic vintage performance piece you might remember from advertisements in Popular Mechanics and Sports Illustrated in the 60s. This was a cure-all booster for corsairs, beetles, British sports cars and many other engines longing for a bit more juice.
Jim has also installed a Garmin GPS on a stalk in the cockpit, which we have since removed. While it is also outdated, it doesn’t fit the period vibe, so we prefer the look without it, but the new owner can choose. New dash pictures to follow!
Driving is delightful, and this particular set up works great, as you can see in the video above. The exhaust note is excellent courtesy of another vintage treasure, the rare Abarth twin-tipped muffler that is fit to the original 948 engine (the 948 engine present, 9CUH 30358, is the correct original engine for this car). This engine is mated to a solid rib case four-speed transmission.
She stops well with disk brakes up front, drum brakes in back.
Minilite wheels are custom color matched, and the racing style single-seat hard tonneau is a bonus, for an even bolder statement. When using the hard tonneau, the car is also equipped with a custom single cockpit soft tonneau (black with primrose thread) that integrates with the hard tonneau and headrest. Or you can use the car in two-seat mode, and use the full-sized soft tonneau to cover the entire cockpit when you park. Both look great. But most people will probably leave just the “D-Jag” hard tonneau in place, as this configuration is most unique and eye-catching.
There is no full-sized windshield included, although we can source one for you if you live in a colder climate and the cut windscreens are a bit too cool. They work better than you think, BTW, and shield the driver pretty nicely. But they are best in warm weather.
The windshield wipers are capped, and thus this car would not pass inspection in Canada and in a few select states like Massachusetts, that require safety inspections before registering a vintage car. But in most states, the lack of wipers would not be an issue, particularly since Rain-x works better than wipers on these cars anyway!
If you want a show-stopping and unique Bugeye hot rod tribute car, this one is for you! Call or email if you are interested!
