One big item on the list of “things I’d like to do someday” is to construct a car using my own hands. Options for those with similar aspirations range from truly building a car from scratch — a la Chris Runge — to constructing a car from a kit. Today’s Good Find Friday feature, a reproduction Porsche 908 fiberglass body, falls somewhere in the middle. 

While overshadowed by the 904 and 917, other race cars fielded by Porsche in the 60s included the 906, 910, 907 and 908. The Porsche 908 featured a lightweight 1,350 pound fiberglass and tubular space frame structure to which was mounted a 3-liter flat-eight engine delivering 350hp. While it experienced some successes after its introduction in 1968, the 908 was bested by the 917 and even the preceding 907 in its early outings.

In 1969’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 917s had gearbox troubles, meaning the 908 was now fighting for the win, but despite a valiant effort the car came in second to Jacky Ickx in a Ford GT40. Porsche continued to run the 908 on tracks for which it was suited, such as the Nürburgring, Targa Florio and hillclimbs (in its spyder configuration). After the cars became obsolete for factory racing, the 908 would continue to race with privateers for some time. A 908/03 even finished third at the 1972 Le Mans and served as a camera car in the Steve McQueen film.

Following last week’s theme, today’s Good Find Friday feature isn’t a car, but rather part of a car from which you could create a complete vehicle. Claimed to have been pulled from a mold created from one of the original 32 Porsche 908 race cars, this raw bodywork is located in Florida and offered by a private seller on The Samba.

The Porsche 908 was developed in multiple variants specific to the needs of various tracks or types of racing, including long-tail coupe, short-tail coupe, Spyder, and Spyder long-tail. The bodywork on offer appears to have been molded from a 908/01 K coupe of 1968.

Details on the 908 K Coupe variant include asymmetrical front vents, shorter tail, and intake ports on the haunches just behind the cockpit doors. This style of 908 debuted at the Nürburgring 1000km race and the car won the race outright.

Obviously there is no interior in this car to evaluate, nor any chassis, engine, or suspension so all of those would need to be fabricated or obtained by the buyer. The photos on TheSamba are pretty consistently terrible, mostly due to the site’s ancient infrastructure, so proper vetting of the condition of the fiberglass is probably best done in-person before making an offer.

Of note is that the body has 4 eye bolts mounted to the fenders, suggesting the shell was hung from a ceiling for storage or display.

The seller notes that a tube chassis is available, as is a 3.6-liter flat six. Important to consider is that the chassis displayed in the images is not at all an accurate replica of the actual 908 tubular spaceframe, which was delicate and complex.

So what is something like this worth? Unfortunately, there aren’t many completed Porsche 908 replica sales to point to. There is a 1969 Porsche 908 Spyder replica currently on offer in Germany on Classic Driver with an asking price of $129,000. That listing includes many more components than just the body, however.

The quality of a replica is a significant influence on its value. A very accurate reproduction of a historic racing car can command significant sums, while a build that takes a great deal of liberties can struggle to sell. For example, this highly authentic 1967 Porsche 907K replica sold for $400,000 on PCarMarket. A genuine example of a 907 would sell for somewhere in the neighborhood of $5M.

Recently a very cool Porsche 906 recreation struggled to meet its reserves on both PCarMarket and Bring A Trailer. Yes, a real Porsche 906 is $3M cheaper than a 907, but it’s likely this replica’s deviations from the real deal kept bidding to $150,000 on BAT and just $77,000 on its first turn on PCarMarket. It ultimately sold for $150,000 in a private sale.

A good comparable might be this collection of Porsche 908/02 Spyder parts, which sold on Bring A Trailer back in December for $5,008. These were said to be genuine race car body components and not replicas pulled from a mold, but they were also not from a coupe and located in Germany. If you offered the seller the same amount, you could at least feel justified in your number.

Wolf and Mare provides car finding, appraisal and auction services for sellers and buyers of collector European cars. We also provide importation services. Give us a call or drop us a line!