The closest thing I may have to a Porsche for a while....

[Jos.hall 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close Jos.hall]

I was scrolling through my facebook feed the other day and noticed on the Austin Air Cooler's page that a gentleman in Taylor, Tx was beginning to sell off a bunch of cars and he happened to have a couple vws for sale and he also mentioned that he had a Devin for sale. Now a week ago I wasn't nearly as versed in Devin's as I am now but I know that when a Devin comes up for sale, you buy it.

The Devin D was a car that Bill Devin built so the average guy like me could go out and race against Porsches, Ferarris, Jaguars, etc. and win. They were so successful that Porsche decided not to sell Bill anymore engines and after 46 cars he ceased building the Devin D. BUT.... He continued to provide customers with Body's that they in turn could build into their own race car. With 27 different combinations, you could build your Devin on just about any chassis you wanted for only $295.

The car I purchased this past week and pick up this week is one of those 295s as they're known. There's not a lot of history on this car but it came out of Akron Ohio area about 4 years ago and spent the previous 40+ years in Pennsylvania. At this point, it's quite the harlequin of parts but I hope to eliminate a lot of the unnecessary pieces and return it to glory. Currently it sports a VW type 3 engine but hopefully after selling the hideous '53-'55 corvette windshield off it, I can put some funds towards a 356 powerplant. It'll be a project to run concurrent with my '67 Vert beetle. but I honestly don't think this one will be that much work.

Hopefully you guys will enjoy some updates as this little car comes along.

[Frank Beck Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Frank Beck]

Cool Jos. Have fun with the project.
Hey, at least it has 356 brakes.

[bob joyce 2.4L Find all posts View Profile Close bob joyce]

keep the pictures coming
have fun

[flatsixer aka rstarga Find all posts View Profile Close flatsixer]

My next door neighbor had one of those in '65, I had a Corvair, we had lots of fun racing each other. Neat car.

[Jos.hall 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close Jos.hall]

Flatsixer, Do you know what powerplant he had? The most common Devins were the SS (Factory built Chevrolet V8 Powered), the C (Corvair Powered), and the D (Porsche/VW Powered). It'd be awesome to see how a Devin C would compare to a stock Corvair.

[flatsixer aka rstarga Find all posts View Profile Close flatsixer]

I really don't recall although we always managed to be pretty close to each other, except on really tight corners he had the edge. I can tell you that a Chrysler Hemi patrol car couldn't keep up with us

[JP aka LiveFromNY Find all posts View Profile Close JP]

Very jealous I missed this local car. Would love to see it!

[gtBen 2.2L Find all posts View Profile Close gtBen]

Nice and odd car. What about the badge below the rear lid?

[Jos.hall 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close Jos.hall]

Thanks JP and Ben. JP if you’re ever in the Onion Creek area let me know. I’d love to pick your brain sometime.

On with the car… I’ve discovered it was built on a May of ‘52 split window beetle chassis back in the late 50s. They cut the framehead off of the chassis and welded the front beam to the Chassis/Napoleon Hat. This shortened the wheel base by around 10” and took the wheel base from 95” to 85” making it an ideal length/body size for a rear engined Devin.

As a result of the way they shortened it, they used the shifter hole as a brace for the body, the shifter is now where the e-brake was, and the ebrake is now where the Vin Plate was. This would be considered a cardinal sin by todays standards but is so creative and fit the purpose at the time. I’m not changing any of that.

I took the windshield off as the plan was to install a singlet windshield but afterwards found out someone glassed in a channel for the corvette windshield and to revert it would take a lot of work.

The current idea I’m toying with is to have a polycarbonate windshield made and cutting it down to the height of the corvette side posts. If I can take 9” off the top of the windshield, it might look more correctly proportioned.

I’ll be looking for an appropriate steering wheel as well as a 356 engine soon but that will come with time/funds.

here’s some of the photos so far….I’m definitely open to suggestions on the windshield if you have any.

[Jos.hall 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close Jos.hall]

Ben, I think the Sweden badge may just be an homage ti the builders heritage. I’ll leave it for the time being unless I find information that contradicts that.

[flatsixer aka rstarga Find all posts View Profile Close flatsixer]

If this was a South Texas car, it might be my friends old car. His name was Charles Mullins. This was the only one I ever saw and it was the same color. Can't imagine there were a lot in the area.
He died in a motorcycle accident in Port Aransas in the mid 70's

[Jos.hall 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close Jos.hall]

If this was a South Texas car, it might be my friends old car. His name was Charles Mullins. This was the only one I ever saw and it was the same color. Can't imagine there were a lot in the area.
He died in a motorcycle accident in Port Aransas in the mid 70's

I don’t think this is the one. This one came from Pennsylvania around the Pittsburgh area about years ago.

[JP aka LiveFromNY Find all posts View Profile Close JP]

JP if you’re ever in the Onion Creek area let me know. I’d love to pick your brain sometime.

For sure. And if you ever find yourself in SW Austin one Saturday, you should come by the shop, talk cars, and meet the boys.