The tricky aspect of projects like these is that kit car values are hit or miss – would you pay a fair price for a rare but unfinished car like this? It’s hard to say, as the bodywork looks quite nice and the interior is clean, save for the missing seats. ![]() The SS trim of the classic Cimbria offered drivers other benefits beyond the racy bucket seats, including greater structural rigidity, digital gauges, and an overall more comfortable cabin. The Cimbria SS with a VW engine that the seller claims he doesn’t know much about, and of course, it’s always good to see the transmission still attached. If the Cimbria SS was purchased for peanuts because it was a non-runner and the previous owner didn’t know the value of the seats, I could see selling the seats for a tidy profit and then just padding the result with the sale of an otherwise complete car. Recaro seats in general have been climbing rapidly in price, especially for the rare 1970s and 1980s models that are all the rage for installing in so-called “rad”-era vehicles. Photos from brochures issued at the time also showed the SS coming standard with what looks like a very nice Recaro interior, and if this car still had the period-correct buckets inside when the seller picked it up, I could actually see buying it just for the seats and then attempting to sell the striped kit for more than you paid. The Cimbria SS was intended to be a more refined version of the original Cimbria, which is to say it had some additional creature comforts that made living with a kit car on a daily basis seem more palatable. But even with the low-budget running gear, cars like these still need the usual assortment of wiring issues sorted out not to mention all of the other aspects that go into building a car, from assembling the interior to sorting out the suspension. Whatever the case may be, I can imagine these kit cars are tempting for both the seasoned mechanic and the inexperienced novice alike, as it seems like a simple process to drop a VW engine and then start ripping around town, convincing everyone you know that you just bought a Ferrari. Whenever you see a listing for an oddball car that needs a fair amount of work and the seller says things like “just want it out of my shop,” you start to wonder if this is the case of a customer who left their project behind or otherwise didn’t pay their bill and there’s now a mechanic’s lien on it. ![]() Based on the windshield decor, I’ll go out on a limb and call it a Sterling Cimbria SS, and it’s listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Edgecomb, Maine for $4,500. The seller does not know much about the gullwinged coupe in his garage and sounds eager to move it along. Regardless, the bodies themselves were far more exotic than the drivetrain would otherwise indicate. We all know about the Kelmarks and the Bradley GTs, but there are numerous other makes and models that relied on similar components as it related to running gear, as seemingly every single one of these wild kit-based creations used VW pans and engines. ![]() In the world of kit cars, it can be difficult to sift through the numerous varieties of exotic-looking creations that were seemingly as vast and varied as the imaginations behind their existence.
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