Buy This VW Kit Car For Cheap, Fulfill Your ‘70s Sports Car Dreams

Towards the tail-end of the 1970s, American Fibre Craft out of Cupertino, California took the frame of a Type 1 VW Beetle and transformed it into something unique. The car was called the Aquila GT, and it borrowed many of its design cues from the Bricklin SV-1, BMW E25 Turbo, and other sporty cars of the day. Today, finding an example on the used market is no easy task.

Luckily, this one recently popped up for sale on eBay with a bid of just $6,400, per this writing. It comes with the original 1200cc engine that produced a blistering 45 horsepower (33 kilowatts) when new, the original four-speed gearbox, and just 1,153 original miles (1,855 kilometers). Slow as it is, it's in immaculate condition given its age and rarity.

Just 150 kits were produced in a span of about a year. This one is number 137. The body is made entirely out of fiberglass, and the interior is hand-crafted and comes with a dark tan finish on the seats with some very '70s-esque styling cues on the dash and center console.

The exterior fiberglass body shows little to no signs of wear, and comes complete with the original ivory and cream paint job that came on the car when new. But the pièce de résistance is the gullwing doors, which are in working order after a full restoration.

Other standard features include pop-up headlights – a must have on all '70s-era sports cars – pop-off windows, some Aquila-branded floor mats, and 5-mph safety bumpers to mimic the SV-1, because safety is sexy.