Rare Kodiak F1 gullwing prototype on eBay
click the picture above for a gallery of the Kodiak F1
"It's not a kit car" will be an oft-repeated phrase for the new owner of this Kodiak F1. Billed as a 1 of 1 car, though the seller mentions another prototype with Mercedes power, this German daydream of an '80s super coupe has been bid up to $48,000 so far. The composite body covers a tubular frame in the same fashion as airplanes are built, apparently, and power comes from a Corvette small block. The Kodiak F1 made its debut at the 1983 Frankfurt Motor Show, the pet project of Mladen Mitrovic. Mitrovic's company, Speed and Sport, manufactured convertible roofs and other parts, and the chief wanted to fulfill his sports car dreams. The mid-engined two seater was planned with a standard blueprinted 350 carrying aluminum Brodix heads and a quartet of Webers or Bosch fuel injection for roughly 320-340 horsepower. Optional powerplants were 5.0 liter Mercedes V8s, one stock, one breathed-upon by then-independent AMG to the tune of 380hp. This car would have been just the thing to make coked-up Countach and Testarossa drivers feel like commoners in Chevettes. We're not sure why the Kodiak never made it much past pie-in-the-sky spec sheets and a pair of prototypes. On paper, it sounds like it would be a better performer than the underwhelming DeLorean turned out to be, though cost was likely a big factor, ringing up a bill of $117,000 or so in 1986. Get your bids in now, and you may be the lucky one cracking your temple on those gullwings every time you get in.
Gallery: Kodiak F1
[Source: eBay]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Farmboy 2:49PM (1/25/2009)
This makes me think of what would happen if a Ferrari crossed a Lambo.
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N 3:03PM (1/25/2009)
...and had a rear-end transplant from a Porsche 924 - look at those tail lights.
Farmboy 3:40PM (1/25/2009)
Yeah, some guy down the road has one. I was just talking about the front and side view. The handles remind me of the Ford Ranger. lol
Rambo 4:45PM (1/25/2009)
@ N:
Gah, you beat me to it. The 924 was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the rear. All in all, it's a very pretty car. They seem to have successfully combined all the best elements of Ferraris, Lambos, and Porsches of its time. Even though it's a blatant copycat, it still pulls it off, IMO.
JZeke 10:16PM (1/25/2009)
The nose is like a gawky copy of a 512 BB.
zamafir 3:14PM (1/25/2009)
looks pretty nice for this sort of car
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fixitfixitstop 3:22PM (1/25/2009)
Is that dash from an '82 Firebird?
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Farris 3:26PM (1/25/2009)
117k in 1987? Good lord, that's easily over 200k in "today's" dollars.
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Only a Passerby 4:23PM (1/25/2009)
Definitely, and that's likely also the reason there's no production version of this concept, those guys wouldn't have had one, but three companies suing for copyright infringement.
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firstplace 4:45PM (1/25/2009)
how is this news?
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Farris 9:23PM (1/25/2009)
It is... Autoblog has always done "eBay finds of the day..."
Where have you been?
StickShift 5:00PM (1/25/2009)
I always thought Tuned Port Injection looked like the warp core from the USS Enterprise in the engine compartments of F-Body's and Corvettes. Placing one in the middle of the car only reinforces the image!
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nick 6:11PM (1/25/2009)
it does have a definite 924 vibe going on the bottom half of the rear, but at the top it kinda reminds me of a BMW M1. dont know if anyone else can see that too or whether its just me
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HOC 11:02PM (1/25/2009)
I remember working at a body shop in Germany during this time, and we got to paint a bare body shell for a red Kodiak. We were two villages away from the company that built this strange car.
The body had been painted before, in the same color. It needed some filling and sanding to make the paint work totally smooth. It cost about 6,000 Deutsche Mark at the time.
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HOC 11:03PM (1/25/2009)
BTW: If you look closely, you will notice that the gull wing doors and roof closely resemble the Mercedes C111. There is a reason for that...
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Keith M 12:47PM (1/27/2009)
Exactly my thought when I firs saw it I thought it was the C111