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Rare road racer hits eBay

Yesterday was about illegal fiberglass cars online.  Today is about a better way to spend your eBay money.  We’re going back to the online auction house for another fiberglass machine that’s little more upstanding and even more rare.  This is a one of six 1966 Diva Valkyr.

Haven’t heard of Diva? Only those who are familiar with the British fiberglass road race car era of the 1960s have fond memories of this company.  Diva made a few winners, but the company was a flash in the pan.

We’re not quite sure how accurate the listing is.  For example, the seller says, “At some point the Lotus Twin Cam engine was removed and a dry-sumped Ford 1600cc crossflow engine installed.”  The Valkyr was known to come with Ford units but not Lotus ones.  So while the ad reads like the Ford unit was discarded because of its bastard status, it may have been the original engine.  The listing also calls this a one of five built in 1966, but we choose to count one more as Diva’s prototype Demon was rechristened a Valkyr that year as well.

This Diva Valkyr is particularly rare because it is only one of two that left the U.K. when new.  It was purchased by a man in Thailand and was promptly entered in the 1966 Macau Grand Prix.  It would spend the next decade finding its way from Asia back home to England, and then eventually the United States.

The car is being sold under “Race Cars” section of eBay reserved for non street legal cars.  Still, that did not stop its current owner from registering the car.  It still has its blue California plates reading “DIVA GT” from when it was brought over from the U.K. in the mid-1970s.

Divas were never a polished vehicle, and this one has aged into a much rougher condition.  The body is rust-free (and quite dried out) thanks to fiberglass construction, but the rest of the pieces have to be reassembled.  That should not distract those who really love vintage racecars.  This poor man’s Porsche 904 is the kind of car that may only come up once in a lifetime, and owners are in an exclusive club who has fewer members than you likely have fingers.

Source: eBay via Bring a Trailer

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