The author puts the Devin through its paces in the hills north of Bassano, Italy, thanks to enthusiastic locals who temporarily closed the road for himÑonly in Italy! Photo: Peter Collins

1958 Devin D Porsche – Forza Devin

1958 Devin D Porsche

Across the southern hills of the Dolomite Mountains of Italy, north of a line drawn between Schio, Marostica and Bassano del Grappa, lie some of Europe’s most beautiful and challenging roads…long and fast sweeps coming down from 3,000 meters, medium speed twists across alpine meadows, and tight up-and-down hairpins reminiscent of the Futa Pass and the Targa Florio. This is paradise for car testing, especially when the self-appointed local guardian closes a stretch of these tight twists and turns, and the local officials quietly look elsewhere. Rev up the Porsche engine and go to work!

Stefano Chiminelli is one of many serious vintage car enthusiasts who live in the northeastern part of Italy. This area conceals a treasure trove of motoring history, a legacy of the wealth, which came from the area’s reputation as the home of Europe’s finest gold merchants and craftsmen. When hard times hit Italy in the last century, that wealth was converted into cars, which went into hiding before and during two World Wars. As Italy’s greatest car manufacturers reside in the north, this was neither surprising nor difficult, and thus the northeast continues to hold many of these treasures. Classics abound, and the population appreciates and celebrates them, with historic events a regular feature of these provinces.

1958 Devin D Porsche. Photo: Peter Collins

Chiminelli has a house in the country not far from Bassano, and his driveway dips down onto one of the great pieces of challenging road which abound here. The road leads straight up towards the mountains, and it is here that a boy from Connecticut gets his first introduction to an American-made Devin, this one a Devin D with race-prepared Porsche 356 engine, not a recent import, but a car which has lived in Europe virtually all its life and raced in the Benelux countries of western Europe from the early 1960s…a true international encounter!

Devin D Background

The work of American Bill Devin never made a big impact in Europe, though a small number of his Devin SS model attempted a few races now and then, and one or two appear semi-regularly in British historic races and European retro-events, including Bill Gammon’s well-known car.

The Devin’s simple fiberglass cockpit is spacious and functional, with a minimum of gauges and controls.

Photo: Peter Collins

Devin’s death on November 1, 2000 was a sad moment for motorsport, as he had become a prominent part of the racing scene, in the U.S. particularly. The fact that in 1915 he was born in Oklahoma earned him the tag “Enzo Ferrari of Oakie Flats.” His Oklahoma roots, were founded in making the best of things during hard times, working in his father’s auto repair business, learning to weld and then turning that skill to not only repairing but constructing. In fact, the first Devin was something he built for his younger brother with a washing machine motor in the rear!

When the family moved to California, in the dust storm days of the ’30s, Bill went into the aircraft industry and then into the Navy, honing his skills and developing his ideas. Post-1945 he had a Plymouth dealership in Iowa, and then returned to the West Coast, had another dealership and started collecting and modifying Crosleys into which hot cams were installed. He turned that 722 cc Crosley into a very competitive little machine and won his first race in it at Buchanan Field in 1951. This victory came in the novice race and got him into the main event, where he finished 5th behind Jags, the Cannon Ford V-8, a BMW 328 and an MG-Ford.

The 1738-cc Porsche flat-4 motor (sourced from a 356A) puts out a reliable 130 bhp.
Photo: Peter Collins

Later he went into business with Ernie McAfee selling Siatas and Ferraris and that led to a trip to Le Mans, the idea being he would pick up a car at the Ferrari factory, but it wasn’t finished in time. The visit to Ferrari made an indelible impression on Devin, who then ran a few Ferraris in races for himself and occasionally Phil Hill, and then bought a whole range of race machines including a Panhard-based Deutsch-Bonnet.

In the early 1950s, a new material was being hailed as the key ingredient of cars of the future…fiberglass. It wasn’t, but it changed racecar construction almost overnight, and Bill Devin was one of the first people to learn how to use it. By a timely coincidence, a Hollywood Panhard dealer heard about the DB Devin had, and offered Devin 10 body-less Panhard rolling chassis. Devin quickly put his fiberglass knowledge to work making a tidy and adaptable body for the Panhard. He sold these quickly but refined the body early in the process. He had loved the Scaglietti Ferraris but found a superb and similarly shaped Ermini, from which he took a mold, and all subsequent Devin bodies are thus related to that Ermini. Some argue that the original donor was a Ferrari Monza but what seems more likely is that Devin blended the two shapes. The advantage of fiberglass was also that it could be easily modified to suit nearly any chassis, it was strong, cheap and easy to maintain. Devin had also converted the Panhard engine to overhead camshafts using toothed flexible belts, the first successful application of this approach to the automotive engine. Sadly, lack of funds meant he didn’t patent it and now some 200 million belt-driven ohc cars are in use.

Photo: Peter Collins

Devins were sold, mainly in component form, often with the body and a few parts according to the purchaser’s inclinations, for a wide range of donor chassis: Triumph, Allard and Crosley, just to name a few. There were some 27 variations available. As the ’50s progressed, Devin created the SS, a well-developed tubular chassis, with a 283-cu.in Chevy engine, capable of 160 mph and a sale price of $12,000. However, he also thought there should be a cheaper version for lesser mortals—and budgets—and produced the Devin D. This was to sell for something around $3,000.

The Devin D was to be similar in appearance to the SS, but the frame was much lighter, and most of the mechanical components came from Volkswagen. The cars were sold as a body laminated to the Devin D ladder frame for as little as $295. There were variations on this with the kit body fit to a VW or Porsche chassis, but these were not called the Devin D. The Porsche floor-pan itself wasn’t entirely suited, due to the height and location of the engine and fan shroud, so numerous better-looking adaptations were created. Builders had to use their wits to anchor the front and rear torsion bars.

Devin D Porsche

The Devin D raced in the U.S. in various configurations but didn’t make the kind of impact its bigger, faster SS brother did. For many years, Devins tended to get neglected and lost. In fact, it has only been fairly recently that anything but the SS has been seriously restored. Acknowledgement of Bill Devin’s ability and skill has been late in coming, especially outside the western U.S., and to some extent Devins suffered the fate of many kit cars, being perceived as second rate and not real sports cars. This misconception was warranted for many kits, but not the Devins, though the amateur approach to building many of them often perpetuated that kind of reputation.

A rare photograph of a Devin D in competition. This is our test car during the 1961 Benelux Sports Car Grand Prix in Belgium.

Stefano Chiminelli’s car is the product of a serious and careful restoration. While its papers list it as having been constructed in 1956, this seems highly unlikely and it probably first appeared in 1958 or 1959. It spent a very considerable part of its life in Germany, though it was originally in Belgium, possibly an import by an American serviceman, as was fairly regular practice in those days. There is even the possibility that this was one of the cars built under license in Belgium. It came to Italy about six years ago, owned by a friend of Chiminelli who did a complete restoration over a lengthy period. It was fully prepared for historic racing, and Chiminelli bought it about a year ago. Because it is so light and strong, he decided to use it primarily as a road car. The original Belgian owner had raced the car in the very early 1960s, and its presence in the Benelux Sports Car Grand Prix in 1961 has been documented, but sadly its full race history is yet to be discovered. However, it did a number of historic events through the 1980s, as it does today. The German owner, Gerhard Donner, raced regularly and the first Italian owner ran it in historic events at Monza before selling it. Certainly it had not been registered as a road car since the 1960s, if then. Interestingly, another Devin D has just arrived in Italy from the U.S. and Chiminelli knows of a Devin with a Triumph engine, and of a possible SS and a D in Germany…it’s a small club!

The Devin is an interesting vehicle on which to practice preservation, and retain originality. This car has always been a racecar so things get broken and changed, though perhaps fortunately, there isn’t an awful lot there in the first place. The early instruments have disappeared but have been replaced by period Porsche gauges, which look the part. The seats remain the molded-in, non-movable variety, so too bad if you are short or tall!

Devin D bodies were bonded to the Devin-built frame inside a jig which allowed for the entire assembly to be rotated on its axis.
Photo: Devin Archive

Stamped on the car and in its paperwork is an identifying number, TPO613051, which is probably derived from the Porsche suspension parts but does not represent a Devin identity. The Devin SS is rather easier to keep track of. One argument is that 15 complete cars and three kits were built before Devin moved onto the more “economical” D. However, more informed sources can account for 25 chassis but not all were issued chassis numbers. Eighteen chassis were laid down in Ireland and some seven in the USA.

Driving the Devin D

This is a car which might fool you at first glance. It has little of the sophistication of the Italians from which it was largely copied. If anything, it looks plain, at least on the inside, and the closed nose won’t suit everybody. But the lines are right, and it takes an aggressive stance in its American racing colors of white with blue stripes which run into and through the cockpit for the driver to admire, too! The Porsche steering wheel is on the left, and the instrumentation mentioned earlier is nice, but sparse, with a rev counter in the middle reading to 7,000 rpm, a speedometer on the left, and on the right is a combined Porsche gauge with fuel level and oil temperature. There are two switches for signalling left and right, and a fuel pump switch.

But if it seems simple, you switch on the growling and rhythmic Porsche four cylinder power plant, and the car changes character. The cable for the throttle runs from the pedal past your right leg to the engine compartment at the rear, so not only can you hear everything going on back there, you can watch yourself feed the fuel to that eager snarly thing in the back! This 356A engine has been balanced and set up with race cams so the power and smoothness are, I am advised in advance, only there once you get to 3,500–4,000 rpm. It has the “American” tuning kit and has a capacity of 1,738-cc. It produces about 130 bhp, though it felt a bit more to me, and most of that is working in the lower and mid-range. It only weighs 580 kilos. The exhaust is slightly modified for road use so a few bhp are lost there. The replacement light-alloy fuel tank has been relocated for better weight balance.

Bill Devin poses for a publicity shot with the prototype Devin D.
Photo: Devin Archive

The full-width screen is like the cockpit…one size fits all! The seats are just a leather covering over the fiberglass. This body/chassis was built for a slightly shorter person than my 5´10˝ frame my legs were slightly bent, and my eyes were level with the top of the screen, so I chose to look over. Perhaps this is why Devins never featured in endurance races! The interior and twin exterior mirrors give plenty of rearward vision, though I wasn’t going to need this on this now-closed section of public road. Nor would I, hopefully, need the large and modern fire extinguisher on the passenger side floor.

A brilliant piece of road had been chosen for this test, with switchbacks going up and down, left and right with greater and lesser camber, dips, straights and a few fast bends, all well above the plain stretching to Vicenza in the south. The stiffness of the Porsche floor-pan and solid Devin fibreglass construction is immediately evident, with a front roll bar adding to the roll stiffness while not taking away any of the feel at the front or rear. Once that starter button on the dash is punched, it’s all Porsche, with the familiar characteristics of the thumping four cylinder and the tidy and easy four-speed gear-change. The chrome gearshift lever needs to be used fairly often to keep the revs at a useable 4,000 rpm minimum as you get hard on the brakes for tight first-and second-gear corners on the way up. Equally on the downward runs, the revs are necessary to maintain a sharp, progressive pull out of the corners. Once on the cam, however, the Teutonic boost to the American machine is pure racing.

Publicity photo of the rolling chassis for the Devin D. Though the D-style body made it onto various Porsche and VW platforms, the “D” designation only applies to those cars with Devin-built frames utilizing Volkswagen suspension and Porsche running gear.

Photo: Devin Archive

I was just getting the hang of this international hybrid when local custom and culture intervened. First, an older man in his 70s, stopped me at the top of the hill to advise me that he had closed the road and I could spin the car around at the top in safety as he had “made arrangements.” As it turned out, this was no ordinary citizen but another passionate Italian with an old Austin Healey or two! I was just taking this episode on board when, halfway through a speedy downhill run, two women, also probably in their 70s, maybe a bit younger, stood on the side of the road blowing kisses. Nice, I thought. This is Italy. On the next high speed pass they stepped out into the road and waved me into the farmyard. After I managed to tell our “crew” what was happening and got them all rounded up in the courtyard of an old farmhouse in the village of Mazzone, halfway between Vicenza and Bassano, Signora Groniti brought out a cold bottle of sparkling white and pronounced her passion for motor racing. We heard how this region was famous for its olive oil and chilli peppers, though we were spared these. I was photographed with all and sundry and then we were given a tour of the farmhouse. Such is what an old racing car can do in the heart of car-mad Italy. It was a stunning experience.

The woman then told us that she knows Giannino Marzotto, winner of the Mille Miglia in 1953, more or less a local. He was president of the club of which Stefano is currently president, the third-oldest auto club in Italy, the Circulo Veneto Automoto Epoca. An hour of Marzotto stories ensue before I can get back into the now-forlorn Devin, warm up the Porsche again, and continue the task, slightly more cautious after such Italian hospitality. I am waved off on several more runs, and can have had no clearer message as to how a car that looks, sounds and performs like this beauty can stir ordinary people.

Of course, by then our photographer had lost his concentration, and I had to hang the tail out a little further to get his interest. The Devin does this beautifully, with great torque and grip as you get the power down in those very tight corners. The Avon Radial Sports, 175/70R15 front and rear on Tecnomagnesio wheels, really do the job well. The revs build quickly and you whip up through the gears until you reach the next bend. There’s no roll, and as the back steps out, you push the throttle harder to maintain control with the slightest movement of the wheel. The balance is amazing.

Devin took his cues for the smaller “D” body not so much from the Ferrari Monza, as commonly believed, but rather from an Ermini sports racer. Photo: Peter Collins

A few photos are taken from our “camera” car as we head back to Stefano’s. The church bell chimes from the center of the village and it is 11:20 in the morning. Is that for us? I get a quick inner glimpse of what the Mille Miglia must have felt like to competitors when it was a real race, the roads packed with passionate people who wanted to share your passion. This doesn’t happen that often where I live.

After the somewhat surreal experience of the morning, it was good to take the car and park it outside Stefano’s house, and study it from all angles. I found it seriously growing on me, and yet it was so odd that Devins were a part of my automotive youth but that I had to come to Italy to drive one! Somehow this car just seem to fit in here.

Buying and Owning a Devin

Not surprisingly, most of the cars are still in the U.S., and they can still be found in unfinished form, though sadly many of them will have gone through several stages of alteration, some for better, and many for the worse. They remain an easy and straight forward car to work on, but price is always going to be linked to the state of repair or disrepair you find. On the off-chance you manage to locate a nice Porsche engine sitting in a Devin D, you are now going to have to part with an amount of money which would have kept Bill Devin going for years! That means something between $20,000–40,000 but, having said that, there are Devins with potential out there for much less. Try some of the Web sites catering for Devins such as www.DNF.com. DNF stands for Devins Need Friends! Maintenance is also variable depending on which engine you have and the state of tune, but also the degree of expertise that went into putting the car together. If you find a Devin built car, go for it.

The author tries to convince his gracious hostess, Signora Groniti, that he can’t have anymore Grappa, because he has more driving to do.

Photo: Peter Collins

Specifications
Body: Fiberglass Devin single unit
Chassis: Devin D body laminated to ladder frame.
Weight: 580 Kilograms
Wheelbase: 82˝
Suspension: Front: VW torsion bars and trailing links. Rear: VW swing axles with coilovers.
Engine: Porsche 356A Flat 4-cylinder
Capacity: 1738-cc
Power: 130 bhp
Steering: VW steering box
Wheels: 15” Tecnomagnesio
Tires: Avon Tubeless Radial Sports 175/70 x 15 front and rear

Resources
Bill Devin Homepage
www.autoarch.com/BillDevin

Girdler, A. American Road Race Specials 1934–70.
1990, Motorbooks International, Wisconsin, USA.
ISBN-0-87938-409-3

 

Many thanks to Stefano Chiminelli, Gianni Codiferro and the people of Mazzone, especially Siete Groniti, and to Harold Pace.