By Rob Ways. Republished with permission from the October 2015 issue of Fourteener Motoring Magazine.

Mike & Kristi Bellis’ Outlaw 914 is what we like to refer to as a “Hover Car.” Wherever he goes, people like to hover around it.

You may be the type that has a designer alligator belt and stands around in awe of a Bugatti in Beverly Hills.  Instead, this outlaw 914 stretches a different note in your imagination: builder and driver. The typical 914 drivers are people like you and me – Often comfortable stretching out our stomachs drinking beer at the West Coast Classic, and our latest 914 event T-shirt at the same time. Let your belt out a little. This is as good as it gets.

Like all true Outlaw Porsches, Mike’s creation is uniquely his own: His styling, his likes, and his way. A red, white, and blue theme on a white 914 chassis – patriotic for sure, since Mike is a former Marine. Fiberglass bumpers, rockers, and valences, as well as an aggressive spoiler give it a race car vibe, but this rocket is built for duality: street and track.

The pop up headlights are gone – replaced by Nissan headlamps and custom eyelids. Mike suggests that he wants to keep the lights, but make them pop up like stock. Everything is unique about this 914, and the lights are just another cue that this car is a special build.

Let’s hover more, shall we?

The first thing that a roving 914 aficionado sees is that it’s a 914 with bolt-on flares. Racey and different, at the same time. Get closer.

There’s an Audi steering wheel and column. Audi instrument panel. You quickly look back under the engine lid to find an Audi powerplant. What’s that? You have lots of questions.

Does the 1.8 Turbo go fast? Yes. Peak horsepower of 325. What kind of transmission? Audi/Boxster 5 speed. Drive by wire? Yes. Does the steering column work in this configuration? Yes. How good does it drive? Good. Real good.

Mike admits he originally wanted to do the conversion with a Subaru engine, but he couldn’t find a decent motor without tired miles. Enter the Audi 1.8T. It, however, wasn’t exactly a plug and play exchange. You try and wire up a modern German powertrain to a vintage 70’s 914. Luckily, Mike’s day job is in electrical construction. This is when you realize your dream of copying his masterpiece is permanently under an inch of dust on jack stands in your dreams, making a nice cat nest.

The car has prior racing history, but is now doing service as a daily driver. 930 brakes. Full cage. Fire suppression. Who does this, you ask? A 914 guy with seriously mad skills.

Heading down the road in 1st and 2nd gear is like driving a nice, tame, well-mannered 914. The exhaust note is spunky like Demi Moore in her prime, but push hard on the wire, open up the turbo, and a screaming banshee erupts like a typhoon. Yes, that is the rear bumper of the car in front of you. Let’s see here… oh yes, 930 brakes.

Mike gets a fair amount of commentary, so I will offer some too. This could be a really awesome track car. You could chew up a road course on every whim. And, in a prior life, it was a race car. It was campaigned by the previous owner with the POC in the 80’s and 90’s. In 1996, it was retired as the competition moved on to higher horsepower 6-cylinder engines. In 1999, the car was converted back to a street car with a 283 V8. It changed hands a bit, with a stint in Kentucky, until Mike bought it off of eBay in 2009, and the rest of this Outlaw 914 is history.

Back on the freeway, the car is calm. It’s the turbo that lies in waiting. This car is wonderful, and I mean it. Mike explains that he had the engine tuned by a professional tuner – 034 in Fremont, CA. It shows. The turbo is a GT2860. This may be the best driving high-horsepower 914 on the road today. If not, it is very close.

We double back on street roads that take us to a series of stop signs. The Porsche gods are waging bets in the clouds – a grey 996 Turbo is just ahead. Yeah, that’s a red, white, and blue 914 with a big wing in your rear view mirror. He stomps on it. Well, what do you think happens next?

Yes, I could describe the adventure in great detail, but before you whip out your Porsche performance almanac to compare horsepower, let’s just cut to the chase (pun intended). You can see the 996 Turbo owner asking, what is in that? Then he went home and beat his cat. A 914 with a turbo can bend the senses, and interrupt the dollar-to-ego continuum. Poor kitty.

This 914 is a clear testament to Mike’s imagination. It’s an Outlaw 914 that is all his creation. It is a “hover car” that stands up like a window to your 914 build dreams. Do you have the mad skills?