Volkswagen Karmann Ghia by Dacon

For decades, Brazil made importing complete foreign cars extraordinarily difficult, to the great benefit of WCOTD. If you wanted something exotic, or unique, or fast—or all three—sometimes the easiest solution was to build it yourself.

Enter Paulo Goulart and Dacon.

Beginning in 1964, Goulart experimented with fitting Porsche power into the locally produced Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. One of the early cars, driven by Brazilian racing legend Chico Landi, won the 100 Milhas da Guanabara—although its Porsche mechanicals promptly led competitors to question whether it was still really a Volkswagen.

Fair point, and game on.

By 1966 Dacon had gone considerably further, creating four dedicated Karmann Ghia race cars with lightweight fibreglass bodywork designed by Anísio Campos. Two of the cars reportedly used 1.6-litre Porsche 356C engines, while the serious ones received 2.0-litre, four-cam Porsche 904-derived power. One contemporary specification put output around 200 horsepower in a car weighing roughly 650 kilograms.

Lesson: if you can't import the car, import the best parts you can manage.