Postwar American motoring lore is famous for independent entrepreneurs who bucked the system while building cars that put Detroit’s Big Three to shame, but few of them stack up to Southern California’s Bill Devin, whose fiberglass bodied sports cars won two SCCA titles and numerous races.

An experienced driver who sought to emulate the beautiful speed machines emerging from Europe, Devin began his production career in the mid-1950s with a successful imitation of the Dyna-Panhard before segueing to his celebrated Devin SS, a V-8 powered racer with Scaglietti-influenced coachwork.

Devin achieved outstanding finish and durability in his body shells by utilizing a comparatively time-consuming fiberglass technique, although by 1959 he endeavored to develop a more inexpensive model.

This effort culminated in the rear-engine Devin D, which integrated components from a Volkswagen or Porsche.

But Porsche was loathe to sell engines to a builder that was routinely beating them on the track, s...