Porsche 914/6 collectability

[MarkH]

I would like to offer a different perspective on the914-6/911s comparison. I was fortunate to be in the market for a new new 911 in 1970. I was an 18 year old kid at the time and car crazy since the age of 4, I had scraped up enough for a down payment and thru the help of my father co signing the loan would make the monthly payments while I worked my way thru college. I grew up in glendale, ca. And the local Porsche was allred brothers and Jim allred was the owner. I went down to see him one day and he proceeded to tell me about the new mid engine 914. What he did not realize was the only Porsche I desired was a 911 I had no interest in the 4cylinder914,as we talked he quickly discovered I knew what I wanted and it was a911. He had a 914-6 just outside his door and said well look at that it has the 911 six. Again I proceed to tell that for the difference in price about 431 less than a 911t there was no comparison, he got up form his desk and said let's go look at the 911t there in the back. Excuse my digression on this tale but it points out the difficulty they were having trying to sell the 914-6 against there own product the 911, there simple was no comparison . Now bring a 911s into the discussion and it becomes even more lopsided. That is the way it looked to consumers on the showroom floor in 1970.

First of all, welcome to the Forum and a great first post. I read it with interest as your story is identical to mine. We are even the same age! My hangout was Continental Porsche-Audi in Portland, Oregon. The owner of the dealership was my next door neighbor and for several years put up with my constant loitering at his store.
When I was ready to take the plunge he told me to take the 914, 914-6 and 911T for a drive.
While the 914-6 was fun I never seriously considered it. If it would have been 2,000.00
cheaper than the 911 I might have. I think Porsche's marketing department really blew it. They surely must have known this was going to be a problem but maybe not. Two years later they thought the RS was going to be a tough sell and priced it only 500.00 more than an S. Go figure.

[914-6gt]

Well, I was a bit surprise to read the comments made on the last paragraph of an article that also talks about the 914. How far off can they be! Here we go, I wanted to share it with the rest of you.

By the way, I found the article as I was looking for either a "press release" or statement supposedly made by Porsche where they indicated the "Boxter was their first production mid-engine car". Is that right...

PS: If you know where the statement was made public, please forward it to me. I love to read it!

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914: 1970-1976
If there's no more legendary Porsche than the 550 Spyder, there's no model more derided than the 914. Almost a decade and a half after the relatively exotic 550 Spyder left production, the 914 was introduced as a more accessible and affordable Porsche.

The 914 emerged from a partnership between Porsche and VW with Porsche handling the design and development work, Karmann coachworks supplying the bodies and Volkswagen doing the final assembly in its Wolfsburg plant (the few 914/6s produced were finished at Porsche's Zuffenhausen facility). The idea was to use many of the components then being developed for VW's new (and now long forgotten) 411 and 412 models to build the sports car, including the engines. In fact the 914 was sold as a "Volkswagen-Porsche" in much of the world even though it was sold as a regular Porsche in the United States.

Whether the 914 was good-looking or not is open to argument, but it sure didn't look like any previous (or subsequent) Porsche. Every surface on the 914's body was flat: the doors, the hood lid, the deck lid and the roof. The car kind of looked like a pizza box with four wheels underneath it and a shoebox plopped atop it.

The 914's structure was a basic steel unibody with an A-arm and MacPherson strut front suspension and a set of trailing arms in the rear. The engine sat just behind the two-seat cockpit with a small trunk at the aft end and another small trunk in the front. All 914s were "Targas" in that they featured a removable roof panel that allowed sunshine in, similar to that used on the 911 Targa. The general design of the suspension was similar to the 911's, but the 914 used coil springs in the rear as opposed to the torsion bars in the contemporary 911.

The 1970 edition of the 914 came with a fuel-injected 1.7-liter version of VW's air-cooled overhead valve flat four rated at a modest 85 hp. It was backed by a five-speed manual transmission whose ratios could be hunted down and found…eventually. Still, in a year that also saw the introduction of the Datsun 240Z the 914 was impressive enough that Motor Trend named it as the magazine's first Import Car of the Year. "Sure it was one of the best-handling machines any of us had ever driven," wrote Motor Trend, "and no one faulted steering response or legroom, but the car underscores better than anything else the shift of automotive design influence out of America."

Underscoring design shifts or not, the first 914 wasn't too speedy. According to Motor Trend it took 12.4 seconds for the 914 to reach 60 mph and it completed the quarter-mile in 18.3 seconds at 75.3 mph. That's just bleak. But there was a solution on the way.

About three months after the four-cylinder 914 was introduced, Porsche introduced the 914/6 powered by the 911's 2.0-liter flat six making 125 hp and supported by a five-speed manual transmission. This was an entirely different beast: quick, agile and more able to exploit the midengine layout. Motor Trend measured a 914/6 accelerating from zero to 60 mph in 8.4 seconds and completing the quarter-mile in 16.1 seconds at 85.5 mph. That's roughly equivalent to the old 550 Spyder.

With the 914 still fresh on the market, revisions for the 1971 model year were slight at best. However, Porsche did develop a new model based on the 914 called the 916 that used the 914's body stuffed full of the 911S model's 2.4-liter, 190-hp flat six and five-speed transmission.

Apparently designed to replace the 914/6, the 916 had distinctive fender blisters to accommodate wider tires on 15-inch wheels and a fixed steel roof for extra structural heft. Only 11 916s were ever produced and all of them were considered preproduction machines. And only one of those actually made it to the United States. It's all a pity because had the 916 made it into production it would have been the quickest Porsche built up to that time.

The 914/6 was excised from Porsche's 1972 line, leaving the 914 to soldier forward as the sole midengine offering. Changes were again minimal (the front end was slightly restyled) and sales were a healthy 27,660 units worldwide. In a brief update Road & Track concluded that the '72 914 was "a car for the real enthusiastic driver." But the publication also concluded that the car was overpriced relative to the competition, particularly Datsun's much faster 240Z.

A 2.0-liter version of the VW four became part of the 914 story for 1973 and its 91-hp output left performance neatly between the 1.7-liter four and out-of-production 2.0-liter six versions. Road & Track measured the 2.0-liter 914 running to 60 mph in 10.3 seconds and the magazine concluded that "the 914/2 [the magazine's informal shorthand to indicate the 2.0-liter version] is pretty much like a 914 of any sort. The styling is plain, the cockpit has plenty of room for two people, the seats feel spartan at first but surprisingly comfortable during a long trip, and the lift-off roof panel makes the 914 more of a pre-fab sunroof than a truly open car…. The price will keep the 914/2 from being a sports car for the masses but with the extra torque, the improved gearshift, the handling and the extra quality of the exhaust note, the 914/2 is one of the better sports cars around."

The 914's base 1.7-liter engine grew to 1.8 liters for 1974 but emissions regulations actually dropped output to just 72.5 hp. The 2.0-liter's output managed to stay pegged at 91 hp. But other changes were minor in nature except for the noticeably more robust bumpers installed to meet new federal 5-mph-impact bumper mandates.

With Volkswagen losing interest in the project and Porsche developing a new family of front-engine, water-cooled sports cars, the 914 made it through 1975 virtually unchanged mostly through neglect. Only the 2.0-liter 914 made it into the 1976 model year and when that year was over, so was the 914.

There are still some 914 lovers out there, but for the most part the 914 is forgotten today — a relic with little collector interest. But it was hardly the end of midengine cars at Porsche.

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Can you believe it?!!! I can't hardly...

...and here is the website location of this article http://www.edmunds.com/porsche/carrera-gt/history.html

[69softwindow]

Just a follow-up. I did not drive a914-6 when I bot my 911t but did drive one shortly thereafter and the handling was much better than my 911t, it would not have changed my mind at the time, mainly because the build quality of the 911 was so much better considering the small difference in price. The relatively high price of the six compared to the 911t as I have read was due to the fact porsche was having to pay a high price for the bodies,apparently ferry porsche had a handshake deal with his friend and CEO heinz nor doff but shortly before production nor doff suddenly died, and the new CEO came up with the higher prices. I am sure ferry Porsche knew this would ruin the sales, as he had intended price point of 4,500 to5,000. Certainly at those numbers the car would have sold much better. I hope I did not give the impression that I am not fan of the914-6 on the contrary if I had more room it's one of the cars I would love to have.

[MarkH]

Raj,

Thanks for sharing this information. Never seen it before. I even printed a hard copy to put away.

Mark

[JKH]

this is the difference between 911/914

[Flieger]

I will take the one on the left for $36,001

[Macroni]

Raj,

Gunnar racing is building one.

[Bullethead]

http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...c+blue+914%2F6

Thought that looked familiar... wonder what the reserve is?

Raj, Macroni is right, Gumby's restoring the Troutman El-Teenerino.
It's pretty spankin'... maybe he'll post some updates. Here's a tease:

[Reza]

yum yum yum

[JPlonghood]

Raj,

Here are a couple pics of my '72 914-6 'flat nose' with the fiberglass front bumper and metal hood installed. This car was evidently converted/fabricated in Switzerland. I was going to put it back to original with raised metal turn signal tunnels (flares were done prior to the flat nose), but the metal work to the fenders, hood and front nose was so well done... and so unique. Love it, or hate it, I'm leaving it as is.