February 2007 1 Northlander - North Country Region

The Porsche 914 might be one of theleast loved lines offered by our favoritemarque, but the car did sell well andalmost 35 years later is, to my pooreyesight, a classic machine. In highschool I first started noting these machines.At that time most were just oldcars, not really well cared for, and inNew England anyway, most I saw werewell and truly starting to show deepeffects of the dreaded tinworm. But eventhen, I liked the sharp edges and sort oflow squat boxy look about them. Theneighbor of one of the gals I was chasingeven had a junky rust bucket of a 914parked under a big old oak tree, but Iliked the car, which in my mind made agood excuse to call upon Sheila. I mayhave gotten over Sheila, but I still lust forthe 914.Introduced in 1969 to replace the aging912, the 914 in all its various configurationslasted until 1976 when it wasreplaced by surprisingly enough a modelcalled the 912E which lasted but a yearbefore the 924 was introduced. Originallyintended as a joint Porsche/Volkswagen project, Porsche had a handshake agreement with Volkswagen ChairmanNordoff to purchase body shells ata low rate and would then fit Porschedrive trains. With the untimely death ofthe VW chairman and no written contract,VW’s new chairman Kurt Lotzsubsequently increased the price of theunfinished cars to Porsche making thePorsche 914-6 much more expensivethan originally intended, approachingthat of the top of the line 911.February 2007Est-ce plutôt une Porscheou une Volkswagen?Well the above is French, not German,but still, is it a Volkswagen or is it aPorsche? In the US anyway, the 914 wasmarketed as a Porsche, in the rest of theworld, however the car was marketed asa VW-Porsche causing some confusionand was also, less affectionately knownas a “vopo” which would be slang for thethen East German Secret Police. In fourcylinder configuration the car utilizedinitially a 1.7 liter Volkswagen derivedpowerplant, later upgraded to 2.0 and1.8 Liter variations. As mentioned above,a more sporting 914-6 used the six cylinderengine lifted from the 911 and wasmarketed as a Porsche.Mid Engine LayoutAdvanced for the time, the car used amid engine layout with the enginemounted in front of the rear axle givingvery favorable front/rear weight balance.Touts a period advertisement, “The reartrunk of a 914 contains 7 cubic feet ofempty space. That’s room enough forthree good-sized travel bags, a set of golfclubs and a small ray gun.” Obviouslythe copy writer didn’t know my wife, weare hard pressed to fit our bags for a longweekend in the back of our station wagon,let alone the back of a 914. But the copywriter continued; “Up front is anothertruck with even greater space than theone in back (9 cubic feet of empty space).Besides having two trunks, the 914 hasthe unique distinction of being a Porschewith an earthy price.” No, that is not a17 Northlander