The Amelia Island Concours sends emails about the cars to be at the event this coming March. Just got this one about the 914.
PORSCHE'S 914 HONORED AT 20TH AMELIA ISLAND CONCOURS d'ELEGANCE
The 20th annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance will honor the first mid-engine production Porsche, the 914 in all its variants.
At first some Porsche purists lamented the Porsche 914's seemingly humble origins. They whispered the "V-Word" . . . Volkswagen. The reality was that the 914 is a blood descendant of the seminal Gmund Porsche, the first car to wear the family name and the crest, a pure sports car designed around a Volkswagen-sourced air-cooled flat-four and a mid-engine configuration.
Porsche had no illusions about the technological and commercial realities of their new sports car. The 914 project began life as a joint venture between Volkswagen and Porsche who needed an entry level replacement for the four-cylinder 912. With the economies of scale brought by a production liaison with Volkswagen, the 914 could be commercially viable.
The prototype 914 appeared early in 1968 just as Porsche was poised to shed its reputation as a giant killer on the world's race tracks. The man heading the 914 project was Porsche R&D chief Ferdinand Piech, Ferdinand Porsche's grandson who created, almost simultaneously with the 914 project, the all-conquering Porsche 917 Le Mans endurance racer.
The lower price of the 914 brought a new clientele to Porsche showrooms. The 914 quickly outsold its pricier 911 stablemate while staying true to Porsche's technological heritage with friendly Porsche dynamics, solid handling and, in the case of the 914/6, traditionally ferocious Porsche brakes.
"It was fashionable with some self-proclaimed Porsche purists to consider the 914 an 'ugly duckling'," said Bill Warner, Founder and Chairman of the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. "That changed very quickly. Here in north Florida the Porsche 914 found a home and willing customers through the racing exploits of Peter Gregg, Hurley Haywood and Brumos Porsche who took the 914/6 GT to victory in the first IMSA GT race in history on the way to winning the first IMSA GT Championship title in 1971."
The 914/6 fell quickly and easily into the traditional Porsche role of "giant killer" winning half the races on IMSA's 1971 IMSA GT championship calendar against much larger and more powerful Corvettes, Camaros and Mustangs.
"The 914/6 GT was my first real race car," said Hurley Haywood, five-time winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona. "Peter Gregg and I shared the Championship in 1971 in my first year of professional racing. The 914 was really fun to drive and we would kill the big block Chevys and Fords in IMSA. We still have that car in our collection and use it often to give rides to our Porsche driving school customers."
At Le Mans the two-liter 914/6 GT not only won the 24 Hour classic's GT class in its 1970 debut, it finished sixth overall; the first GT car behind the pure prototypes that had more than twice the 914's engine displacement and power. To the quiet dismay of the self-appointed purists the class-winning 914/6 GT finished three laps ahead of the top placed 911.
The 914 in all its iterations enjoyed a long and productive life as a club racer in America. When Porsche built the 916 in 1972, the six-cylinder version of the 914 packed a 190 hp 2.3 liter six and wore big fenders and more aggressive Porsche styling details. But the 916 was deemed too expensive for serial production. Just eleven had been built when 914 production ceased in 1976.
The ultimate 914 was the 914/8 powered by a three-liter flat-eight Porsche racing engine. Just two were created for the Porsche family.
"The 914 is a true Porsche with pure Porsche DNA," said Warner. "The 914 was raced and rallied successfully all around the world and, like the 911, a cult has grown up around it. It's time the 914 had its day in the sun."
I gotta say, some of the track- and autocross-prepared 914s make me go weak in the knees.
What a great thread! A decent 914 has to be driven to be believed. So agile!
https://sites.google.com/site/mm914porsche/
24h of Le Mans in June 1970
Nürburgring 86 hour-race in August 1970 (3 first places taken)
Rallye Monte Carlo in February 1971
Nordstadt Käfer
The "Nordstadt Beetle" is actually a VW-Porsche 914 chassis with a modified VW 1303 body. A short video is in my media files.
> 2 units were built by Autohaus Nordstadt (Hannover) in 1972
> 2.7 litre 6-cylinder engine from the Porsche 911 with 210 hp
> maximum speed 220 km/h
> acceleration from 0-100 km/h in 7 seconds
SCCA Autocross Championship Video - Better than Coffee - Road & Track
My 914 started off as a $300.00 chassis with a replaced floor. A year and a half later it was a semi-tube car, 1800 lbs, with a 380 hp 1.8 turbo, 5 speed and a spool in the diff. I loved how it created tunnel vision on acceleration and tried to suck my helmet off on
the back straight at the Glen.
After recently hearing there were 8-cyl prototype 914's made, I read the topic title and thought "they made a sixteen-cylinder version?????") :crazy:
Until my wife got me thinking about Boxsters and Caymans earlier this year, the 914 was the only Porsche that I could see myself behind the wheel of (a 904 being too unlikely even for daydreaming).
