Vw-porsche 914
Perhaps it’s the engine’s mid-mounted location, or this one’s Lamborghini-style green hue that does it, but there’s something wonderfully exotic about the Porsche 914. Of all the cars here it’s the one that feels the impact of late-sixties supercars the most. It was also a pioneer – the first mass-produced mid-engined sports car. The result of Porsche shifting VW’S rear-mounted engines forwards to create a Karmann-ghia replacement with far more driver appeal than anything Beetle-based could muster, in era of mid-engined racing titans like the Porsche 917. It announces its arrival with a metallic drone from the engine bay more akin to a light aircraft at taxiing speed than a car. It’s a fitting comparison – air-cooled flat-fours are commonplace in aviation.
The Vw-porsche 914 struggled for sales when new, its £2800 price tag making it too pricey for most VW dealers to shift when it landed in early 1970. This was an era before Porsche started dominating Le Mans and attaining the kind of mass desirability that allowed it to sell on the strength of its badge alone. Buyers stayed away.
Their loss. As I settle into this 914 I’m reminded of the 911s it shared Zuffenhausen factory space with. The sheer lowness, longwinded clonky gearchange, huge steering wheel, orange-on-black three-dial dashboard and expansive upright windscreen are all pure 911. So is the view down the bonnet, even though the long humps at either side are narrower, only brandishing indicators and sidelights.
It’s not the most comfortable of driving positions though. The steering column doesn’t adjust, which puts the wheel a stretch away once I’ve adjusted the seat for my legs. Again, Seventies 911s are like that. They have slightly awkward-feeling floor-hinged pedals too.
The 911 illusion is maintained in a straight line too. Although the thrust on offer from this late 2.0-litre VW Type Four-engined model isn’t in Carrera RS territory, the 914’s performance is certainly comparable to that of an early 2.0-litre chrome-bumpered 911 of the sort Porsche only phased out a few years earlier. And yet, the interior ambience is identical, in a car that costs £20k in concours condition and can still be found for less than £10k if you shop around. A 2.0-litre 911 in the same kind of condition as this 914 would set you back £130k.
It serves up more food for thought when I attack a tight, square bend. With less distance for the gear linkage to travel in a post-1973 914 than in a 911, quick downshifting is easier and less notchy. Pitch it into bends and the nose bobs like a 911’s, but rather than the tail threatening to step out under hard deceleration, there’s a great sense of stability brought about by the fact that the polar moment of inertia appears to be somewhere around my right hip in this left-hand drive car, rather than somewhere in the dashboard or the boot.
The great thing is, because the engine’s still in the rear, it still offers 911-style maximum traction coming out of corners. But it’s an overall safer Porsche to hurl about, and an absolute bargain too, provided you don’t mind it not looking like a 911. It’s at its best with the roof off and the roll bar acting as just that. Targa-top on it’s more practical but the roofline ends up looking abrupt and turret-like.
‘The 914 is an absolute bargain, provided you don’t mind it not looking like a 911’
Most were sold in the US and that’s where you’re most likely to find a cheaper, well-used one nowadays. UK examples tend to be restored, with attendant £20k price tags, although there are still bargains to be found – we spotted a sub-23k-mile rust-free Californian import for sale in Yorkshire for £14,990. Again, keep in mind how much you’d pay for an equivalent 911...
Early 1.7 and 1.8-litre engines are easy to find parts for, but fuel injection parts are scarce for a 2.0 like this one, and they don’t run right converted to carburettors unless the camshaft’s been upgraded. Bodywork condition really hinges on the condition of the area beneath the battery tray under the engine-bay lid. Rainwater pools in it, running down to the bodywork beneath and rotting the car’s structure out of sight from the inside out to the point where it sags in the middle. The unscrupulous hide the rot with a new battery tray, but they’re disguising a need for an extremely expensive full-body restoration.
Everything is available from the Genuine Classic Parts Catalogue courtesy of Porsche itself. Reassuring, but just bear in mind it’s not a particularly cheap place to go shopping.