ehokana

I know there are numerous threads and rants about 914's getting little respect from other Porsche drivers, however I don't mean for this to start one of those- just wanted to tell about a neat experience I had a few weeks ago.

The other night, just before I started the tear-down for my restoration, I took my 914 out for a late night drive/ burger run. Apparently the In n Out parking lot "hosts" a late night meeting of all the street racers in the Inland Empire area once a month. I decided to stop and check out some of the cars that were there- some really nice 350Z's, RX7's and S2000's among many others. After I had walked around for a few minutes and felt sufficiently out of place, I noticed that a surprisingly large group was standing around my car. Long story short, the guys had a bunch of questions about the car and were very interested in it- it came as a surprise to me how many of them knew a bit about 914's and also how many had never seen one. It was also really funny when one of the guys said that they wanted to check the 914 out since they figured I probably wouldn't be interested in their cars and would be leaving pretty quickly.

Anyway, I thought it was cool that the street racing crowd took such an interest in a lowly 914 (and never asked anything like "but it's really just a Volkswagen, isn't it?"). It made me think that perhaps we've been running with the wrong car guys all this time

skl

Yep, it's just taking 40 years...

Back in the late 60's I was getting into Porsches when my uncle got a new '69 912. I was thinking either an older 356 or a new 914 as that was my budget and I wanted a new car. Many in the PCA didn't want the 914 to "count" as it was a stepchild VW. I remember writing a letter to Pano basically saying that was bull****. Fast forward to now and I don't think Pete Stout et al would believe what we 914 drivers went through way back then!!

Steam Driver

Boy that's the truth! I had the second (I think) 914 sold in the K.C. area (moving from a 356C coupe because of the 914's topless nature) and I'll never forget the furor in Pano. I also remember that there was some guy in Texas (I think - long time ago now) who immediately set about attempting to put a 912 engine in one, I guess to prove a point of some kind. Maybe to show that it would perform better with a "real Porsche engine" or maybe just to give it some legitimacy in his mind. Pano followed this story for some time and then it just sort of died, so I don't know how or if it turned out.

If anyone has them, I think the Pano issues would have early seventies.

skl

Got those early Panos somewhere in the attic... interesting list of previous cars- a friend in high school had a '64 Spyder and we loved that car! An American "porsche"...

Steam Driver

If you get a chance check out those Panos; the guy putting the 912 in the 914 was doing it on a very new car and at the time he was obviously very active in PCA; his name appeared a lot, all over the place.

At one time I had Panos from '70 thru 1990 or so, along with Christophorus of the same period. I sold them all to a guy in Clearwater, FL in the early 90's. I quit doing Christo's and the calendars when they stopped using customer photos and went to the obviously professional studio images of only the latest cars they were "pushing."