Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: TJB/914 Jan 26 2015, 01:54 PM

Yikes,
Went by a local Porsche Repair shop and the place was boarded up & closed down. This 914 LE real one was in a (fresh water) flood last spring and at this shop for repairs. It's been sitting outside for the last 6-months and finally someone put a car cover on it. Last year when the shop was open the 914-LE owners name was confidential & not available. It breaks my 914 heart to see this happen.
Tom


Attached image(s)

Posted by: Jeff Bowlsby Jan 26 2015, 02:03 PM

Can you get the VIN?

Posted by: Dr Evil Jan 26 2015, 02:33 PM

Surprised no one has stolen the front valance and wheels. I hope this can get sorted out and this can get put back right.

Posted by: budk Jan 26 2015, 02:42 PM

Possibly just being stored there. It would be odd for an owner to just abandon it, plus someone cared enough to put a cover on it.

Posted by: TJB/914 Jan 26 2015, 03:03 PM

Jeff,
I sent you a personal PM with what I know about this LE along with the vin #. It's a sad story.
Tom

Posted by: struckn Jan 26 2015, 03:46 PM

Posted by: Johny Blackstain Jan 26 2015, 03:50 PM

This is how you store a Creamsicle- covered & in a garage.


Attached thumbnail(s)

Posted by: bigkensteele Jan 26 2015, 06:28 PM

Man, they seem to pop up all over the place given that it has been stated that only 50 are known to still exist. Just sayin'...

Posted by: patssle Jan 26 2015, 06:52 PM

Haven't you heard? Everybody you meet has driven or owned a 914 at one point in their life! Surely there is a secret stash of LE to go along with the amazing number of previous 914 owners!

Posted by: dlkawashima Jan 26 2015, 07:28 PM

Maybe it's like what they say about the Shelby Cobra ... 998 were made and only 10,000 exist today.

Posted by: budk Jan 26 2015, 07:31 PM

Not sure why that 50 number keeps coming up...... Other threads state more like 97 known to exist.

Posted by: pete000 Jan 26 2015, 07:56 PM

Michigan winters are not friendly to old Porsche metal !

Posted by: Jeff Bowlsby Jan 26 2015, 08:31 PM

Gentlemen, gentlemen...

94 Creamsicles is the current number, but that is only a ROM number. It most certainly is more or less than 94 in reality. Near 30 years of collecting data and we still find a few more each year. Including occasional counterfeits tribute LE's.

Posted by: bandjoey Jan 26 2015, 08:44 PM

Agreed. My boss bought a kit cobra. Convinced the lady at the title clerks office it was original. Now has historic plates and title. 10,000 + 1

Posted by: budk Jan 27 2015, 06:33 AM

Thanks Jeff, I was hoping that you would chime in. It would be interesting to know how you get your data... I'm not questioning the validity, I just like to know so that I can comment whenever a question arises.

Also, I have always believed that this board is well known and that everyone who has a 914 is or was likely a member. I have found the opposite to be true. In the past 5 years, almost every 914 that I have seen listed for sale and that I have contacted have told me that they never heard of this board.... It always amazes me given the wealth of info here.

Posted by: rdauenhauer Jan 27 2015, 07:53 AM

& have had similar experience but call me a skeptic
I tend to believe we have a lot of folks that are aware of this resource & lurk rather than join /contribute,
but would rather have you think they are naive.
Andy could probably pull a traffic report to prove or disprove this theory.

Posted by: Jeff Bowlsby Jan 27 2015, 08:47 AM

Dave Pateman started collecting info on the 914 LE cars around 30 years ago. He would track Pano classifieds, and whatever other resources were available to accumulate data. To his credit he often acquired the VIN, chassis number, engine/trans SN's, COA and photos for man914 y LE cars. Dave was collegial enough to share his data with me and we figured out how to put it online about 15 years ago which has given the LE Registry and 914 LE cars more visibility.

It can be challenging to preserve the integrity of the Registry by only including a car if it has convincingly sufficient information to support that it is an authentic 914 LE. We are surprised and somewhat flattered at the number of 'tribute' cars, which are also tracked for posterity. We have also found a number of black and Light Ivory cars within the known VIN range that have been verified NOT to be LE's. A COA is the only proof of authenticity, but not all car owners have a COA. I wish we had more complete info on all cars but for some we don't have enough information for a variety of reasons and for that reason some previously listed cars have fallen off the list or are indicated with what we do know and not included in the "total known surviving LE cars tally". I wish we had COA's, current owner info, location and other info on every car on the Registry but we don't. We do our best to protect the privacy of 914 LE owners and not publish any personal info, yet still display enough to keep the Registry interesting and meaningful. Its a lot of work maintaining data on 250 cars...I cannot imagine doing it for say...the 914/6 cars, that have many hundreds more that survive.

Posted by: carr914 Jan 27 2015, 03:17 PM

Can PCNA give you a List of LE's by doing a cross reference of COAs? With enough people at the top of PCA, I would think you could get some help

Posted by: bigkensteele Jan 27 2015, 05:28 PM

I was thinking the same thing. I am guessing that records from the early '70s are not computerized though...

Posted by: budk Jan 27 2015, 07:54 PM

It appears that even the mother ship will not confirm exactly how many of each LE were built....... Frustrating.

Posted by: Jeff Bowlsby Jan 27 2015, 08:15 PM

PCNA has the info...they have the power...they won't release a list of exact VINs or an exact quantity made. A kind soul there did however confirm for me the first and last LE VIN in their records...which I have indicated on the LE Registry. That person has moved on.

Two other semi-official documents are known to indicate 914 LE quantities...the initial marketing release which indicates 1000 would be built, and a later letter that suggests approximately 800 LEs were actually built. Its plausible that fewer than 1000 were built because the car was not a big seller, in spite of its value pricing and limited production.

At this point its really a guess until PCNA releases a complete VIN list.


Attached thumbnail(s)


Attached image(s)

Posted by: SirAndy Jan 27 2015, 08:22 PM

Well, that letter states that about 800 went to the US but we also know of a few European ones that were not meant for the US market.

Meaning, the total number could still be greater than 800 and maybe even close to the 1000 mark.

Posted by: Jeff Bowlsby Jan 27 2015, 08:32 PM

Good point Andy. I own the last known numbered Jubillaumsmodell medallion (Euro 914LE) that I have seen, #68, there may be more but I have found no records. I also have records of 20 914SLs that went to Japan. Mr. Hussey owns one of them. So we can add at least 88 to that ~800 number, perhaps more so maybe ~888.

Posted by: bigkensteele Jan 27 2015, 09:10 PM

Interesting. I wonder the motivations for keeping this type of benign information secret.

I am an IT guy for a publishing company. If you were to ask me how many copies of a particular book we ever sold (in the last 7 years or so), I could have the answer in as long as it would take for me to write and execute the SQL. Anything past 7 years, sorry... we don't need or want to keep records that far back. I would think that automobile manufacturers (especially German) would have a much higher standard for data retention given liability laws, so it would stand to reason that they may have digitized the records in question.

I wonder if the question has never been asked to the right person. If you were to call our receptionist, she would have no way to tell you how many books we sold, and there is a pretty good chance that she would have no idea who to forward the call to. If she forwarded it to me, I would want to know who is asking and why they want to know (publishing is very competitive).

Just thinking that a different approach to PCNA to get the answers might pay dividends, say a Panorama editor or somebody like that...

Posted by: Dave_Darling Jan 27 2015, 10:02 PM

I'm pretty sure that the records are not in any database. At least, they were not that recently in one. I believe that the information on the CoA was hand-copied from the cards in the "Kardex" as of ~10 years ago. It might have been entered since then, but I'm not sure why they would have taken the time to do that.

Perhaps they are entering the info as they get requests for it? That would make a fair amount of sense....

(Sorry, I just went through a whole bunch of spreadsheet-entry from paper records for the animal shelter I volunteer for. It's not easy, and it's not fast.)

--DD

Posted by: bigkensteele Jan 27 2015, 10:39 PM

I was just going by the fact that they were able to tell Jeff the first and last LE VIN numbers, thus establishing the official "range" that we have all adopted. If the records were not digitized, I do not know how those numbers could have been established, other than by ruining a couple of weeks for some file-clerk.

Posted by: SirAndy Jan 28 2015, 12:59 AM

The data isn't digitized ...

Posted by: Jeff Bowlsby Jan 28 2015, 03:38 AM

I made friends with a former COA person at PCNA, she was congenial and helpful. She just looked in her records. There are ~2500 VINS in the LE VIN range, they are not going to take the time to carefully examine each record to see which ones are LEs. Not gonna happen anytime soon. They really don't care much about our old cars.

Posted by: carr914 Jan 28 2015, 05:43 AM

How about a Back Door approach - get Pete Stout (Editor of Pana and one of us) to do an article on LEs. As part of his research he asks PCNA for the info and wala, the info doesn't make into the article but is passed along to you.

Lots of PCA Officers have had one or still have a 914

Posted by: TJB/914 Feb 5 2015, 04:19 PM

It's still there collecting snow from our recent 16" drop a few days ago. The shop is still locked up with lots of car tracks circling around the bldg. looking for life or maybe their ride inside the locked shop??? I've tried to contact the shop people I know with no luck. I did tuck a note up under the cover on the windshield for the owner to contact me. Buy or Help!!!! Please call.

I'll keep checking & hope to find this LE a new home, got to save it from a cruel rust free life ??

Tom


Attached image(s)

Posted by: dcheek Feb 5 2015, 05:02 PM

I hope it doesn't come to this....................

Posted by: PBC914 Feb 5 2015, 09:00 PM

Obtain the plate number and sign up on the web for a license plate search. For $35 you will obtain all the info you need on the owner. Good luck!

Posted by: Vacca Rabite Feb 7 2015, 10:01 AM

Its in storage.
There is snow but not road salt.
Someone took the time to buy and put a cover on it.
Please approach this with caution. We don't need another "number 4."

Zach

Posted by: Dr Evil Feb 8 2015, 12:50 PM

Dont tell B-rad

Posted by: TJB/914 Mar 23 2015, 07:05 PM

It's gone

I went by the boarded up shop today and the 914-LE's keys were on the ground where it was parked:WTF: and the 914-LE is gone.
I picked up the key and now have the 914-LE car keys in my position
I'll check the local police dept. tomorrow & see if they have a record of anyone towing it away.
Could it be stolen or in a chop shop
Mystery
Tom


Attached image(s)

Posted by: tumamilhem Mar 23 2015, 07:41 PM

Man, that sucks. :/

Posted by: Johny Blackstain Mar 23 2015, 07:53 PM

Chopping up an LE for parts would either be a sign of ignorance or rust, since it's maximum value comes from being an entire LE unit. Really glad mine is covered in the garage & runs

Posted by: rgalla9146 Mar 23 2015, 10:06 PM

I'd bet the key was left on top of a tire so that someone could retrieve the car after hours....... a long time ago.
The fact that the key was not used when the car was taken away....... does not bode well for the car

Posted by: 914_teener Mar 23 2015, 10:13 PM

Prolly only had a bad CHT or something.......?

Posted by: damesandhotrods Mar 23 2015, 11:21 PM

“This 914 LE real one was in a (fresh water) flood last spring and at this shop for repairs.”

“It's been sitting outside for the last 6-months”


It has flood damage, and the owner has let it sit at the garage for 6 months, probably racking up storage fees, this sounds like a car that needs an awful lot of expensive work.

Posted by: tumamilhem Mar 24 2015, 03:14 AM

I could've used the front spoiler. :/

Posted by: tumamilhem Mar 24 2015, 03:16 AM

interesting that this is the first evidence that I've ever seen that there may actually have been less than the presumed 1000 (500x500) Limited Edition US Can Am cars produced.

Posted by: era vulgaris Mar 24 2015, 12:06 PM

Man that's sketchy. I think if the car had been taken during daylight hours, the keys would've been noticed lying on the ground. Not seeing black keys lying on black pavement...I'm guessing this car was taken late at night.