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914World.com _ 914World Garage _ Ferry Porsche's 914/8 - Fact vs Fiction

Posted by: perrysan Sep 7 2022, 03:46 PM

Many years ago I read about Porsche's Weissach team making a special 914 with a detuned 908 flat eight for Ferry Porsche's 60 birthday - the 914/8. There seems to be no dispute about this as the car is in the Porsche museum. However, my recollection from years ago is that when Ferry got in the car, he was so pleased with it that he drove away from his own birthday celebration to enjoy the car, much to everyone's surprise.

Recently I re-read an account of this and it stated rather flatly that Ferry wasn't terribly impressed with the car, so it was relegated to the museum--end of story. Convinced this was some revisionist history from an anti-914 author, I did a google search and found more confirmation that Ferry wasn't impressed with the 914/8.

Did I rewrite my memory of the 914/8 story to better align with my 914 fascination, or are there two competing narratives?

Similarly inconsistencies exist for Piech's 914/8 - He never drove it / it wasn't street legal to he drove it all over town for a few years scaring everyone in the car's wake.

Posted by: 914Sixer Sep 7 2022, 04:58 PM

Piech's 914/8 story was that he dove it like he stole it. By contrast Ferry was not real excited about his car. You might say it was the difference of age. No way to know for sure, but the mileage might be an indicator of which version is more true.

Posted by: sixnotfour Sep 8 2022, 09:12 PM

The silver 914 is a 916 prototype , 8cyl. with a sunroof.. and gas door/

edited

Posted by: IronHillRestorations Sep 9 2022, 06:30 AM

I read that Ferry put quite a few KM’s on the 914/8

Posted by: ttwitc9516 Oct 25 2022, 10:43 AM

I love my 914's dearly but I can see where the Porsches were less than enthusiastic about them. They represented a screwing pretty much all the way around for them. Peich's excitement is understandable as they probably appreciated the publicity for Audi as they were racing the 917's as Porsche-Audi around that time.