I played with my 1.7 914 for a couple of years and really enjoyed it for what it was. It was a boisterous tart of a car, petite and tolerant. The 14 was anxious to please. Then I decided that I needed more power. You see I had purchased another Porsche during that time (impure thoughts, impure thoughts) and learned some things like they joy of power-on oversteer. The "other Porsche" was a brute. It would knock the wine glasses over at dinner and lear at the boss' wife. It insisted on shots of Jameson's for everybody before and after dinner. CHEERS! The twin-cam growl as the tach sweeps to 6400, the ability to drive the car with all the controls including the throttle is paradise. The logic, desire, no NEED for an LSD to keep everything hooked up on corner exit make it a must. That ripping up asphalt feeling of the enourmous four-piston calipers hauling it down from a buck-twenty is like heroin. I couldn't get enough of this new brute.

The 1.7 would never produce "power-on" anything much less oversteer. I had listened to the PCA AS class gurus talk about the joys of driving momentum cars and how much more skilled I'd become for the effort. The other Porsche's call was hard to resist. The 914 sat forlorn. It was starting to be in the way. I would be bleeding the brakes on the "other Porsche" and have to walk around the 914 to get a tool or a hose. I started to think crazy. Sell it as a roller, buy an RSA, trade it for a Ducati, swap it for a cage in the "other Porsche," remove the tags and VINs and park it on a street someplace where you wouldn't want to walk alone at night.

The 1.7 got to such a forlorn state through a series of missteps on my part. I had decided to put a stock 2.0 in the car which would have been a substantial upgrade in performance. I've seen a well prepared 914 with a stock 2.0 take TTOD on a tight AX course. As I got into the project I realized that I was NOT going to be happy with 94.7 BHP even in a light car like the 14. The "other Porsche" had already done it's damage. So the project became to build a hot 2.0. Then came carbs and heads and the other stuff to make this happen. 115.3 BHP that's the ticket. As I worked into the project my time in the garage became more and more precious to the point where I only had weekends to mess with the 14. Hey, I've already got a full-time job! I decided that spending all my spare time wrenching was sounding like a lot less fun that when I started. And all that work for 115.3 BHP, if I was lucky. No can do. So then I went to engine builders. Finding the best wasn't hard. Getting on the list wasn't hard. The waiting proved HARD. After a couple of delays that started lengthening the build to a year or more I grew despondant. I NEED an engine for the 14. I kicked the project around with the boys at work, I bored neighbors with mornful sobbing, I sat and looked into the open garage looking at the misserable POS of a car. I drove the "other Porsche" everywhere and loved it. Choices, choices. Build myself, hire an engine builder, flat bed the car to a shop and tell 'em to make 'er run, get a six. Of the things in the universe of my desire for the 14 a six turned out to be high on the list. So why was I waiting for a hyper-trick-4? Because I loved the idea of getting an engine that is so exclusive you have to wait a year and send a wheelbarrow load of Benji's to make it so. But the wait was killing my interest. FOOL! Desire meets luck meets a Pelican in VT. Send Benjamins, receive engine. 3.2 motronic, 20x HP. Order headers with megaphones that break windows at 6400 but this time it's in the 914.

The 1.7 version of the car was cute where the 3.2 version will be monsterous. The 1.7 version was frugal where the 3.2 will extravagant. The 1.7 vesion was OEM while the 3.2 is TUF. The 1.7 version is.....gone.

So here starts the project. I've sourced a 3.2 Motronic Carrera (magical words) engine from an '85. It's coming to me complete from exhaust tip to air cleaner. My goal is to shove that engine into the 14 as soon as it arrives. I want to go from the pallet to the engine bay with no garage storage time whatsoever. Parts are being sourced NOW. Electrical stuff is being sorted out NOW. The Bently Carrera manual has been ordered NOW. The engine will use the Motronic. The "other Porsche" has that. It will get headers, the heat will come from within. I picture the 914 becoming a brute as well, eating all the fillet in one gulp while reciting x-rated limericks from memory. I've got no great plan past all that. Well aside from a little power-on oversteer that I've got scheduled for November...

Later,
Kevin