31 years, time flies |
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31 years, time flies |
wonkipop |
Jan 6 2021, 04:04 AM
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#1
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Advanced Member Group: Members Posts: 4,403 Joined: 6-May 20 From: north antarctica Member No.: 24,231 Region Association: NineFourteenerVille |
1989
parked outside of frank lloyd wright's johnson wax hq in racine wisconsin. might have been one of my first biggish drives in it. think i was pretty stoked that day. 29 - grin from ear to ear. 2020 some place upside down. feeling a lot older. but still grinning. i've tried to look after this car. been pottering about in some boxes over christmas. found some stuff. stickers from swiss and italian 914 registry. these must date from mid 90s when we started up 914 aus registry. all three or four of us. we swapped them our stickers for theirs. wonder if these two mobs in switzerland and italy are still going strong? still got one of the orig 914 register stickers on the car. the sticker was designed by B C, founder of the club. he was a graphic designer. did a nice job. he passed away about 10 years back. found a delivery docket for the car in amongst the documents. forgot i had this. car came from capitol porsche/audi in washington. (wasn't a swamp then that had to be drained? or maybe it was). and a photo i had dating from back in 1992. the whimpering 1,8 fresh back from chicago parked next to a crayfords 73 2.0 belonging to BC who founded the register. would have been the first time two 914s were parked side by side in aus since the days when the distributor had two sixes parked next to each other in 1971. |
phillstek |
Jan 6 2021, 02:31 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 350 Joined: 19-May 10 From: Byron Bay, Australia Member No.: 11,741 Region Association: None |
Great story and really good to hear from another long time Australian owner. Coming up for 33 years of ownership of mine this year. Bought it in LA in 88 for 1500.
I don’t think people realise how rare these cars are here. |
wonkipop |
Jan 6 2021, 03:45 PM
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#3
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Advanced Member Group: Members Posts: 4,403 Joined: 6-May 20 From: north antarctica Member No.: 24,231 Region Association: NineFourteenerVille |
Great story and really good to hear from another long time Australian owner. Coming up for 33 years of ownership of mine this year. Bought it in LA in 88 for 1500. I don’t think people realise how rare these cars are here. good on you phil for keeping it. you are right, they are rare here. lhd drive restrictions kept numbers down for a long time. you had to get off your arse and go get one from the USA like you did. that took balls back then. a few blokes did it. wonder how many of them have still got their cars like you have. i'm trying to remember them all. |
phillstek |
Jan 7 2021, 05:36 AM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 350 Joined: 19-May 10 From: Byron Bay, Australia Member No.: 11,741 Region Association: None |
Great story and really good to hear from another long time Australian owner. Coming up for 33 years of ownership of mine this year. Bought it in LA in 88 for 1500. I don’t think people realise how rare these cars are here. good on you phil for keeping it. you are right, they are rare here. lhd drive restrictions kept numbers down for a long time. you had to get off your arse and go get one from the USA like you did. that took balls back then. a few blokes did it. wonder how many of them have still got their cars like you have. i'm trying to remember them all. Don’t know if it took balls but yeah, it was a process for sure. All I knew was that I had get one after years of reading out of date copies of Excellence and VW & Porsche magazines in the early 80s. The clincher was an article in Excellence about a red ‘GT’ owned by Steve Gaglione (?). I drooled over the pictures and read the article over and over again. Having owned air cooled VWs pretty much exclusively since being able to drive the 914 was a logical progression into something interesting yet sort of simple. Sold my ‘64 Baja to fund the trip to LA and found a ‘72 with a carbed 1.7 and shipped it here. As soon as it landed the 1.7 came out and a 2.7 went in along with the rhd and 5 lug conversion. When I thought it would pass the road worthy test I took it the Registration office where the inspectors, who had no idea what it was, proceeded to check a few items and asked me to show them where the engine was. I filled in the paperwork and said nothing about the rhd and six conversion. To my astonishment they called my name and handed me the plates and rego papers. That’s how it started for me. It’s been a journey owning this car for this long. |
wonkipop |
Jan 7 2021, 04:43 PM
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#5
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Advanced Member Group: Members Posts: 4,403 Joined: 6-May 20 From: north antarctica Member No.: 24,231 Region Association: NineFourteenerVille |
Great story and really good to hear from another long time Australian owner. Coming up for 33 years of ownership of mine this year. Bought it in LA in 88 for 1500. I don’t think people realise how rare these cars are here. good on you phil for keeping it. you are right, they are rare here. lhd drive restrictions kept numbers down for a long time. you had to get off your arse and go get one from the USA like you did. that took balls back then. a few blokes did it. wonder how many of them have still got their cars like you have. i'm trying to remember them all. Don’t know if it took balls but yeah, it was a process for sure. All I knew was that I had get one after years of reading out of date copies of Excellence and VW & Porsche magazines in the early 80s. The clincher was an article in Excellence about a red ‘GT’ owned by Steve Gaglione (?). I drooled over the pictures and read the article over and over again. Having owned air cooled VWs pretty much exclusively since being able to drive the 914 was a logical progression into something interesting yet sort of simple. Sold my ‘64 Baja to fund the trip to LA and found a ‘72 with a carbed 1.7 and shipped it here. As soon as it landed the 1.7 came out and a 2.7 went in along with the rhd and 5 lug conversion. When I thought it would pass the road worthy test I took it the Registration office where the inspectors, who had no idea what it was, proceeded to check a few items and asked me to show them where the engine was. I filled in the paperwork and said nothing about the rhd and six conversion. To my astonishment they called my name and handed me the plates and rego papers. That’s how it started for me. It’s been a journey owning this car for this long. my story is pretty much the same as yours mate. first car was my mothers 64 beetle. progressed to a 72 type 3 squareback from there. i bought that car in 82. it took me everywhere. i have photos sitting out in the sturt desert at camerons corner when there was nothing out there and nobody went there. just desert. i drove it out on to the salt lake at lake eyre. went everywhere. even places 4 wheel drives found it hard to go. the 914 was to me the ultimate air cooled vw. top of the pile. i could afford vws. i could not afford porsches. i did not have quite as easy a run putting mine on the road. took a couple of goes. there was a lot of debate over the lighting set up. i did not put euro indicators on but kept the full amber usa front indicators. we wired the parker lights into the pop ups. that sent the bureaucrats into a frenzy. eventually it was decided that because the pop ups had manual winders on them the solution would be accepted as it had a fail safe if the lights did not raise for any reason. they also knew what the car was. i suspect there had been one or two through before me in those years which might have set off alarm bells with work that could have been less than desirable. who knows. i recall the inspector coming out and saying, oh another one of these hey. |
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