1974 LE Production Figures - A Calculated Estimate, Trying to find out how many LE were there Options

[Yohay Shinar]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this forum and would like to share with you my little research on the 1974 Limited Edition 914 production figures.

It is well known that these cars were all produced between February and April 1974. The generally-quoted figure for total production is ~1,000 units, split 50-50 between the two color combinations.

I would like to shed more light on these assumptions.
The key is in the Karmann sequential number, attached to the front door jamb and stamped on the body. While commonly referred to as "chassis number", this is a "production job number" that VW has been allocating in its plants, since 1969 (note for instance that for 914-6, body numbering structure is different, and is Porsche-style).

More regarding this numbering system:
1. The numbers are allocated before vehicle production
2. Actual production does not necessarily follow this numbering, not in the paint shop and less so in the assembly plant.
3. Number allocation is made in batches of similar-specification cars, so that in between two VW1200 in Blue, there would be another identical vehicle.

I came across an excellent source (https://bowlsby.net/914/CanAm) with a huge amount of data. I could then draw the following conclusions:
1. This is a VW sequencing system through and through.
2. As hoped for and expected, the 914 LE numbers were allocated in batches for each color combination, and separately from other 914s. A single car only was out-of-batch, out of 178 numbers traced.

VINs for the LEs all fall within 14348 and 16764, and these probably represent actual off-line numbers. It is quite evident that these cars were not assembled in batches.

The next step was putting these batches together. Given the magnitude of the production numbers traced, this proved fairly simple.

CONCLUSIONS
Color-split: 60% of the cars were painted in the Light Ivory combination, the rest were Black. In four distinct calculations, Ivory turned out as being between 59.6% and 61.1%.
Total production: My estimate is for a total of 1,090 cars produced. Is 1,000 possible? Could be, but I think it is too low.
Production sequencing: first two days had Ivory cars only allocated. Whenever both colors were allocated for production in the same day, Black always followed Ivory.
Production allocation per month:
February (11 Feb - 1 Mar): 835 units, ~76.5%
March (4 Mar - 25 Mar): 180 units, ~16.5%
April (1 Apr - 4 Apr): 75 units, ~7%
Note that the relative share is stronger than the actual figure. Obviously these dates do not represent off-line dates.

Attached is a table with the estimated job allocation per day.

[JeffBowlsby]

A numbers guy with skills! An interesting analysis Yohay, you have the passion! Will study this further.

Would you have estimated production data per day on the two different LE configurations that you can post/share?

I am aware that there as several sets of twins and eve a triplet if I remember right...sequential VIN cars. Seems to me I have sorted on the 'chassis number' also to find lineal sequences.

I have several other LE cars I need to post to the Registry that will expand the data set but the essentials are currently included. Just need to find time to do it.

The 1000 total was only found in marketing data and the 500 each split was speculation, I have not seen any publication with the 50/50 split. Given the low surviving numbers and the difficulty in selling them to begin with, some have casually thought that they may not have made even 1000, more like 7-800. But no evidence to support that.

@davep