SOT: When did the hood badge change? Options

[bbrock]

This might get some knickers in a quibbley but I'm trying to figure out had the 914 design team's vote to badge the car been honored, which badge would have come on my car. Porsche Classics shows the orange badge used through MY 1973 and the red badge beginning in MY 1974, but there is also this graphic showing the switched occurred sometime in '73.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.summitmedia-digital.com-20845-1664031721.1.jpg)

The best I can tell, the switch might have happened with the introduction of the 911 G-series in MY 1974 but I've had a hard time finding when actual production began. I did find this article saying it started in August, 1973 which might be a good clue.

That may be all I need to know, but does anyone have anything to add?

[mgphoto]

So, did the European 914’s all have the Wolfsburg crest on the batwing 914/6 included?
Did 914/6 cars with steelies have the Porsche badge on the hubcap?
Did 914/6 cars with Fuchs have the Porsche badge on the center caps?

[Superhawk996]

So, did the European 914’s all have the Wolfsburg crest on the batwing 914/6 included?
Did 914/6 cars with steelies have the Porsche badge on the hubcap?
Did 914/6 cars with Fuchs have the Porsche badge on the center caps?

I can answer the 1st part - partially.

I was living in Italy in 1986/1987 and wanted a 914. They were much harder to find over there. However, I looked at two 914/4s in person and both did have a Wolfsburg crest instead of Porsche crest on the batwing. Small sample size but I suspect it applies to all of Europe as I’ve read in the history books. Can’t answer for the 914/6 because I never saw one when I was in Italy despite 911s being pretty common.

@mgphoto

[mgphoto]

So, did the European 914’s all have the Wolfsburg crest on the batwing 914/6 included?
Did 914/6 cars with steelies have the Porsche badge on the hubcap?
Did 914/6 cars with Fuchs have the Porsche badge on the center caps?

I can answer the 1st part - partially.

I was living in Italy in 1986/1987 and wanted a 914. They were much harder to find over there. However, I looked at two 914/4s in person and both did have a Wolfsburg crest instead of Porsche crest on the batwing. Small sample size but I suspect it applies to all of Europe as I’ve read in the history books. Can’t answer for the 914/6 because I never saw one when I was in Italy despite 911s being pretty common.

@mgphoto

I had read in a book of Porsche history that 50% of all 914 production was delivered to the US market, and 50% of that number was delivered to Southern California, biggest reason for “rust free” rollers, I believe.
Now all US cars got the Porsche batwing I’m sure a few other markets got the Porsche item but that still leaves a very large number of VW batwings.
The question would be, did all cars badged as VW/Porsche get the Wolfsburg crest?
50% of production of the 914/6 model would be US model Porsche batwing that leaves about 1700 cars with Wolfsburg batwings and the Porsche badge on steelies or Fuchs?
I believe the 914 was birthed as a VW for 4 cylinder models but as a Porsche for 6 cylinder versions. But because of marketing pressure things got convoluted to say the least.
Porsche needed to sell cars, VW was selling cars like crazy all over the world.
I’m sure the mucky mucks at Porsche hated the idea of this little bastard car dulling the image of there bullwork vehicle, all hail the 911, hence the formation of the the alphabet soup that became the sales arm.
Look the 914 body and the 911 bodies came out of the same factory, 911’s and 914/6’s were pushed across the street to be assembled in the Porsche Werks and /4’s stayed at the Karmann factory for final assembly.
For good reason these little sh*t cars started to sell, not so much the /6’s cause they were just there to get buyers in the door to see the spectacular 911 that could be yours for a few hundred bucks more, heck the 914/6 was just a way to get rid of all the leftover 2.0 litter motors that would never be sold. Look to the 912, Porsche had to get rid of all the leftover 356 motors, (they did the same with the leftover 2.0 type 4, 912E hahahaha).
We are all slaves to wild corporate machinations, would I buy a new Porsche? No, would I buy a new VW? No, I’ll keep my Toyota Corolla and my 914, whatever name comes with it.

[bbrock]

So, did the European 914’s all have the Wolfsburg crest on the batwing 914/6 included?
Did 914/6 cars with steelies have the Porsche badge on the hubcap?
Did 914/6 cars with Fuchs have the Porsche badge on the center caps?

I can answer the 1st part - partially.

I was living in Italy in 1986/1987 and wanted a 914. They were much harder to find over there. However, I looked at two 914/4s in person and both did have a Wolfsburg crest instead of Porsche crest on the batwing. Small sample size but I suspect it applies to all of Europe as I’ve read in the history books. Can’t answer for the 914/6 because I never saw one when I was in Italy despite 911s being pretty common.

@mgphoto

I had read in a book of Porsche history that 50% of all 914 production was delivered to the US market, and 50% of that number was delivered to Southern California, biggest reason for “rust free” rollers, I believe.
Now all US cars got the Porsche batwing I’m sure a few other markets got the Porsche item but that still leaves a very large number of VW batwings.
The question would be, did all cars badged as VW/Porsche get the Wolfsburg crest?
50% of production of the 914/6 model would be US model Porsche batwing that leaves about 1700 cars with Wolfsburg batwings and the Porsche badge on steelies or Fuchs?
I believe the 914 was birthed as a VW for 4 cylinder models but as a Porsche for 6 cylinder versions. But because of marketing pressure things got convoluted to say the least.
Porsche needed to sell cars, VW was selling cars like crazy all over the world.
I’m sure the mucky mucks at Porsche hated the idea of this little bastard car dulling the image of there bullwork vehicle, all hail the 911, hence the formation of the the alphabet soup that became the sales arm.
Look the 914 body and the 911 bodies came out of the same factory, 911’s and 914/6’s were pushed across the street to be assembled in the Porsche Werks and /4’s stayed at the Karmann factory for final assembly.
For good reason these little sh*t cars started to sell, not so much the /6’s cause they were just there to get buyers in the door to see the spectacular 911 that could be yours for a few hundred bucks more, heck the 914/6 was just a way to get rid of all the leftover 2.0 litter motors that would never be sold. Look to the 912, Porsche had to get rid of all the leftover 356 motors, (they did the same with the leftover 2.0 type 4, 912E hahahaha).
We are all slaves to wild corporate machinations, would I buy a new Porsche? No, would I buy a new VW? No, I’ll keep my Toyota Corolla and my 914, whatever name comes with it.

Good stuff. What fascinates me is that the development seems to have been little affected by all the corporate jockeying to market the car. They just put their heads down to work on executing Piech's vision. He had proven that lightweight, under-powered, mid-engine race cars could be giant slayers and now he wanted to apply those concepts to a practical production roadster. The team did exactly that. I doubt they concerned themselves with how it would be marketed or what it would be called except to vote to approve the car for the Porsche badge.

[wonkipop]

@bbrock

[/quote]


"Good stuff. What fascinates me is that the development seems to have been little affected by all the corporate jockeying to market the car. "
[/quote]

i would agree.

porsche during that era (the 60s) were largely left alone to do their design and development work for VW. that was the Nordhoff era. the 914 was a minor project when considered next to the bigger contracts at the time.

corporate jockeying is probably the wrong word however to describe what ensued.
we forget the context?

i'm thinking the bigger project with piech that was under way with designing. the revamping of the entire VW range.

i think if that scenario had gone ahead with VW there would have been model sharing. that much is clear from the little that is properly known of the piech project. the 914 is just the first and most visible of those piech road car projects and really the only one that survived to production. a kind of a sketch of what was to come in the next generation replacements for the air cooled.

its likely the whole platform sharing, niche branding thing would have been worked out.

and it would probably have been plausible.

but all you end up getting is a kind of legacy issue with the 914 where the niche branding thing is first considered, and thought about, but never resolved, because its starting to unravel before its had a chance to happen. so its just a kind of aftermath. a fabulous one.