Chicago Area 914 Gathering & Swap Meet, Saturday, May 16, 2026, 9:00am-noon Options

[Rarely Writes]

Are those of us 914 fans in the Midwest jealous of the West Coast 914 community – you betcha!
We’ve decided to take matters into our own hands.

What: Chicago Area 914 Gathering & Swap Meet
Where: 1216 Tower Road, Schaumburg, Illinois 60173
When: Saturday, May 16, 2026, 9:00am-noon.
Hosts: Jeff Chamberlin, Norm Miller, Vince Miller
Cost: Free, $0, Nada. We will bribe you with free coffee and donuts.

This is meant to be a gathering of 914’s and their owners to share stories and swap parts. If you want to sell parts and don’t want to bring a table, let us know and we will do our best to have one available. 914’s of any condition are welcome - we want to see your 914! Hopefully the weather will be nice, but if not, the swap meet will be held indoors in the warehouse (shop).

Appreciate a PM or a note below if you might attend as a vendor so we can plan. Thanks!

[Rarely Writes]

Mark, Awesome looking 914! Hope the weather is good and you can bring it!

Per your request for showing off what we mid-westerners have, here’s our story that brought us to wanting to host the event. Full disclosure, we’ve had Minis since the ‘80’s, so our Minis will be at the event as well: ’62 Austin Countryman (woody wagon), ‘64 Cooper S, ‘65 Cooper S, ‘66 Moke, ‘66 Wolseley Heinz Hornet, ’66 Mini-T (Italian version of woody wagon), ’93 Cabrio.

Enough about Minis, our 914 journey starts in 1973 when Bob Minner purchases a new 1973 Marathon Blue 914 2.0. His son Tom and I were seniors in high school and many great memories from that year and through college were created in that car – trips to Road America, TSD rallyes, etc. Then Midwest rust took its toll and the car went away. Here’s a picture of Bob in the car:

Fast forward to 2021 when we decided to recreate the car as close as we could. I joined 914World and started searching for a 1973 Marathon Blue 914 2.0, which was much harder than I thought it would be. I eventually gave up and purchased this 1972 Silver 914 1.7 I found on 914World:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=360172
At some point, it had its front clip replaced and so would be of no interest to the “it has to be original crowd”, therefore we could create a Marathon Blue 2.0 out of it. I sourced a 2.0L engine from 914World member TonyR and began gathering parts. Of course, I didn’t stop looking at 914’s for sale. Then in February 2023, I spotted a Facebook Marketplace ad that had been placed a few hours earlier for a 1973 914 2.0 for $2,000 located in Pleasant Prairie, WI. I called immediately and went to look at it the next day. The car was in primer and missing lots of pieces, but had the Fuchs and little visible rust, so I bought it. When I went to pick it up, I checked the paint code: L96M – Marathon Blue! So, the holy grail had been found. Too long of a story to recount here, but after 3 years the car is now 95% restored, hopefully complete by the time of the event:

While working on the Marathon Blue car, I had no 914 to drive as the ’72 needed work and all our attention was on the Marathon Blue car. The reason TonyR had a 2.0L engine for sale is he was in the middle of converting a ’76 into a Porcharu. Before he had the ’76, he had found a ’73 Silver 1.7 in an Indiana barn – Arizona car in excellent condition, no rust. But in the end, he decided it was too original to do a conversion on it, so found the ’76 for that. After finishing the Porcharu, he decided he didn’t need two 914’s and so I acquired the Silver ’73 1.7 from him to have a 914 to drive:

To add to this, event co-host Vince Miller has a Red ‘74 914 l.8 that was found in Washington from a Craigslist ad that was posted in the Cars For Sale forum on 914World:

So, those are the 914’s we will have here at the Chicago Area 914 Gathering and Swap Meet. We are looking forward to seeing your 914 and hearing your stories!