Early ’71 914 — wipers, wipers parked on the passenger side. Normal? Options

[Pierre68]

Hey folks,
My ’71 914/4 1.7 (Italian Autogerma market) has the wipers parked on the passenger side. Car has had at least 7 owners over 55 years but is well preserved — nothing else suggests anyone ever messed with it.
Was this ever a thing on early 914s? Factory variation, dealer prep, Autogerma habit? Or almost certainly a previous owner mod?
Period photos or primary sources welcome. Thanks
Pierre

[wonkipop]

as an aside. i have heard that 356s were also laced with exceptions esp when it came to rhd cars.

in fact i believe the first rhd 356s built which were two cars delivered to australia, one a coupe and one a cab were built as lhd bodies and then hand converted to rhd configuration by the factory. you could almost call them test cars or prototypes. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
yes, they went to aus before the UK. there is a famous story about norman hamilton the original distributor following porsche #1 back the "factory" at gmund in the very very very early days when he was on a trip to germany just after the war. he did a handshake deal with ferry porsche on the spot. got his foot in the door even before the americans i believe and long before the UK. he had a special relationship with the factory as did his son alan hamilton. hence the story about the factory converted rhd 914/6 that came to aus back in the day is perfectly plausible.

also i believe all rhd speedsters came down the line as fully complete lhd raw body shells.
they were then diverted off the line and hand converted to rhd conviguration before being trimmed - finish and with mechanicals installed.
nor are they mirror versions of the lhd speedster. the instrument binnacle and steering wheel are closer or further to the edge of the car and further or closer from the centre line than in lhd cars. (can't remember at the moment which which way it goes in the closer further stakes but i know its a difference).
steering box and steering shaft were not exactly a mirror placement.

i believe the first rhd 911 delivered to the UK early on was a factory converted production line lhd car. so there is a bit of wacky stuff with some porsche models from back in time but nevertheless i do not believe this was the case with any of the 914s. they are a different proposition.