914 stories Options

[Ace Le Count]

Does anyone have some crazy 914 stories that they'd like to share? Maybe your son/daughter was born in one? Maybe you drag raced someone that was getting cocky because they thought their riced out civic was faster? Maybe you used a 914 as a getaway car after you robbed a bank? How has your 914 saved the day?

[bbrock]

Oh my! So many stories, which one to tell? I'll go with this one. My first 914 was a real beater 70 bought when I was 19 that I had already wrecked once and had cobbled back together by a body shop. The following winter I was searching in vain for some HEET to pour in the tank so the damn car would start in the sub zero weather when I hit a patch of black ice on illegal bald tires and slid right into a fire hydrant. I had no money to pay a shop for another repair so picked up a front clip at the salvage yard and decided I would weld it in myself. Mind you, I had no welding experience but had my brother's ox-acetytene torch and a can-do attitude. I spent several weekends with the car occupying my parent's garage while my girlfriend, and now wife of 35 years shuttled me back and forth from college in her old Honda Civic.

Finally, I had the front end stitched back together and the somewhat wrinkled hood back on. I don't remember how the welds looked but they had to be horrendous. Anyway, late on a Sunday I hop in the car with my girlfriend following for the 60 mile trip back to college. About 3/4 of a mile after entering the Interstate, the front left corner dropped to the pavement with a shower of sparks rooster tailing behind. I immediately though my expert welding job had failed and the car had broken in half until I saw an EMPI mag go careening down the highway in front of me. Yep, in my excitement of finishing the project, I neglected to tighten the lug bolts. I managed to steer the car to the shoulder on the ball joint nut and Elizabeth pulled over behind. Surprisingly, a stranger in a van also pulled over. I assumed my wheel had hit the van. Then I learned he had run into Elizabeth's car and my next assumption was that he hit her trying to avoid my wheel or the spark fountain of my car. Nope, turns out it was total coincidence. He hadn't even noticed the fireworks in front of him and had simply changed lanes without looking at the exact moment Elizabeth thought she was witnessing the fiery death of her fiancee. The poor Trooper who worked the claim kept scratching his head and commenting that the forms weren't designed for such a scenario.

As for the car, I retrieved the wheel, bolted it back on with some spare lug bolts and we were on our way. Lesson learned. Tighten those bolts!