914 stories Options

[slivel]

Lots of 914 stories are about the connection to meeting a wife or girlfriend, but my story is about a 914 lost and found.

I got my 914 in 1995 when I partnered with a friend to build a 914/6 conversion for the track. We raced the 3.0l six jointly for about two seasons when my partner wanted to try another Porsche so I bought out his interest in the car and continued racing the car solo for the next 20 years. With the engine freshened and pumped to a 3.4l twin-plug, I had lots of fun racing with PCA, POC, VARA, and HSR West.

Then in 2016 I lost the car. After racing for so many years I know that you get the occasional flat while towing and I felt prepared by carrying two mounted plus two unmounted trailer tires in my enclosed trailer. On the way to Willow Springs, I had a flat, but changed the tire along the freeway and proceeded to the track for a fun weekend. Leaving the track on Sunday afternoon, I had another flat near Phelan where there was a lot of road construction happening, so I installed my remaining mounted spare leaving me with just two unmounted spares.

As I was passing by the city of Norco on the interstate, I felt the trailer lurch and knew exactly what had happened. I must have run over a piece of debris in the slow lane, and it took out both right side tires on the trailer. I removed the two destroyed tires, placed the trailer on jack stands, double locked it, loaded wheels and unmounted spares in my van, unhooked and went in search of a place to have tires mounted. The only place that I could find late on a Sunday night was a 24-hour truck stop. and they said they could do the job in about three hours. I decided not to wait and returned to the trailer, checked it over, removed my toolboxes, and drove the remaining 80 miles home. First thing in the morning, I had the tires mounted and wife and I headed back north to pick up the trailer. When we got to the place where I left the trailer I could see from our north-bound lanes that it was gone. It was a very sick feeling.

We exited at the next ramp and turned south bound, stopping at the site where I left the trailer. I saw pieces of my hitch lock on the ground. I then called the CHP who arrived within a few minutes. He confirmed that the trailer was not towed by the authorities.

When we got home I put notice of the theft on various car and racing web sites. Then, 10 days later I got a call from a service advisor of the shop that I use saying that my trailer had been found in a rural/residential neighborhood of Riverside.

The thieves had been moving the trailer late on a Friday night. The trailer was on three wheels, one of which was tiny like you would see on a jet ski trailer and one of the axles was chained up so it would not drag on the ground. This rig failed and the shackle broke disabling the trailer. They then abandoned the trailer along the curb. This was noticed by a neighbor who left at 4 am for his shift in law-enforcement.
At about six in the morning the guy whose house the trailer was parked in front of, came out to get his paper and saw my trailer crashed and in his front yard. I believe that the trailer was hit hard by a drunk driver after it had been abandoned. With the back loading door sprung, the guy could see inside the trailer and could read the banner on the car. He did an internet search and found the shop where I service the car and called. Fortunately, the shop is open Saturday morning for drop-offs and pick-ups and my service adviser knew exactly whose car it was.

The police were called, and the trailer was transported to an impound lot.

The trailer was damaged beyond repair and the car sustained about 8k damage.

So I had my car repaired, replaced the trailer and continued to race for a couple more years. I retired from racing in 2018 and have converted my 914 track car into a street toy. It goes to cars and coffee events and the occasional show with a little canyon carving mixed in.

[racer914]

I've had a number of 914's over the years starting with a '73 2.0 that I bought off of the used car lot at the Pontiac dealer near Washington DC. in 1979. I had a '69 911S at the time and this 914 would be my wife's commuter car since we had no kids at the time. We kept that car 7-8 years and sold it to a friend in Atlanta after we had moved to Florida.
I almost immediately regretted it but had bought a newer 911 and with 2 kids we needed to keep a family car. In a few years, I bought a 74 2.0 that had been sitting and vandalized with the intention of building a race car. After 6 years of toiling over the project and writing lots of checks, we went racing! I had converted the car to a 2.8 liter six and raced it for more than 10 years. I later bought a '73 2.0 track car which my son and I also both raced. In the time between the two race cars, I also bought a '73 2.0 which my son and I restored for him as his 1st car. He drove it all thru high school and still owns it today some 27 years after I bought it. We've kept the tradition in the family, the last pic is my grandson on the hood of his dad's car shortly after he was born.
I got out of the 914's in about 2015 and threw away much of my parts stash when I moved in 2017. I should have known better. I love these cars having owned 10 or more over the years and wound up with a '74 2.0 that I bought site unseen in 2018. It took me a couple of years to get started on it as we had a bunch of building & remodeling projects to do. That car is my current project and it is being converted to a six for use primarily on the street. It may see a few track days after I retire from racing but for now I have other stuff to race. The metal work is finished and I am awaiting an opening at the shop for bodywork and paint.

This forum has been helpful to me and I've gotten some really good information and parts from it. Thank You for that!

Dave