Porsche crest or no crest, Let's make this emotional and irrational! Options

[Van B]

Well you all read the title! I know this has been debated numerous times, but I think another round of debate ending in disagreement would be fun!

I'll start: My dad had two 914's when I was a kid and both came with Porsche Crests installed. I never knew any different until I started seriously looking at buying one. Now I own a car with no crest, and it bothers me.
And to frustrate the situation further, George's recent video on the mean green 914 was the first time I ever heard anyone disparage the idea of having a crest on a 914. Maybe in Europe where they were sold as VW-Porsche I could understand, but in the states, they have ALWAYS been a Porsche!

I say it's time for 914 World to unite and crest every 914 alive today!! We need to create a template to standardize placement and get after it!! If you see a 914 at the grocery store, make sure you have a drill handy and get over there and FIX THAT CAR! I'm sure the cops will understand why you're drilling on a stranger's hood when you explain the injustice and prejudice that has gone on for so many decades!

You're turn! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

[Steve]

Well you all read the title! I know this has been debated numerous times, but I think another round of debate ending in disagreement would be fun!

I'll start: My dad had two 914's when I was a kid and both came with Porsche Crests installed. I never knew any different until I started seriously looking at buying one. Now I own a car with no crest, and it bothers me.
And to frustrate the situation further, George's recent video on the mean green 914 was the first time I ever heard anyone disparage the idea of having a crest on a 914. Maybe in Europe where they were sold as VW-Porsche I could understand, but in the states, they have ALWAYS been a Porsche!

I say it's time for 914 World to unite and crest every 914 alive today!! We need to create a template to standardize placement and get after it!! If you see a 914 at the grocery store, make sure you have a drill handy and get over there and FIX THAT CAR! I'm sure the cops will understand why you're drilling on a stranger's hood when you explain the injustice and prejudice that has gone on for so many decades!

You're turn! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

Famous answer... It's your car do what you want. The purist concourse weenies will protest they didn't come that way, but its my car and it already has a badge on it and I'm not removing it. I do agree, some badges are too high and they look stupid. Otherwise IMHO most cars look better with a badge.

[mate914]

100% true, but having a small nail polish bottle with some paint. To cover up that bare metal after drilling, just to be nice.....
A 914 is pure Porsche.
Matt (IMG:style_emoticons/default/flag.gif)

Well you all read the title! I know this has been debated numerous times, but I think another round of debate ending in disagreement would be fun!

I'll start: My dad had two 914's when I was a kid and both came with Porsche Crests installed. I never knew any different until I started seriously looking at buying one. Now I own a car with no crest, and it bothers me.
And to frustrate the situation further, George's recent video on the mean green 914 was the first time I ever heard anyone disparage the idea of having a crest on a 914. Maybe in Europe where they were sold as VW-Porsche I could understand, but in the states, they have ALWAYS been a Porsche!

I say it's time for 914 World to unite and crest every 914 alive today!! We need to create a template to standardize placement and get after it!! If you see a 914 at the grocery store, make sure you have a drill handy and get over there and FIX THAT CAR! I'm sure the cops will understand why you're drilling on a stranger's hood when you explain the injustice and prejudice that has gone on for so many decades!

You're turn! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

[NARP74]

NARP! Uphold the tradition...

[bbrock]

The design team voted to badge them, but the marketing wonks messed that up. Seems like badging is pure to the wishes of those who designed these cars.

No need to drill hoods though. 3M trim tape.

[flipb]

My dad had two 914's when I was a kid and both came with Porsche Crests installed.

Just curious, is there any evidence that individual US dealerships installed them on brand new 914s?

[Van B]

NARP! Uphold the tradition...

NARP as in Not A Real Porsche? Ha! That's too funny!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

[Van B]

My dad had two 914's when I was a kid and both came with Porsche Crests installed.

Just curious, is there any evidence that individual US dealerships installed them on brand new 914s?

If I was a bettin' man, which I am, I'd put money on the idea that any of them would for a fee!

[VaccaRabite]

When I got mine, it had a badge. I took it off and filled the holes.
In fact I've taken all the Porsche badging off my car. My car used to have the side stripes. And I took the lettering off the engine grill too.

I even replaced the Porsche grill lettering with a vintage Volkswagen badge at one point. Though that is also off the car.

The only badging left is a 914world sticker and a 914world badge on the grill.

Zach

[horizontally-opposed]

Well you all read the title!

Famous answer... It's your car do what you want. The purist concourse weenies will protest they didn't come that way, but its my car and it already has a badge on it and I'm not removing it. I do agree, some badges are too high and they look stupid. Otherwise IMHO most cars look better with a badge.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

In my 914's case, there is an emotional reason: The car was my older brother's before it was mine, and I spent my head-earned cash as a 13yo on a hood crest as a gift because I thought his new ride looked funny with a PORSCHE reflector (and grille letters) but no hood badge. I didn't "know better" about Porsche history, etc. I just thought the front end looked too plain.

But its place on the car was cemented on a trip to Oregon, where we couldn't pump our own gas. The attendant went to the back and asked if he could check the oil, so my brother popped the rear trunk lid just to josh him. The guy said, "All good!" and proceeded to clean the windshield and the back window. We thought he was just super on it, but when we got to a campground that night, we saw the hood crest was crooked. One post was broken, which probably happened after the fill-up when the hood was closed using the crest—but we all know the posts aren't exactly robust. Still have that crest laying around, somewhere, sun-weathered after many years on the car. The PORSCHE reflector and grille letters are long gone, but a 1973~ orange-bar crest a dear friend gave me is on the car. Is it incorrect? Yep. Do I wish it had been installed with 3M, or redone that way when I painted the car? Sure. Does it matter much? Nope, not to me anyway.

While I've warmed to the 914 without a hood crest due to the design's simplicity, I still think the nose looks a little better with that pointer/point of interest up there. And at least one or two 914s got them while they were still at Porsche…

YMMV!

[falcor75]

When I bought mine back in 2013 I was dead set on adding a front badge. Over the years that it took to restore it I changed my mind and only have the Porsche lettering on the engine grille and I'm very happy with the understated look.

[KELTY360]

NARP! Uphold the tradition...

NARP as in Not A Real Porsche? Ha! That's too funny!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

It wasn’t so funny back in the day when it was a slur used by ‘other’ Porsche owners to demean the 914. I was there, I lived it and now carry the NARP attitude as a badge of honor.

Those who are new to the appreciation would like to wipe the history like it didn’t happen. But, many of us know the truth and aren’t willing to let it slide. Won’t matter in a few years when I’m too old to drive my 914 and I move on, but til then…….

[Van B]

I went through Air Force flight training with some Germans. At the time I owned a 944. I tried to talk to them about my experiences learning to drive in a 914 and my current ownership of a 944. They were less than receiving of my enthusiasm. I proceeded to tell them that there's a reason the US is back-to-back world war champs and Germans are now night club weirdos who think wearing a white belt is cool.

I've lived with Porsche owner snobbery with every Porsche I've driven/owned. First a 914, then the 944, and even with my 996. If these people were even remotely correct, then there would be no way for me to identify the common design language and characteristics between all of those allegedly unrelated cars. But the truth is, I see and feel the common DNA. They all look like a Porsche and drive like a Porsche; therefore, it's a Duck!

[emerygt350]

Well, it has an engine designed by Dr. Porsche so obviously you shouldn't consider it one. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)


My only concern with the ornament is people hurting the car trying to steal it. Otherwise I like the way it looks present or not.


I wonder about a magnetic one you could put on when you feel like it...

[Craigers17]

I fell in love with these cars back in high school, but didn't buy my first one until around 2002. To be honest, I don't give two cents whether anybody considers them Porsches or VW's....I don't even care. I just like the way they drive and look. That said, I hate most all badging of any kind, as well as side markers. To me, they all take away the clean lines of the car.

To me badging and decals just clutter things up. You can make the car "pop" by color contrasts between the paint, the wheels, bumpers, brake calipers, etc., without putting decals and emblems all over it....not a huge fan of chrome either, but that's just me.

I know what brand vehicle I'm driving, and if passers by don't know what it is, let them wonder. Modern trucks are my pet peev with big cheesy 1 foot "RAM" badging across the tail gate or something like "King Ranch" plastered on the side.....I think that may have come from The Simpsons....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4LTraBoXmg

[Superhawk996]

NARP! Uphold the tradition...

NARP as in Not A Real Porsche? Ha! That's too funny!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

It wasn’t so funny back in the day when it was a slur used by ‘other’ Porsche owners to demean the 914. I was there, I lived it and now carry the NARP attitude as a badge of honor.

Those who are new to the appreciation would like to wipe the history like it didn’t happen. But, many of us know the truth and aren’t willing to let it slide. Won’t matter in a few years when I’m too old to drive my 914 and I move on, but til then…….

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

911's couldn't accept that a 914 actually handles better than the 911 of the same era. "Have you ever driven a 914? No . . . well here, drive mine."

Usually that ended the debate but of course there were those that saw lift thottle oversteer as some sort of 911 handling trait to be cherished.

[SirAndy]

No production 914 ever left the factory with a hood badge ...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

[eric9144]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqomZQMZQCQ

[Van B]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif)

[JamesM]

No production 914 ever left the factory with a hood badge ...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) THAT

I say it's time for 914 World to unite and crest every 914 alive today!! We need to create a template to standardize placement and get after it!! If you see a 914 at the grocery store, make sure you have a drill handy and get over there and FIX THAT CAR! I'm sure the cops will understand why you're drilling on a stranger's hood when you explain the injustice and prejudice that has gone on for so many decades!

So you want I should drill holes in the hood of my bumblebee?

Na, im good!

Not into drilling unnecessary holes in that or any of my 914, or any car for that matter

When I bought my first 914 at 19 It had to have a hood crest, and a center rear reflector and 916 bumpers, and flares... not so much anymore. Of that list at this point the flares and the badge are the only 2 on that list I even find still acceptable... but thats "acceptable" as in if they are already on the car cool... leave them, but if your car doesen't already have them, and doesent need them(in the case of a large 6 conversion) I see no reason to put them on.

If you MUST have a Porsche badge buy a 911... or a boxter, or 944, or even a 924, they all came with them. Actually on that note, think some of the newer 911 GT3s came with a sticker on the hood instead of the actual physical badge, That might be a better way to go than drilling holes in your hood. Then when people ask why you have a sticker instead of a badge you can tell them its a GT3 part for weight savings to make your car faster! and added bonus, you wont have extra holes in your hood!