The 1974 Limited Editions, New info, more questions Options

[davep]

Recently Jell Bowlsby and I were contacted about a potential LE car. In my 20 years of research I never thought it was possible for such a late car to be an LE. However, the owner has the COA, the window sticker and a bill of sale. Well, you can't ask for more documentation than that. As far as I'm concerned the window sticker is the definitive proof I want to see. On the other hand, this car raises even more problems. Previous knowledge was that the run of LE's was done in February, March and early April. Even 15 years ago I knew that the run of, supposedly 1000, LE cars spanned more than 1000 VIN's and in fact spanned at least 2000 VIN's. Until recently I had not found non-LE cars within the then-known range, and thus supposed that the extra cars within the range were for non North American markets. Then a few cars started to show up that were definitely not LE's within the range, but most of them are indeed late in the range. These cars were usually 1.8 engines. The general range of LE production was from 14348 to 16760. I believe that 14348 is very close to the beginning since car 14345 is a 1.8 as are many cars immediately preceding it. This puts the begining of production at about the seventh week of 1974, thus in mid February. I have almost half of the known LE's built in February according to the decal on the drivers door post, and with chassis #'s indicating a Friday in week 9 of 1974.

Okay, enough of the preamble, what is so special about the recent find? The VIN is 4742921331, and remember that the final VIN of 1974 Model Year is 4742921370.

Well then, this would mean that LE production went up to the end of 1974 MY production, or almost so. This car has a decal showing 07/74, July production! And it has a chassis number showing 28th week of the year. It also has the sail panel vinyl not seen on any other LE. This adds about 4600 VIN's to a range that was only 2412 long. I did not mind the incremental widening of the range as new cars were discovered outside of the initial range I had found, that was to be expected. However, after all these years of research we find one that can be verified that far out of the range IS mindboggling.

What does this mean? For starters, it may be a rather unique car. Let us suppose that a dealer chose to order that particular color combo on an otherwise similarly equipped model late in the model year. I doubt the factory would turn it down. Note the sail vinyl though. The holes for the trim were most likely drilled before painting. Thus, so late in the year and with a new chassis coming up very shortly there were probably a very limited selection of 1974 MY bodies available from which to choose. You cannot very well choose to do much but to add the vinyl and add the trim to fill the holes.

What I would ask of our members is to send me VIN, chassis, paint code, date code and engine type (2.0 or 1.8) for all cars from 4742914000 on up. Jeff Bowlsby's LE Registry web page is here:

http://members.rennlist.com/914_canam/914CanAmRegistry.htm

If your car is already listed, please double-check the info. Accuracy is everything.
If you think you may have an unlisted LE, please contact Jeff or myself.
If you have a car that is definitely not an LE, please send me the particulars.

This is a bit of a new adventure, and I'm trying to hang on to the tail of this twister.
A picture of the car that confounds us:

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[Eric_Shea]

Cool thread.

The one thing I find hard to believe as I read along is that any PO would actually go to the trouble of adding vinyl. I'm sure it's been done before and I'm a vinyl fan but if you think about what it would take to add it properly to a non-vinyl car when there's a fair percentage of people who didn't like it in the first place... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

The trim molding along the top, sides, bottom and back. The vinyl itself. The efforts to adhere and trim etc.

It would be 'much' easier for me to 'buy' the fact that Porsche wanted to finish out a run of 1000 units and started using chassis that were already drilled for vinyl as Dave eludes to. Rather than fill and prep... just add the vinyl and push them out the door.

[JeffBowlsby]

Been thinking some more about this vinyl.

DaveP is probably right and they simply 'converted' a standard 914 at the factory (its an LE on the COA), that would explain everything and is plausible.

Another scenario is that a PO added the vinyl later, where it originally did not have it. If the car did not have the vinyl, then the rear trim probably would have been black like all the other LE targa trim. This car has silver rear targa trim. If a PO was just going to add vinyl to make it look like all the other 914s, then how likely is it that he would have bought new silver trim too? Not likely I think. I think if he was going to add vinyl, he would have just reinstalled the black trim. So bottom line is, its reasonable to think that the vinyl and trim are from the factory because its silver. Would be interesting to see the texture pattern on the vinyl to confirm that its the factory pattern, just to be sure.

[Porsche Rescue]

I also am intrigued by this thread. Seems to me that it is entirely possible that some enterprising 914 enthusiast could create an LE from a regular 914 and leave the vinyl in place. I am particularly thinking of a car produced several months before the "known era" of LE production. There is rumor of just such a cloned grasshopper (sans vinyl) existing somewhere in northern California. The car with an LE CoA is another matter.

[JeffBowlsby]

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[davep]

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We still need to get more info. The weather is nice, so no excuses. Data required from every 74 from 14000 on up please.