it is of interest to me to know what early 914s had carbs, was it only sixes, or did early fours have carbs too? If so what modles came from the factory with carbs

Think just the 914-6's and the euro 1.8's.

http://www.914world.com/specs/engnumbs.php

All 914-6 had carbs.
All 914-4 1.7L had D-Jet.
All 914-4 2.0L had D-Jet.
All US-spec 914-4 1.8L had L-Jet.
All (some?) Euro spec 914-4 1.8L had carbs.

Andy

PS: Note that the carbed euro 1.8L had two single carbs, not the commonly seen dual webers.

Many years ago, I saw a factory carbed 914 in a wrecking yard in New Hampshire. No camera was available, so I never got a picture of the setup. I wonder now if by chance Canada also got the carbed ones as we were fairly close to the border? I have never seen another one in person (other than the numerous aftermarket ones), and wonder if anyone has photos of the factory setup?

....Many , many, years ago a friend had a type IV BUS ,( i rebuilt the engine for him ) that had a (small sized) dual carburator setup. It was a factory installation. I often wondered if that was the carburator setup in the european model 914,s...

Looked pretty much like these. Dual single throat solexs. Also came on early Type IV busses.

My canadian 74 1.8 is (was) L-jet. The bus carbs are OK in good shape, but the bushings wear out and they get sloppy. Not a very good performance set-up.

Canadian cars were much the same as USA versions; essentially they were North American versions. Canada did not get any 70 or 71 914's of any sort in quantity; they were special order for some reason. There were a few 1970 914/4 that got carbs, but they were demonstrator units only and not for retail sale. I know of one only, and it was a race car all it's life.

The Euro 1.8L got 40mm dual solexes just like the bus 32mm dual solexes.

.....YES......looks like the one I rebuilt. the actual carb size I do not remember.

In good shape then work well on a stock engine. In bad shape they're imposable to tune. See all the fuel cut-off solenoids? The bigger one is NLA and without them you will wash down the cylinders every shut down. Solex had a design issue (fuel shut off) right from the beetle PICT-30. The solenoid(s) solve this issue, but those solenoids are now 40yrs old.