QUOTE(Johny Blackstain @ Jun 15 2014, 10:56 AM)
The 914 was labeled a VW-Porsche in Europe for 2 reasons: it was a collaboration between the 2 companies & marketing (they felt it would sell better w/ a VWP badge over a plain VW badge). The car was always labeled as a Porsche in the US for the same reason; marketing, regardless of 4 vs. 6. From Porsches point of view it was designed to replace the 912. From VWs it was supposed to replace the Karmann Ghia. The way I read it there was a gentleman's agreement between Ferry Porsche & the then current director of VW to provide 914 chassis to Porsche @ cost from the Karmann factory, but either 3 or 5 days before the deal went through the director of VW died & the new guy saw no reason to honor the agreement. This caused the price to go up for Porsche who in turn had to raise the price to the consumer. Just a few years before this Porsche was forced to buy the Reutter coachworks because they had refused to cover the cost of retooling their factory to produce 911s instead of 356s, so Porsche was in no financial position to argue w/ the new head of VW. I believe the 6 was dropped for both reasons- poor sales & to protect the 911 (a car that Porsche had gone way out on a limb to produce). Sales were not helped either by the NARP (not a real Porsche) label, especially when the dealers were the ones saying it. I find this astonishing since 356s & 912s were VW powered. Porsche did do R&D on the 914 though, creating the GTs & the 916. GTs were race cars & the 916 was not put into production because it would have cost $5k more than the top of the line 911 @ the time. Also, Paul is right- a well sorted out 914 will run circles around a 911 & Porsche just can't have that. It's the same reason they don't put their best gear in the Boxster & Cayman today- can't make something that's better than the 911. Maybe if they produced better Caymans they would have @ least won the GTE Pro & GTE Am classes @ Le Mans this year, instead of letting those tittles go to Ferrari & Aston Martin.
Yeah, Porsche sucked at LeMans this year. Lots of pre-race hype and lotsa money spent for a poor placement. They'd better wake up, or just go away.