Relatively new to 914s, a few years. I've got a '74 2L that I've been refurb'ing for a bit, and in working on it I'm noticing a few odd things:

- No evidence of the seat belt interlock system. No wires anywhere, nothing tucked away in a hole.
- Oddball European rear tail lights, has a small outer bulb that is missing from the spares I have in the loft.
- Originally came with Euro front lenses, I've since replaced them with US orange (euro replacements too damned expensive).
- When I select a turn signal with the ignition off, the parking bulbs (and that small bulb) light up on that side of the car and stay on.
- Headlight washer nozzles (that I've yet to track down to where they go) and there was a spare washer tank in the front trunk.
- Electrical washer pump, which I understand is not stock?
- Strange combo of dash- and center console-mounted oil temp. I converted it to center console only.

I had originally dismissed most of this as a prior owner doing conversions (quality of work suspect), but I only discovered the city lights yesterday, accidentally, as I was installing the replacement dash pad (I thought I had a bad ground, then pulled the tail light covers to find the city bulbs).

What have I got here? Previous owner conversion or a car that was not delivered in the USA? VIN 4742918315 .

Greg

Edited typo for headlight washer nozzles

Is there a VIN tag on the A pillar? If so, US spec. Otherwise, possibly ROW (rest of world)

Much of what you mention sounds like PO changes.

The city park light is common among our cars. the euro tail light lenses need to go. I can send you a set of US replacements. Toss those euro lenses into a box and drop them in the mail to me and I will discard them for you... Headlight washers? Ya, send them too...

Interesting! Nothing under the passenger's seat?



Those sound like the real deal.



Are the turn signal buckets split with a divider? Do they have two bulbs? If so, they're the real deal as well. If not, they're just lenses, which are relatively cheap to replace.



Absolutely standard for our cars.



Very interesting!! Any extra switches, extra wiring, etc? Are the nozzles in the bumper top?



Popular aftermarket mot on four-cylinder cars.



That seems to happen with a few 74+ cars. At a guess, the bin at the factory didn't have any more non-oil-temp combo gauges that day, so they stuck the oil temp one in instead, and the car was ordered with the center console so they put that one in as well.




Probably the latter. As was pointed out, US-spec cars have the VIN tag in the windshield frame. They also have emissions stickers in the engine bay. And, of course, the Certificate of Authenticity (from Porsche, send money!) will tell you.

Also, a Euro-spec 74 would either have an AN-code motor (dual carb 1.8) or a GB-code motor (higher-compression 2.0) instead of the US-spec EC or GA.

--DD

Nothing, nada, and I've had the interior completely out (did a full interior resto over last weekend, new backpanel, seat covers, etc). Not even evidence of a bad wiring hack job. Just...missing.


Didn't notice, I'll compare the two cars.


US 914s have that too?


Front nozzles are in the bumper top, hoses go to a pump that was mounted to a tank in the spare tire well.

I'll check for a VIN tag on the A-frame, and emissions stickers would have been long gone by now (this car lived a hard life).

Car is a D-Jet.

GA

To the best of my knowledge only Euro cars got headlight washers. Never a USA option. The tail light description is correct for Euro assemblies. Does the car have side marker lights? The key is whether or not it has the windshield post VIN plate. No plate, not USA model.

The left one is US model. I can see the VIN tag, the side markers, front bumper with tits...

The tits are a give away.... unless modded, but thats what's connected to the bumper top too....

Might be a special order US car....

Looks good!

Yup, left (red) one is the one in question.

I'm guessing a previous owner converted the lights; all have the separated area for the smaller bulbs. I was not aware that all 914s got the turn signal/city lights.

Still don't know why there's no evidence of the seatbelt interlock, though. I mean no evidence at all, and I looked hard for it.

So, side question: the front sidemarkers are US-only? I guess that would explain why they look so tacked-on. I gave thought to having them replaced with something more elegant when we did the paint last year, but ran out of time to think about it before my slot in the booth opened up.

Do you have the seatbelt light on the dashboard, above the cabin heat controls? I bet that even if it was removed, the hole is there, under the vinyl.

US and a couple of other markets. I think Italy and Japan? Maybe a few more. But for most of Europe, no side-markers.

--DD