There are 3 known LE cars that are or were in Japan, all are now included on the 914 LE Registry.

I recently found out about Bumblebee VIN 14438, formerly of the Matsuda collection. I think its now owned by a P-car collector in the USA, on the East Coast.

Note that it appears to be a Euro-equipment car, with Japan sidemarker lenses and US side stripes. And of course, painted 4-bolt Fuchs.

The second car is listed on the Registry as 'Japan 2' because I don't know the VIN. It is very similar to VIN 14438, but in Creamsicle colors. Can't explain why 14438 has Targa bar vinyl (a Euro LE detail) and this one has no vinyl. I like the painted Fuchs!

I think that these first two LE cars were specifically made for import to Japan because of their unique equipment...Fuchs not Mahles, US sidestripes not Euro, and sidemarkers, which Brett Johnsons book says were of a special design for Japanese 914s.

The third Japanese 914 LE we have located looks to me to be a US LE that was imported. Mahles, not Fuchs and bumperguards, no Targa vinyl. The owner of this car claims there were 20 914 LEs imported to Japan.

Interesting that the BB has the sail vinyl. I'd love to see COA's on these cars.

Yeah...The other Euro LEs (AKA 914GT) we know about both have Targa vinyl...In 1974 US 914s all had vinyl standard, and the LEs have no vinyl. In europe, vinyl was not standard on 914s in 1974, so the 914GT cars had vinyl...Porsche just wanted the LEs to be different than the other cars at the dealership.

Also these Japanese LEs are described in their accompanying descriptions not as 914 LEs, but as "914 2.0 SL". I saw that once and thought it was odd, but now I have seen it used to describe the second found car VIN 14438.

Here is German VIN 16276.

I am trying to contact the owner of VIN 14438, he reportedly has the car here in the US. If I can make contact, he may already have the COA for VIN 14438...we may be in luck.

QUOTE (bowlsby @ May 6 2005, 08:01 AM)

Note that it appears to be a Euro-equipment car

would that make it a genuine GT ???

Andy

And of course....a recent sighting of...the GH car....

QUOTE

would that make it a genuine GT ???

Well the Euro equipment seems to be the F/R turnsignal lenses, no bumperguards, and Targa bar vinyl. The Porsche lettered sidestripes are US, not Euro. The Fuchs seem to be unique to the Japan cars. And I think the 'SL' description may be important. It would take some digging at Porsche Classics to find out if these cars went to Japan under the name 'SL' officially, to know if there were in fact three different names for these cars:

914 Limited Edition - US markets
914GT - European markets
914 SL - Japan

I would also like to know if these Japan SL cars have the numbered dash medallion like the German car VIN 16276 has.

Jeff, I seem to remember, (I may be wrong) badges (not medallions) given to 356 owners after the car passed 100,000 kilometers.

Are you sure that is a production number badge?

It also seems that porsche has often celebrated the 100,000th production of there models
for instance the 912 polize car and the 57 356 and 100,000th beetle and probably others

Could the euro GT be the 100,000th 914 produced?

pics

sorry to water down your thead Jeff

Hi Kelly, I doan no nuthin' about no stinking 356ers...Although they are beautiful to my eye...thansk for your input...its not diluted....

I have only seen two of those 'Jubillaumsmodell' medallions. One is on VIN 16276, a German 914GT, and it looks like it has 'Nr. 27' in the lower center part of the medallion. The other is actually a keychain with apparently the same medallion, just no number. There are photos of a Creamsicle 914GT on the 914 LE Registry, at the bottom under the name 'German 2'.

The 914GT Bumblebee poster I have (GustlB has one too...) clearly states that this was a special SERIES car issued to comemorate the 100,000th 914 built. So there were at least 27 of them built for Europe the way I understand it, not just a single car. The poster Bumblebee is not VIN 16276 either...the two cars details are different as you can see.

Here is 'German 2'...

QUOTE (bowlsby @ May 6 2005, 12:04 PM)

Here is 'German 2'...

Jeff,

Let me know if you need any help with Japanese translation. I went to Japanese school and would be happy to help you. I visit Japan at least once a year.

Dan

thats pretty cool, i knew that there were teeners in japan, but i didn't know there were many differences. Is there a site that describes the differences between the US and japanees cars? Thanks.

Barry - There are a couple Japanese 914 sites, links are in the archives somewhere...

Here is one: http://www.914.jp/


Thanks for asking Dan...as a matter of fact...can you make sense of this?

DGVWPB, page 97:
only for the US market the LE cars have got Mahle rims, for ALL OTHER countries they used Fuchs rims ...
2.0L engine, sway bars front and rear, appereance group without Targa bar vinyl, no chrome trim on targa bar, front spoiler, black bumper grills

a german friend told me, that the 100,000 medaillon came with every european GT

at the moment I try to get in contact with a specialist in Swizerland, who might know some more details about the GT/LE/SL cars

QUOTE

only for the US market the LE cars have got Mahle rims, for ALL OTHER countries they used Fuchs rims ...2.0L engine, sway bars front and rear, appereance group without Targa bar vinyl...

I have seen that text....

but...but...but...

What about the official poster car...The Vin 16276 car and 'German 2' Creamsicle....Euro cars with Targa vinyl and Mahles....???

we all know, that nobody knows for sure

my idea is, that the poster car is basically a US version (mahles and the wholes for the bumperettes) or even a prototype version

at #16276 and the "German 2" cars someone could have changed the rims - as we know, hardly anybody knows what should be original - and as a matter of fact, there are much more US LE cars around, which all have mahles - so, somebody could have thought, that he have to put mahles on his GT
well, that's just an idea

to the Targa vinyl:
as you can see on the sheets I sent you the other day (Porsche intern stuff "M-Options") the "Gran-Tourisme-Equipment Europe/Rest World" as well as the "Gran-Tourisme-Equipment North America" were available on the 914 standard version AND with the appearance group
one of the differences is the targa vinyl


I'd say, the truth is somewere out there

browsing the japaneese pages I've found more LE (SL?) pics
unfortunately low res

interior

curious

I don't know if these pics are out from the same time period, but check out the different rims - both wear fuchs, one blank the other painted

at both cars the color of the Porsche script doesn't match with the red painted rocker panels

both cars seem to have chrome targa trim

the interior view shows a Volkswagen crest on the horn button, no stock steering wheel though

at both cars the exhaust pipe looks somehow non-stock ?

QUOTE

I'd say, the truth is somewere out there

Ah but the search is fun...

Two of the sheets you sent I will post here, I need help trying to understand them. Dated 1.3.74 (Is that January 3 or March 1?) they appear to have been prepared right at the time of the 914 Can Am car production. These options were available for cars produced in April 1974...there are many LE cars produced in February and March 1974.

They seem to describe two option packages M470 and M471, for the 914. The 914 LE cars (US version) are model number 473644 as noted on the top of the 914 LE window stickers.

But these pages list the model number cars they apply to and the 914 LE is not on the list, so do these papers even apply to the LE cars?

QUOTE (bowlsby @ May 7 2005, 01:25 PM)

Ah but the search is fun...

well, I thought a lot and several times about these sheets of information

Due to the fact that these sheets are out from a german "Porsche Internal Book", I'd say the printed date "1.3.74" means 1st of March, 1974. As you can see at the first sheet you posted, it says "Available: as of April 74 production". So I'd say it's pretty clear about the date.
This won't mean that there is no such info sheet with nearly the same info and an earlier date on it - we might just don't have it ...

The second sheet just says, that the euro equipment isn't available with the US cars and vice versa.
Therefore you need the 3rd sheet. This one explaines which model numbers are from wich car - without the "Gran-Tourisme-Equipment".
Sheet 2 says, that the "Gran-Tourisme-Equipment" is available with the standard 914 and the "914-Comf." (which means the appearance group).

So I guess, that means:
if you ordered a 473.544 (914 with appearance group for the USA/Canada market) with the opiton M470, your model code automatically turned into 473.644

if you ordered a 473.214 (914 standard for "worldwide") with the option M471, your model code automatically turned into 473.644 too

I'm sure that it depends on your basic car if you have targa vinyl and chrome trim or not.
According to this infos it's no longer curious to me that there are GT and LE cars with AND without targa vinyl and chrome trim on 'em. But it seems to be a fact, that all US/Canada LE cars came with mahles but all "rest of world" cars with fuchs - even if we know the photos of the GTs with mahles. This would match with the DGVWPB as well.

O.k., that's just my opinion after reading and thinking on those infos ...

But it takes me wonder that the DGVWPB says, the GT/LE cars were only available with the 2.0 L engine, but these sheets show 1.8 L engines, too

Jeff, do you know where this photo is taken?



is this at Matsuda Collection or at the american collector from the East Coast?

Pretty sure that is taken at Matsuda.