Hey Ya'll. Recently fell in love with this car, total obsession. I've never been a car guy, and have only learned manual for a summer job over 7 years ago. I'm very serious about getting one myself. I'm lucky because my dad has "enough knowledge to be dangerous" and is more than willing to help me on my journey. The "problem" I'm having is that I've never actually seen one in person, let alone ridden or driven one. I was prepared to re-learn manual after purchase, relying on a test ride along, or letting my dad test drive it. However, there's so little available (I think 3-4 in canada) and most of them are on the coasts. I've reached out to a few ads nearby and they prefer not to indulge much in terms of driving/seeing the car in action unless a deal is in place (Which is totally reasonable)...

As much as I can youtube and research this car online all day long, I guess I was just wondering how all of you fell for the 914, maybe the first time you met one in person, how you got to drive one, and if you had any tips for someone like me to experience one in a low commitment way that's fair for all parties? (I wouldn't even be looking to drive it myself) I would really like to experience the old school feeling of real driving car though!

I personally found the 914 when I was autotrader'ing for fun, searched porsches and thought it was a nicer 911 LOL!

I saw my first one in the early '70s growing up in Germany and didn't like them at all.

Fast forward to 2000, driving to my storage unit in San Rafael, CA i had to drive by a shop that works on Porsche's and also sells used cars and one day they had a guards red 914 with GT flares sitting on the lot with a big for sale sign on it.
Stopped on my way back, looked at it, came back the next day with cash in hand and drove it home.

Dont do what I did and buy one unseen from old pictures from another country having never driven or sat in one before. Unless you have triple what the car cost to spend on making it what you want.

Turned out ok after five years or so tho.

Click to view attachment

I saw them around the D.C. area when they came out but I was much cooler, driving my 65 GTO. The front ends always sat too high and that made the boxy look even worse.
After I decided to build a sports car instead of another ill handling musclecar, I went through the criteria of what worked best...mid engine, 4whl disc brakes, a good suspension and found that most of what I wanted was out of my reasonable reach. Except for a 914 and I thought, yuck! Not one of those ugly things! I checked out Google to see if they'd got any better looking and after seeing them with flares and sitting MUCH better, I decided to pull the trigger. 2 wks later I had one. A year and a half later I had a place to work on it. The work still continues...

The first 914 I ever saw was while walking home form school one day. An orange one. It was love at first sight.

I also remember going to the dealer (Art Bunker Porsche/Audi) and being allowed to sit in one on the showroom floor.

Sorry to say, I have no clear recollection of my first ride or opportunity to drive one.

walked past one on the street in central melbourne aus.
think it was christmas 72/73. would have been 12 or 13.
with my mother on christmas shopping trip down from country.
my mother had to drag me away from it.
never had seen a picture of one, nor knew about them prior.
(later found out it was probably 1 of the 2 in aus at that time and a 6, not that i knew).

after that started to find out bits and pieces of info on them through high school.
realised it was a car that was never going to come to aus. lhd only.
no internet in those days. would just be some random article in a foreign car mag.

got through university, learned more about them along the way.
met a bloke who had one.
by then there were more here, maybe 10.
4 in my city.

a few years after that ended up living and studying in chicago.
bought one. still got it.

still remember my first few hours in the USA.
cab ride down the expressway from San Francisco airport to downtown.
late afternoon. cali fall going into winter.
what cruised past on the expressway and gave me a good long look at it on the move.
914. think it was green, hard to remember.
there were still lots of them on the roads in the USA back then, esp in cali,


make sure you look at one in the flesh.
maybe you will like it still, or maybe you won't.
there is no in between.
but at least you won't be a pariah if you like it - how it used to be.

My Uncle bought a 70' new, I was 13 and the family would spend a few weeks in San Diego every summer at my G-mothers house. My Uncle and I would hang out and go fishing. So for two weeks in 1970 I cruised around SD in a 914. 12 years later I had one of my own, saturn yellow, the same color as my Uncle's.

Saw the new 914 at the International Auto Show in San Francisco when I mustered out of the Army in 1969. Loved it but had a Sprite back then and very little money. Fast forward to 1987. Married. Two kids. Volvo and Toyota. Wanted a sports car again and found two that fit the bill; a '74 2L 914 and a TR-3A. The 914 was nice and had a lot of the maintenance records. The TR was a) British and b) more than ten years old. Easy choice. This was before the internet and I bought the car because I liked it not because of extensive research. Fortunately, I had found a gem and now, 34 years later, I still love it. I hope whomever got that Triumph had the same good fortune.

It's a different world now with econo boxes having powered everything including AC.
The first car i drove was the family's Datsun pickup. No AC, manual, gutless, manual windows, etc. The first car I owned was a VW Sirocco. It had more power than the Datsun, but same features. I totaled the VW and my neighbor had a 914. It sounded the same as my Dad's bug with Webers. In 1979, I bought my first 914 which was a 71 with a 1.7 motor in it. I loved the car and compared to the other cars I owned it was a blast to drive and cornered awesome. I quickly hopped the motor up to a 2.4 four with webers, before it got totaled and then bought another one and converted it to a six. I still love these cars, but hard to compare it to a modern car with all the creature comforts.

Watched my sister, brother and younger sister all get cars from from my parents, not me. 30 years later, still not sure why (never really cared). I think my mom was afraid if they got me a car I would’ve driven off, never to be seen again… back then they were probably right…

1st Xmas break back from college the gf ‘s dad got a 1.7, lowered, western wheels, resprayed burgundy red. Fell in love with that car. Found a 75 1.8 for sale cheap, it had a nice stereo system, and was beater enough on the outside that it would really piss off the folks… so I bought it!

BTW- I love my parents, always have! I also still have my 75…

I would think if you find the right car, offer a small deposit to show you’re serious (a couple hindered $ is plenty). Go see the car in person, give it a good once over, then make up your mind if you’re going to buy it. If so ask to be given a ride, if it still rings your bell after the ride, buy it, enjoy the ride. If after inspection it’s not the one, don’t waste anymore of the sellers time, be honest and prepared to walk away from the deposit. Move on till you find the right one!

Where exactly are you? there's a bunch of us in various parts of Ontario, Quebec, and probably west coast too. I'm sure someone would be happy to take you for a spin at least... Have a look at this thread. Don't know if anyone is selling but actually seeing/touching/riding in the cars would be a start.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=341094

Can't remember the first drive.
Do remember that the first car I owned turned out to be very rusty.
Bought a second one as a parts car........it turned out to be a far better chassis overall
......moved everything over from the first car.
it's become a habit

First 914 sighting was in 1973 when I drove 200 miles to the Porsche dealer in Lubbock, Texas. I previously had a 1967 911S that I brought back from Germany when I was in the Army. The 914 looked like an ugly duckling and was looked down on by 911 owners, including me. Went home with a 1973 911T Targa in bright yellow. Fast forward to 1985, that's when I got into 914's. They were cheap and plentiful. Bought 3 914-6's for under $6 k in the 80's-90's. The rest is history.

For starters, I have never been to Canada, but I am certain there's more than 3 available. Just keep your ears to the ground. Post a running WTB thread, here, Pelican Parts, etc. It does take time. Consider importing from on of the northern States too.

Post in local groups, maybe facebook or something. Attend car/Porsche meets and don't be afraid to ask around.

I am sure there are guys that would love to show you around the car. This is a great group of people.

Dust off your socket set, these are definitely a labor of love.


Enjoy the journey, and find the car with the best chassis you can!

The 914 only caught my eye 30 years ago. We were at the Nurburgring Germany with our motorbikes and I saw an Olympia blue coming off the track. Still don't know if it was a 4 or a 6 but never forgot that car

cheers
Dax

It was Tuesday April 30th, 1974. I was 11 years old, 5th grade. Dad came home from work with a very strange attitude... he was fed up with the Capri, again, but wasn't angry. After dinner he asked me if I wanted to go look at Porsches and my ignorant ass asked him "what's that?" His reply was "Do you remember the green Hotwheels I always beat your purple Ferrari with?" The rest is history.

My Brother and I test drove an Bahia Red 71 914-6 on a rainy day in the early 70's. He was also looking at a 64 356C, which he bought. I liked the car but I liked the 356C better.

Fast forward a to 1978 and I had a classmate in a Junior College Drafting class that had a silver 72. I had a 68 MGB-GT at the time. We traded drives one time at lunch and I was hooked on the car and they way it handled.My MG felt bulky and heavy compared to the 914.

Still didn't own one until I bought a rust bucket 74 twelve years ago and got the disease. I needed something to de-stress after my heart attack.

You've come to the right place!

Not sure when I first saw a 914, as they were everywhere in the East Bay growing up…just part of the landscape of cool old used sports cars. But I remember two rides distinctly, a beastly V8 conversion owned by my junior high PE teacher, @Cali914 , in the first legitimately fast car I ever rode in (accelerating down the University onramp was a thrill I'll never forget), and then my older brother's 914-4 with maybe 80hp, which would later be left behind in disrepair…but available to me if I was willing to earn the money to fix it and pay for my own insurance and gas. That was 32 years ago, and I have improved the car slowly over the years. Still doing that.

Best advice (among a lot of good advice) in the thread is bolded above, and I'd consider looking for 914s that lived out their lives in very dry places (AZ, TX, NM, etc) in good enough condition to be driven home, and then adding a "travel budget" for that journey. Nothing beats a good chassis to start with in a 914—you can do paint and parts installs as you have budget—and the drive home will be a forever memory.

When I was in High School, one of my classmates had a 914. I didn't know the owner, and I didn't pay it any attention because it wasn't a Muscle Car with a big V-8. I forgot about it as I got older. The only reason I know about it is from a yearbook picture.

In 1985, I bought a 924 and decided to go Autocrossing with SCCA. My second autocross was at Fair Park in Dallas on November 17 1985. My two friends who were supposed to go with me were too hung over to go, so I went alone.

Parked near me was a little orange car that I didn't know a thing about. So I went over and started talking to the owner. She was also new to autocrossing. I spent a lot of time asking questions about her car. She ended up beating me in the AX.

At the end of the event, I asked her out. While we were dating, I got to drive her 914. I immediately wanted one. Three years and two days after I went to that autocross, I married the owner of that 914.

36 years later, we are still married and we have 3 914s, including the one that she had that fateful day in November of 1985.

Oh... And I sold the 924 about a year after we got married.

When I was in High School, I started dating my wife of 39 years. My car was a Ford Pinto, and even then we called it the "blow up car", knowing that if we were ever rear ended, the cars were known to become roman candles. I was mowing my neighbor's lawn one afternoon, and he approached me and asked if I was going to the school prom soon with my girlfriend. When I told him I was, he informed me that it just wasn't right to take her on this big date in a Pinto. He had just purchased a new silver 914 and he offered it to me to use to take her to the dance! I couldn't believe it, and neither could she when I pulled up in this little racy Porsche to take her out for the big night!. My generous neighbor continued to let me use the 914 whenever I had a significant date night, and I will be forever grateful to him. After we were married, my wife and I always said that whenever we had a little extra coin someday, we would pick up a 914. We finally made it financially, and my wife and son went out and bought a nice yellow one and surprised me with it! When I told my friends that my wife bought my 914 for me, they asked where they could get one. I said "A car like this?". And they said "No, we can get the car anywhere, we want to know where to get a wife that will buy us a sports car!". Good luck, she's pretty special. I'm not so sure I would lend out my 914 today to some punk 16 year old kid like I was then! My neighbor was one of my heroes!Click to view attachment

So my first introduction up close to a 914 was in 1982-83. I worked at a fast food place called "Taco Via" in Missouri. There was a guy that worked there named Jerry and he drove a yellow one. .it was kinda rough, but intriguing . Jerry said he loved the car because was a 914 which was like "714". . . which is apparently something to do with quualudes? (Don't ask me, my addiction is Diet Dr. Pepper). Anyway, I started noticing them after and was contemplating little sporty cars and thought the basket handle would make it safer than something like a Triumph Spitfire. . .

I still want to own one. . maybe someday.

September 1971. My best friend and I had just received our commissions from Aviation Officers Candidate school in Pensacola, FL and he promptly bought an Irish Green 914. Several guys bought new Porsches - we called them "Ensign cars".

Click to view attachment

I used an on-line dating service.

Saw my first 914 in person in 1970 when we bought it new at a Tucson dealership. Drove down from Phoenix and traded in a VW bug. Didn't know much more than the Porsche name at the time. Selling point was having to have the driver seat up a notch, important when you're 6'2". And, being a contrarian, the styling and mid engine. Drove the silver -4 for about a year and 20+ thousand miles before trading it at newly-opened Johnson-Bozzani Porsche in Phoenix for the Irish Green -6 we still have.
Lots of memories between then and now with more still to come.

Where are you?
I'm in central Ontario, about an hour east of Toronto, I'll give you a ride.
If not I have many contacts all over the country and I bet I can hook you up.

Like most 914 owners I'm a busy guy...but never too busy to talk about 914's.

@914lover17

take up this blokes offer or you will never know.

It was the summer of 1971 I was fresh out of high school and had moved to my first apartment in Hermosa Beach on the street named First Place. Vasek Polak Porsche dealership was on Pacific Coast Highway literally right around the corner from my apartment. I used to walk by the dealership on a regular basis. It was not uncommon for Vasek to place his race cars on the showroom floor right next to the new for sale cars. One day I popped in to ogle and spotted a 908 race car sitting next to a new silver 914-6. The two cars side by side was something to behold, I was amazed to say the least. As I looked and looked I could see the the similarities, both cars were about the same size, both cars were mid engined, both cars had the wheels way out on the the corners, very much alike. I will never forget that moment of realization that lineage of the two cars were so close, the 914-6 being a race car for the street. I fell in love then.

Secondary impression of that day was that when I saw the 914-6 window sticker with a price of $5999 I knew these cars were unattainable and well beyond what an 18 year old that drove a $300 VW Squareback and was probably earning under $2.00 an hour. BTW gasoline was about $.36 a gallon then.

I don't remember when I first laid eyes on a 914 but I do remember the first time I really "saw" a 914, the first time one really caught my attention.

It was in September of 1986.
If someone in the neighborhood had a car they wanted to sell, they would park it out at the far end of the parking lot at the high school I attended. That area was right out by the road so the cars got plenty of exposure to potential buyers.

One day a little red 914 was parked there with a "For Sale" sign on the dash. The seller tried to talk me out of it due to the amount of work it is to keep a 914 running but I didn't listen. I gave him my money and he gave me the car.

It was slightly lowered with 916 bumpers, American Racing Lemans wheels with 205/50 Fulda tires. I loved that car.

It was a great car to drive around during my senior year in high school. Sadly, I wasn't very mechanical at the time and I sold it as a disassembled project a few years later.

I had one picture of it which I can no longer find.

My first job after college was in Colorado Springs in 1973. I would drive to the Porsche dealer on Sundays to look at 911s and 914s. I knew on a teacher's salary I would never be able to afford a 911 but the 914s were very appealing and I was hooked. My first actual ride in a 914 was with friends (married couple) who owned a white 1974. We regularly squeezed three people into their 914 and took trips to the mountains.

I remember when it was 25 cents a gallon. Remember the Sunoco pumps when you could choose the octane level?

A friend of mine was a Porsche mechanic at the new Porsche + Audi dealership in Cedar Rapids, IA and they had a euro model 914 (with a Wolfsburg insignia on the steering wheel and the VW covered up on the rear VW-Porsche lettering) on display to spark interest in the car and the new dealership. The car had to be driven to another dealership in Minneapolis so of course one of my best friends, who at the time had a 124 Fiat sport coupe, and I volunteered to drive it up there even though it was the dead of winter in the midwest... they somehow trusted two young college kids...

The rest is history, and my friend got his 914 soon after me, and I now have that car too...

My dad brought an olympic blue 73 1.7 home from Duffy's Collectible Cars in Cedar Rapids in 1983 when I was a sophomore in High School. He said "should we get this or..." something else. I have no idea what else. I was hooked. Drove it til 1996 when it was totaled in Atlanta and is now rusting away in a field somewhere in George's possession....

Lead me to an 86 944 Turbo...and 89 944 Turbo and now back to a 74 Olympic blue 2.0.

My first in-person encounter was at an autocross in Tucson, around 1982. It scored well, and the unique design really caught my eye. At the time, I had a bigger infatuation with the X1/9 and bought one of those that became a dedicated competition car.

Bob, I'm impressed with the X 1/9... you do know Fiats are painted with salt water based paint??????
(and we thought 914's rust quickly????)