Well you all read the title! I know this has been debated numerous times, but I think another round of debate ending in disagreement would be fun!

I'll start: My dad had two 914's when I was a kid and both came with Porsche Crests installed. I never knew any different until I started seriously looking at buying one. Now I own a car with no crest, and it bothers me.
And to frustrate the situation further, George's recent video on the mean green 914 was the first time I ever heard anyone disparage the idea of having a crest on a 914. Maybe in Europe where they were sold as VW-Porsche I could understand, but in the states, they have ALWAYS been a Porsche!

I say it's time for 914 World to unite and crest every 914 alive today!! We need to create a template to standardize placement and get after it!! If you see a 914 at the grocery store, make sure you have a drill handy and get over there and FIX THAT CAR! I'm sure the cops will understand why you're drilling on a stranger's hood when you explain the injustice and prejudice that has gone on for so many decades!

You're turn!

Famous answer... It's your car do what you want. The purist concourse weenies will protest they didn't come that way, but its my car and it already has a badge on it and I'm not removing it. I do agree, some badges are too high and they look stupid. Otherwise IMHO most cars look better with a badge.

100% true, but having a small nail polish bottle with some paint. To cover up that bare metal after drilling, just to be nice.....
A 914 is pure Porsche.
Matt

NARP! Uphold the tradition...

The design team voted to badge them, but the marketing wonks messed that up. Seems like badging is pure to the wishes of those who designed these cars.

No need to drill hoods though. 3M trim tape.

Just curious, is there any evidence that individual US dealerships installed them on brand new 914s?

NARP as in Not A Real Porsche? Ha! That's too funny!!

If I was a bettin' man, which I am, I'd put money on the idea that any of them would for a fee!

When I got mine, it had a badge. I took it off and filled the holes.
In fact I've taken all the Porsche badging off my car. My car used to have the side stripes. And I took the lettering off the engine grill too.

I even replaced the Porsche grill lettering with a vintage Volkswagen badge at one point. Though that is also off the car.

The only badging left is a 914world sticker and a 914world badge on the grill.

Zach

In my 914's case, there is an emotional reason: The car was my older brother's before it was mine, and I spent my head-earned cash as a 13yo on a hood crest as a gift because I thought his new ride looked funny with a PORSCHE reflector (and grille letters) but no hood badge. I didn't "know better" about Porsche history, etc. I just thought the front end looked too plain.

But its place on the car was cemented on a trip to Oregon, where we couldn't pump our own gas. The attendant went to the back and asked if he could check the oil, so my brother popped the rear trunk lid just to josh him. The guy said, "All good!" and proceeded to clean the windshield and the back window. We thought he was just super on it, but when we got to a campground that night, we saw the hood crest was crooked. One post was broken, which probably happened after the fill-up when the hood was closed using the crest—but we all know the posts aren't exactly robust. Still have that crest laying around, somewhere, sun-weathered after many years on the car. The PORSCHE reflector and grille letters are long gone, but a 1973~ orange-bar crest a dear friend gave me is on the car. Is it incorrect? Yep. Do I wish it had been installed with 3M, or redone that way when I painted the car? Sure. Does it matter much? Nope, not to me anyway.

While I've warmed to the 914 without a hood crest due to the design's simplicity, I still think the nose looks a little better with that pointer/point of interest up there. And at least one or two 914s got them while they were still at Porsche…

YMMV!

When I bought mine back in 2013 I was dead set on adding a front badge. Over the years that it took to restore it I changed my mind and only have the Porsche lettering on the engine grille and I'm very happy with the understated look.

It wasn’t so funny back in the day when it was a slur used by ‘other’ Porsche owners to demean the 914. I was there, I lived it and now carry the NARP attitude as a badge of honor.

Those who are new to the appreciation would like to wipe the history like it didn’t happen. But, many of us know the truth and aren’t willing to let it slide. Won’t matter in a few years when I’m too old to drive my 914 and I move on, but til then…….

I went through Air Force flight training with some Germans. At the time I owned a 944. I tried to talk to them about my experiences learning to drive in a 914 and my current ownership of a 944. They were less than receiving of my enthusiasm. I proceeded to tell them that there's a reason the US is back-to-back world war champs and Germans are now night club weirdos who think wearing a white belt is cool.

I've lived with Porsche owner snobbery with every Porsche I've driven/owned. First a 914, then the 944, and even with my 996. If these people were even remotely correct, then there would be no way for me to identify the common design language and characteristics between all of those allegedly unrelated cars. But the truth is, I see and feel the common DNA. They all look like a Porsche and drive like a Porsche; therefore, it's a Duck!

Well, it has an engine designed by Dr. Porsche so obviously you shouldn't consider it one.


My only concern with the ornament is people hurting the car trying to steal it. Otherwise I like the way it looks present or not.


I wonder about a magnetic one you could put on when you feel like it...

I fell in love with these cars back in high school, but didn't buy my first one until around 2002. To be honest, I don't give two cents whether anybody considers them Porsches or VW's....I don't even care. I just like the way they drive and look. That said, I hate most all badging of any kind, as well as side markers. To me, they all take away the clean lines of the car.

To me badging and decals just clutter things up. You can make the car "pop" by color contrasts between the paint, the wheels, bumpers, brake calipers, etc., without putting decals and emblems all over it....not a huge fan of chrome either, but that's just me.

I know what brand vehicle I'm driving, and if passers by don't know what it is, let them wonder. Modern trucks are my pet peev with big cheesy 1 foot "RAM" badging across the tail gate or something like "King Ranch" plastered on the side.....I think that may have come from The Simpsons....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4LTraBoXmg

911's couldn't accept that a 914 actually handles better than the 911 of the same era. "Have you ever driven a 914? No . . . well here, drive mine."

Usually that ended the debate but of course there were those that saw lift thottle oversteer as some sort of 911 handling trait to be cherished.

No production 914 ever left the factory with a hood badge ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqomZQMZQCQ

THAT




So you want I should drill holes in the hood of my bumblebee?

Na, im good!

Not into drilling unnecessary holes in that or any of my 914, or any car for that matter

When I bought my first 914 at 19 It had to have a hood crest, and a center rear reflector and 916 bumpers, and flares... not so much anymore. Of that list at this point the flares and the badge are the only 2 on that list I even find still acceptable... but thats "acceptable" as in if they are already on the car cool... leave them, but if your car doesen't already have them, and doesent need them(in the case of a large 6 conversion) I see no reason to put them on.

If you MUST have a Porsche badge buy a 911... or a boxter, or 944, or even a 924, they all came with them. Actually on that note, think some of the newer 911 GT3s came with a sticker on the hood instead of the actual physical badge, That might be a better way to go than drilling holes in your hood. Then when people ask why you have a sticker instead of a badge you can tell them its a GT3 part for weight savings to make your car faster! and added bonus, you wont have extra holes in your hood!

Hey look!! its a bargain at only 80 bucks for the sticker!!!

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-porsche...al/99655921190/


I mean you could probably print your own but then Porsche would sue you back to the point of never wanting to see their logo on anything you own ever again!

I love the weight saving angle in the description. That makes it way more expensive!

A little while ago a car came up for auction where the PO had somehow managed to get the Porsche name and or logo on to just about every panel and part off the whole damn car. Need to go find that thread/car you will love it! Will for sure meet your need of having enough badging!



Im just having fun with you... If you want the hood badge, install a hood badge, but they were not original and in my mind totally unnecessary.

Don't forget to paint WEISSACH on the side of it..

This thread is rapidly becoming everything I hoped it would!

I don’t know why all these anti-badgers put on pants in the morning! They didn’t leave the factory with them!

I kid I kid… put on some pants fellas, your mid-engine is showing!

I actually have one of the Porsche crest stickers. They make them in the style of each generation of Porsche crest now. So, that and some GT3 RS side stripes and my little 1.8 will be running circles around you fools!
In all seriousness, I’m still considering what I want in the long run. But I think it’s unshakable in my mind that the crest needs to be on there. Like I said earlier, I didn’t even know 914s were excluded until somewhat recently.

I spent $ fixing the hood from the PO who drilled it

Use a sticker if you must

I don't care for the Badge on the Hood so I put my Badge here.

Click to view attachment

I use Crest twice a day on my teeth

For those still reading, here’s the original thread I found that inspired me. That first photo cracks me up every time!
Also, it confirms that some dealers did apply the crest/badge
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=198488

If I ever have the $ and time to get around to repainting my car, the crest will be removed (along with the side markers).

No badge for me. However, if I ever installed one it would be with trim tape (no holes) or I would just buy the sticker.

Even weak minded Ferrari Dino owners suffer the same need to put the Ferrari badge on their cars.

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/f...-on-dino.33591/

NARF?

So... If the designers of the car wanted a crest, because its a Porsche.
And the sales team said no because of....well.. just because they can...
If you are against a emblem, don't you dare cut holes for a water pumper or vent.

I think I get it now. To be a member of the club that honors the tradition of not being welcomed to the other club, and was created by the botched marketing of a brilliantly engineered car - I can swap any engine I like into the chassis EXCEPT electric motors, and it is cool to install any period correct option or accessory available from the dealer EXCEPT the hood badge. Do I have that right?

My Lord, it is a NARF. Imagine all that grief after paying that much.

No.

The only acceptable engine is aircooled. Others are tolerated, but, we all know the only proper motor is air cooled. Glad to be able clear that up.

Agreed. No problem.

No badge for me and also remove the rear grill lettering. Not many people around know what a 914 is anyway. Put lettering and/or a badge on it and it's that much more I have to hear the word "Porsh"

"Nice Porsh"
"Uh, it's Porsche you friggen dolt."

HIJACK WARNING: The coolant in my swapped engine is ultimately cooled by air so I'm going to claim I'm still in the club.

You're in . . . becuase you are an awe inspiring fabricator. Other than that, you're on probation . . .

I all seriousness . . . I appreaciate the humor and that you've all allowed a trouble maker like me to be part of the 914 World!

Why not put them on the sail panels kind of like the Ghia badges on the vinyl roof of a Mustang II? LOL

I think the majority of population of 914World consists of troublemakers.


Clay

page two of this thread just took this silly debate to a whole new level lol!!!
What's cracking me up is that we, as owners of a car that some claim as NARP, generally exhibit the same kind of picky and strong opinions that the Porsche community is known for!
I mean if it wasn't for guys like Magnus Walker who popularized the idea of making a car look however you wanted it to, then I'm sure anyone who painted their car any color other than the original color would be shamed out of town!
And it's so ironic that Porsche owners are so set on being picky, we'll continue to do the exact thing that Magnus was rebelling against.

About Magnus when he was new - "Oh it's not a real outlaw because only 356s can be outlaws"
About anyone who's not Magnus - "Oh, it's not a real Magnus Walker, just a tribute or a clone"

In fact, it literally just dawned on me that in my joking of the original post, I was still being a pedantic Porsche owner by expressing the need to standardize hood crest placement!

Thus, fellas, we are as Porsche as Porsche owners get!

Exactly, except that adding carburetors is also off limits.

Oh man! Now I'm out of the club and I didn't even know it.

What is a carburetor? Is that like a light bulb or vacuum tube?