QUOTE(GregAmy @ Oct 30 2021, 08:10 AM)
"Meh"...?
That's one of those things that only another 914 owner would notice. And I didn't.
Y'all startin' to sound like the 911 crowd at my local Connecticut PCA meetings, all discussing how cool their paint and option codes are...make sure to bring your Ray Bans and string-back leather gloves...
if you import a car from another country/market as i did more than 30 years ago and have to road register it in compliance with your country's set of design rules you learn quickly the nut case details bureaucrats pick over. arguments over whether lenses were marked with a correct australian code (which they could never be - it was a 914) or if not what was accepted as equal european code marking.
eg it was not permitted by the aus regulation authorities in my state to connect the side lamps (with the american lens) to function with the front indicators because the lens i had was a passive reflector and was not a diffusing indicator lens!
the color was right the construction was wrong. although we had had them connected to work as indicators rather than side markers i had to disconnect them and cap the wires to meet the standard during the engineering inspection.
in a weird twist the inspector made reference to special allowances for private import cars to allow discretion and not have visible side indicators. we solved the problem of the lens that way - made them non functional against better judgement.
at that time in 1991/92 i was completely unaware of the J or Italian wart lenses. people did not have easy access to the kind of info.
about 3 years after i got my car on the road a good friend of mine acquired the original assessment 914/6 that came into australia. the first thing we noticed was the side warts worked as indicators. then we looked closely at the lens and saw it was different to USA side lights. back then we still didn't know what the lens was or where it came from.
an inquiry with a retired porsche service mechanic got us our answer. he told us it was a Jap part.
why i remember all the crazy detail about lens construction.
functional knowledge that i didn't really want to have.
and about a million miles from what concourse kooks go on about.