I just saw this today, a mildly interesting piece in C&D comparing old and new Porsches, including a 914-6.

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a3901...ions/?source=nl

What a whiner...Real drivers drove them to victory in the 70's. Rowing them to the front and staying there. Four speed?

Yeah Bob, they're whimps... been handling it fine for over 51 years, though I did convert the '71 to a side shifter in the late 80's. Luckily the '73 came with a side shifter!!

Jealous maybe? C&D must know of car #40?

After reading it, I wonder if the driver didn't know about the dog leg. I would never say there is a big gap between the gearing of 1 and 2 on a 914 transmission.

I've also ridden along with many automotive jorunalists over the years at various media events. You'd be amazed how many aren't even remotely proficient with a stick shift.

You would also be appalled by how many magazines simply take the OEM stock press photos and bullet points and just recycle them into an article. No thought or real evaluation of the product required. Just attend the press event, stay in fancy hotel, eat nice meals, produce standard article.

I used to subscribe to them all:
Road & Track
Car & Driver
Automobile Magazine
Hot Rod
Car Kulture Deluxe (still pick this up in airports from time to time)
AutoWeek
Wards
SAE

I no longer subscribe to any of them. Not really missing much that I don't get via other internet sources and at least then I don't have to pay for all the unwanted commentary on social issues, climate change, and other isssues that don't have a place in auto mag's.

And of course - best money spent these days is a contribution to this site!

Yeah... what he said.... all of it!
Well almost all of it. I do have C & D because granddaughter was selling magazines. What would you do? You buy one of course, but it does not take long to get from mail box, a high level review, and on to recycle.

The author clearly did not know about the shift pattern on the 914.

That said - especially if the bushing were worn - the shifter on a 914 isn't a crisp and intuitive experience. Hence why many of us have done whatever we can (side shifter conversions, ceramic spherical bearings, etc etc) to improve the shifter. It can be pretty tight, but a stock tail shifter with old bushings will be challenging for someone who is not familiar with the car or its shifter.

Zach

We have this old diesel truck from the 80s at a research station I go to in the Caribbean. The transmission is just impossible but interestingly after a couple days you just become one with it and all is good. You need to let it shift when it wants to and go into the gear it wants to be in. Use the force Luke...

"VW & Porsche" 1976 article on T4 turbo vs 930 turbo in the 1/4 mile. We went best out of 3, the 914 took all 3. My luck that day was; got good Tree + launch, and more luck was that 930 was a "Press car" and totally thrashed. Editor (the late) Jay Amestoy at the 930 helm. Oak Green metallic 930 wound up in private hands...then featured in " Excellence" later on. Black 914 wound up becoming my flat fan, biturbo six, also featured in "Excellence".
No trouble shifting the 901, and barely into 5th at the 1320'. Jay had his hands full of a 930 with an open wastegate fail...and got to see 914 tail lights
Click to view attachment

At the end of the Irwindale 1/4 mile, in the sandpit (same article). Jay became a 914 mid engine believer !
Miller/ Coors Brewery is on all of this acreage today; and the Irwindale dragstrip (new location) is a mini 1/8 mile track B+W photo credit Steve Reyes.
Click to view attachment

Automobile is gone. R&T, C&D, and AW are merged into one lame excuse. Not sure about the others.

Yep, and the parent company shuttered something like 19 of its 22~ automotive titles in print in a single day.

^ Super cool memories, Marty!

Love the fake knockoffs on the 914 in the photos . . . I used to have them on my 1st teener. So 1980's, which of course was a throwback to the 60's sportscars.

Comparisons like these in the article are exercises in futility. Comparing any pre-Boxter Porsche to any post-Boxter Porsche is apples to oranges. The technology and philosophy of the company is too great a difference between the eras.

Ansbacher

does the blue museum car have a 4 speed 901?

i've only seen one 914/6 with the 4 speed.
it originally belonged to the australian distributor as an assessment car.
the box was reputed to be factory installed new - had hill climb ratios - special order of a. hamilton.
i drove it once (more than 25 years ago).
my memory was the shift was beautiful. better than the dogleg 5.

are they star steelies with ornamental knock-offs?

Biggest take away is C&D needs new writers

Yes Michael @wonkipop the spinners and the funny black wind deflectors on the W/Wipers ! Picked those up in an auto-spares shop in London mid '70s while traveling. Saw the spinners on a bunch of sporty jam jars, and the price fit my '70s budget...just a few quid

Hi Pete @horizontally-opposed lots of good memories in the Black '74.
C/D magazine Don Sherman, in an arranged meet, greet, ride along in my customer's '77 924 with fresh MSDS turbo system, almost melted it down at OCIR one day; in front of the distraught client that just flew in from SLC !
We agreed that I would drive it through the 1320. He says "Just throw me the keys, I want to take it around the parking lot". Customer says OK...then Don zips it down the 1/4 mile, hitting the rev limiter on every shift; then at the end of the track he points the 924 at us and Jumps all over it in the wrong direction.
It barely idled when he brought it back. I was able to nurse it back to life, clamps and hoses blown off, simple things (luckily) and told him Thanks for the afternoon, nothing to write about here. Collected Tom (customer) and went to Knotts for fried chicken lunch
That day I learned a lot about editors (with no respect for machinery), how they are accustomed to driving Press Cars, too risky for my budget. Greg Brown (editor) and Les Bidrawn at "European Car" used to dig our 100+mph drives down Veteran in WLA, he never asked to drive any of my projects. I've never thrown the keys to my cars to anyone except my Son, and my air-cooled tech .

^ Sad to hear, but par for the course in a lot of my industry. But it ain't all of the industry.

I wasn't allowed out of a parking lot in my dad's '64 VW Bus until I could get going—repeatedly—without touching the throttle. Clutch only. His point, over and over and over: Be smooth, have sympathy (he was an engineer, and drove that bus as his daily for 30 years, 1973-2003). Turned out Hurley Haywood, my first driving instructor, wanted me to be smooth too. Turned out, so did David Murry, my favorite driving instructor ("Ok, now you need to work on being smooth getting off the brakes").

There are a lot of people in my industry who view every drive in someone else's car as "their opportunity" rather than a privilege and responsibility. Example: I get a call to let me know a 911 GT2 won't be delivered on time because both turbos failed. So I think, ok, I've owned turbo cars for years and years—and while modern turbos can fail, it's really rare. But wait, BOTH turbos failed? How does that happen?? So I ask. Turns out, an editor was done for the day, and decided to do donuts on the rev-limiter in first until the rear tires were finished. Who does that? And how does it serve readers again? Another: I was sent out to ride with a writer in a Ferrari V12, because the editor who had the car didn't trust the guy. Not far from the office, on cold oil, he goes full throttle to redline up the first onramp. I mentioned "cold oil!" and the basic response was one I heard too often: "Relax, it's a press car."

No, it's a car. And if that isn't enough, it's someone else's car. Doesn't matter who it belongs to. Also: Beating on a car doesn't make you quicker. I have never understood the appeal. But it's hardly just journalists…

Ah yeah: GB is good people. I appreciate him more and more as the years go by.
And: I've been privileged to ride and drive with some of the greatest, but none came close to the smooth speed and sympathy of Linge in an Abarth GTL. None.

Pete @horizontally-opposed ,
Herbert Linge must have been something back in the day to see on track !
Carlo Abarth once said "There's a certain satisfaction in humiliating bigger and more expensive cars with a modest hatchback "

thats true.

about....... hatchback things.
https://www.carthrottle.com/post/10-things-...rt-clio-172182/

Wasn't so long ago. Maybe 10 years or so? A closed hillclimb course, an Abarth, and Herbert. Had a followup for 000 a few years ago in V2 on the old Solitude. Still had it.




I learned it a long time ago: Never doubt a properly hot hatch on a back road—which will shame many a full-on supercar, even if only by keeping it in frame.

Or remaining glued to its back bumper…