Still trying to find some history on my -6 prior to 1977 when I bought it. Was perusing thru the owner's manual that I've had for 45 years and I assumed was original to the car. I happened to notice the date code on the first page. It appears to show 11/70, as in Nov 1970, My car has a VIN sticker with a March 1970 build date. So might the manual be a replacement (there is no dealer info in it), or could it have been on a dealer lot until November before it was sold?

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I believe it means that the manual was the second printing in 1970 there were 2 thousand printed (2 m)

it is a date of edition.
we worked this out in relation to the 74s where they did multiple revisions of the owners manual through the model year, also the emissions warranty which has similar codes.

in 74 they used roman numerals (for the month) not modern numerals.
hence its II (two = feb) not 11 (eleven) - at least for 1974 models.

if you go here (page 3 of topic) you can see how it works as we tracked it.
we were following up on changes to charcoal canister system that occurred in 74 and as it turns out was reflected in the emissions warranties. the marking is consistent with the owners manuals too and most importantly with the dates the changes occurred in the cars. we had a matchup.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...57407&st=40

II/70 likely to be feb 70.

however having said that i think i came across some other years, might have been later years than 74, could have been porsche 911 owner manuals? - where it changed to modern numerals. you would need to survey earlier year owners manuals to be sure how it all went every year but my recollection of the few i sighted was roman numerals and then sometime maybe 77 or so it went to modern numerals but after 914 finished production.

also i don't believe the 2M means 2 thousand.
we came across a few of these looking into the 74s.

for instance mine which came with the car (74 1.8)
is
10M XI/73 Edition 74 for the owners manual.
12 400 XI/73 Edition 74 for the emissions warranty.
and the car is a Jan 74 build.

another 74 owner had a April build car with identical emissions warranty and i suspect owners warranty.

the number with an M means something else?
I'd have to access to a lot of manuals spread over every year to have a proper go at working it out.

the way it works is they printed a revised manual whenever they did significant enough changes to the car. this is marked by the XI/73 or similar kind of date with roman numeral for month and year in modern numerals. and these manuals were issued thereafter on all cars following the change until the next change. process repeats with a new dated edition.

different years i suspect have different amounts of editions depending on how much and how often the car got changed.

i looked up my files and it turns out 75 is the year porsche change to using modern numerals for 911 owners manuals/emissions warranties. so the 75 914 probably has manuals/warranties dated with modern numbers. ie 2/75 would mean feb 75.

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answering @fixer34 .
if he has a march 70 build car with a II/70 glovebox manual then i would say thats the original manual that came with the car.

My car is a late May '71 build. Here is my owner's manual:

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Yes, the "II" are Roman numerals, so Feb 1970 is correct. I have one with Printing "III" and edition II 70, so the same edition but a later printing; exactly as Cairo's above.
Yes the 2M is quantity of 2000, mine says 500. I see this quantity of xM all the time on printed stock for Porsche

Thanks guys, that was what I was looking for.
So I have the original manual and I know the history from about July '77 on, it is those first 7 years that have been elusive.

interesting they are writing in the edition version # on the right hand side with these early manuals.

haven't seen any others between 70 and 73.

by 73 they had dropped that - all they wrote on the right hand side was
EDITION 73 (for 73 models) and EDITION 74 (for 74 models).
just gave the month the issue came out in the middle batch of numbers.
74 models start with VIII/73 as the first issue with the first cars off the production line in August 73.

@davep - interesting about M. where does M come from? don't know a german abbreviation for 1000 with M. german for a thousand is tousend (spelling? probably wrong but know its how you say it).

checked through my files and saw i did have a 75 manual on file.
still using roman numerals on 914 for that year.

You all had me pulling my manuals out of storage to check on their dates. I have a European six and I bought a European manual many years ago, wish I could remember where and when. The pictures show the euro manual on top with two USA 914-6 manuals below. The only difference in the two US manuals is the edition page. There are numerous additions/deletions between the euro and US versions. The major difference is the ID plate page that does not show the A pillar VIN tag.

Always learning something interesting in this forum.

First try didn’t go through.

Last photo

Mine is the same 11/70 as the original post shows. Thumbing through the pages of the US manual I did notice the location ( or non location) of the Porsche Emblem on the 914/6.

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yes, there is always a reason they issued new edition rather than a new print run of an old edition.

i don't have the full manuals as pdfs for 1974. at least the USA ones.
just front pages with that edition descriptions.
only have the full one that came with my jan 74 car. XI/73.
but somewhere there must be a page that is changed.

the emissions warranties in relation to that first number on left showing up as an M on the 914/6 warranties go as follows on the 74.

5000 VIII/73

3000 X/73

12 400 XI/73.

that kind of goes close to the production numbers of the cars they apply to.
but there might be some intervening emissions warranties we still haven't turned up yet.

the full owners manual i have is
10 M XI/73
implies 10K printed - awful lot to print if they did more changes ahead from nov 73 to end of production of 74s at around june 74 - maybe they scheduled their changes and had a good idea of their production number projections forward.

Isn't M the Roman numeral for 1000.
Notice the item numbers such as 4621.23. Major revisions get a new item # (first 4 digits) and the language version is the last two digits. I do not have my crib sheet handy, but the .23 is a USA English version I think.
.24 is a Canada English & French version

ah.

thanks @davep - should have been thinking of the first reich! instead of what came after the third.

.10 = german
.20 = english UK
.23 = english US
.24 = english & french US & CAN
.30 = french
.40 = italien

from the P914 site
this coding is what I have in my original manual for my May'70 build

HTH
Dennis

interesting @gulf908
looks like that only holds for 70 MY.

by the next year it looks like ones below.
dispense with the far right edition description as chronological.
71 914/6 manual accords with the later types from 4s.
go to generic edition 71 or 72 etc on right.
pick up the date (by month) of issue with the middle numbers.
and i guess note the version (1st, 2nd or 3rd) with the part no. only?

part no. on my 74 manual versus the 73 manual seems to imply they start at some zero point or base no. since its 52 by that point in mine and its 45 in the 73. the 6s seem to be using the twenties. they all seem to be using the 46 as the first two numbers.
be interesting to know what a early 4 has for that part no. whether its in the twenties with the 6s.


71 914/6

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74 914 2.0/1.8

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73 914 2/0/1.7

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interesting inconsistency is that they don't use M on the emissions warranties.
instead they use the full number. 12 400 instead of 12.4 M. germans!