so yesterday the sun was out after 4 weekends of drenching rain in a row.
and its a long weekend down here for anzac day tomorrow so the city was quiet.

good time to take the 914 out to the boulevard (a curving stretch of urban road in our city that winds along the yarra river and is like a drive in the country except its right in the guts of the city. bush. gum trees. birds. and curves. only negative, new speed limits of 50kmh and cop speed cameras. but you can do a sighting run and spot them all.

so i organise for the chick who helped me clay bar the car down 3 years ago and bring the original paint back up for her drive. she is very nervous and we needed a reasonably quiet road for her to get in the groove and relax in the car.

driving there. got passed by a 70s 911. think it waa a 930. got flashed, waved and honked. a little further on a 996 pulled alongside at the lights. honked,. window went down. thumbs up given.

got to the boulevard. did first sighting run. got the speed camera locations clocked.
was pulled up and getting her strapped in and comfortable with pedals. guy in a duck tailed early 70s 911 pulls alongside and starts yabbering and frothing at the mouth.
wanted to look over the car. assured him there was nothing to see, it was a VW with a 1.8 four in it. still insistent. satisfied his curiousity.

halfway around the boulevard a black panamera coming the other way gives us the lights and the horn and an arm comes out the window.

no further porsche interceptions occur over next 2 hours of boulevard runs.
but chick in a hatchback pulls up while we take a cig break at one point and rabidly compliments us on the car and asks what it is.
onward - chick driving enjoys herself and starts cornering harder. to the point where she even had me clench my buttocks on one sweeper.

driving back new boxster chases me through traffic to catch up and pulls alongside.
thumbs up. compliments etc. exchanged.

WTF is going on.

i don't trust this after 30 years of being told i drive a VW.

anyway the 914 got a good run in the sun yesterday at last.
its been unusually wet down here for the last month.
started with the grand prix when all the practice sessions got rained out and hasn't stopped until now. weird weather must have affected the brains of all the other model porsche owners?

An attractive woman is in a Porsche 914 sitting next to YOU?
Why are you surprised that others stopped and questioned reality?

It's the SUVs that did it for you Wonki...

of course. i knew there was a reason and it couldn't have been the car.

Once upon a time people would see my 914 and say 'It's a VW', I'd say it's a Porsche!
Then when I went to get insurance, he said 'It's a Porsche!', I said 'it's a VW!'

I have a 72 911T. When I first got it I was ridiculed by the others in the wine and cheese crowd for having an old car that was good for nothing but a race tub. Fast forward a couple decades, the same wine and cheesers fall over themselves trying to get a closer look at it.

Maybe it was Wonki they were looking at and not the gal - remember we live in a diverse world now.




I've noticed 914 acceptance too.

Went to a PCA "shift into spring" show today at a Porsche dealer (Pfaff in Toronto). PCA is changing their tune slowly also. For the most part, I just like the PCA for the discounts it gets me.

All types of Porsches in the parking lot... All the usual 911 variants, some 944s, a 928, a couple of 356s and a couple of 914s...what got the attention? yep the 914s and the 356s. Everything else they've seen before...

Similar thing at the Friday night impromptu strip mall old car gatherings near me. By far it is just old muscle car GM, Chrysler, and Fords. The occasional VW bug or Austin mini. The 914 gets a lot of attention because it is very different and everyone takes pictures. Everyone sees 911s Caymans, and Macans on the road. How often do you see another 914 in the wild? Rarity does generate interest.

Kind of fun being the black sheep of the family.

NARP - never forget. I hold grudges forever.

Back in the 60's, my first car was a Sprite. Sports car drivers waved to each other or, if it was the same as your brand, they might enthusiastically flash their lights or beep their horn*. These days I still exchange a wave with older sports cars of any brand but get return gestures only sometimes from newer Porsches. I don't think that it is a NARP thing, probably just that fewer owners even recognize what a 914 is.

I'm a motorcyclist too and Most of us wave to other bikes regardless of brand.

--------
* SF Bay Area. Lots of rallies. Long live the Four Cylinder Club of America and the chapter named Le Vivo Machine'.

@wonkipop

ive been met with much the same in the past couple years, met with waves etc on the road , at a light etc . This past November at the Hilton Head Island concours saturday car club showcase C&C i was given an award , selected over some very beautiful 911's and other air cooled cars, including a very nice '73 911 Targa, and this coming weekend i registered to joint the Appalachian Region PCA event in Brevard, NC and was just asked if i would be willing to be part of a special display on main street with other rare color Porsches!. - So if anyone is in the NC region see you all in Brevard NC saturday. not every one likes them but it seems most are coming around to appreciating the 914's more and more.

Hope to have mine out and about in a few days (waiting to receive/install rebuilt TB). The little kids seem to be interested the most. More their size.

I remember well when I got my 914 (December of 1970) that many in the PCA didn't believe "we" belonged there. Only made it sweeter when my lowly 1.7 VW would beat the 911's in the local autocross...

A Porsche here in north Scottsdale is pretty much like a Hyundai so if you tried to flash lights, like we did way back when, you'd burn out your headlights... but I do notice the waves are usually from other '60's and '70's sports cars, and older long hoods, etc. Most of the newer drivers of 911's etc probably have NO idea what a 914 is!

Back when I had a road-worthy 914, people would ask what kind of car it was. Most of the time I'd tell them it was a Volkswagen.

Would get the same when I drove my Karmann Ghia. There's just not very many of them out on the roads these days.

When I drove my 911, it would be the flashing headlights and the 4-finger wave above the steering wheel

So much for a relaxing cruise

Really you guys? I've been driving Porsches since 1970 (911T) and I never observed this. First 914 in about 1980 because I couldn't afford 2 Porsches before that.

I have a jeep TJ plow truck
I go out a few times a year to get gas and plow family driveways.
I always forget just how many people wave in Jeeps.
It’s truly nuts, arm gets tired.

Very seldom do I get a wave in a Porsche.

Most have no idea what a Porsche is beyond a lifestyle statement and I have no faith they could identify a 917 in a lineup of race cars.

Has your Jeep been ducked?

Mine has.

I drive a Jeep Gladiator and gets waves all the time and have been Jeep Ducked twice.

I ride a Kawasaki and get waves from most riders.

In my 914 I wave at other old sports cars and they wave back or initiate the same.

Air-cooled 911's wave, water-cooled (911, Cayman, and Boxster - I do not wave to sedans or SUVs) do not and do not return a wave as they do not know why I waved (I assume by their looks).

A local 930 owner at a cruise night actually tried to talk to me about my 914, but caught me so off guard that I didn't know what to say.

At another show I had a pleasant conversation with a cool and ratty 956 owner...

So I agree that the air-cooled Porsche crowd has largely changed its tune, but newer car drivers of most any brand don't know what they don't know.

At Porsche events other owners generally can't praise it enough. They had one, they want one again etc. Felt like there was finally acceptance. Then an older guy from the local PCA club called me over the weekend and asked me to bring it to a 75th anniversary display at the Porsche dealer's new facility. I'd love to, say I. And he says "You know your car is a Volkswagen." Sort of ruined the moment don't ya know.

its reassuring to know the hate is still out there isn't it.
i feel better now after the "horror" inflicted last weekend.

Click to view attachment
On a sunday drive I found another person doing the same, so we followed each other.
Its allways fun to get thumbs up!

It's a Yarra Valley thing. Lots of wine, great food, & kangaroos. BTDT.

i wasn't in the yarra valley mate.
thats a shit hole full of wankers and drunks.
no one waves they just blow you off the road in their range rovers.

i was in kew, other side of the river from richmond.
its called the boulevard.
used to be famous for a bit of street racing at 2.00 in the morning back in the decades before it all turned nice in the inner city.

back in the 80s i used to go for a bit of a hammer around there in my squareback in the early hours to see if i could scare myself. quite a few cars have been off the edge there back in the day. you would always hope you hit a tree and didn't end up in the drink.

the cops used to use it too - for extracting confessions.
they would handcuff you and throw you in the back of the divvy van.
then go for a squirt around the boulevard doing a bit of pursuit practice.
by the time they got you back to the police station you were ready to confess to being donald mackay's murderer and any other cold case they had on their books.

just came in the mail.

great relief to be unacceptable again.

Click to view attachment

bastards were hiding in a parked car right at the start of the boulevard.
not a porsche and it didn't flash headlights or honk the horn.
i'm trying to remember what kind of car it was hidden in.
not the usual (ie a white J SUV). think it was a heap of shite old hatchback.

Am I reading that right? A 30 mph zone? They ticket for exceeding the speed limit by 7kmh?!?

@Bullethead . yep.

fugen nuts down here.

nothing to do with road safety.
i can run faster than i was driving.

Just modern day Highwaymen. Stand and deliver.

Don't recall ever experiencing the NARP phenomenon personally when we bought our 914s, first the -4 in 1970 and the -6 we still have in '71. Do recall the sexism in the local PCA region back then when I showed up at our first driver ed event at the old Phoenix International Raceway and registered both of us. "Your're going to let your wife drive your car?" was the incredulous response at the registration table. "She makes half the payment and it's her everyday driver...can't keep her out of it" was my response. No questions, just cheers, a decade or so later when she beat my time same day, same track, same car at Woody Creek near Aspen.

Pretty Funny...

In about 1973, 2 of us showed up at
a Northeast PCA meeting in a pair of 914-6’s

Talk about the Bastard Child..
We were treated lower than Whale Shit..
Snobs had absolutely no use for anything 914…

We bought “The Box” they said…

Well, we (scala, Schnoerr, Tate, Chris, and me) beat them mercilessly for well over a decade with our little boxes….no matter who setup the course.

By quite a large margin.
Now the Boxster/cayman is the new king

I always thought it was funny... the 914 was dubbed a VW by the Porsche community, but a lot of the parts were sourced from or related to the noble 911. Then the 924 comes along, and almost all of the parts came out of the VW/Audi parts bin, and they were accepted as a real Porsche because they had a hood badge.

I always laugh at this nonsense.

"mines bigger"

I joined the local 356 club, and its fun because I am the youngest

Anyways, there is a great woman there who built and raced a yellow 914/6 for many years in the PCA. She had this great expression when she said that she loved pulling past all the big expensive snobs in their 911s on every corner at the track...and the sad expression on their faces when they realized not only was is a 914, but she was driving it.

Just a great memory, and grin when she talks about it.

Went to a cars & coffee car show this weekend. When I walked back to my 914, 3 gentlemen were admiring the car. One asked if I belonged to the regional PCA. I told them I joined for a year, but they were a bunch of F----n snobs! I spoke before I saw the Porsche crests on their hats. To my surprise, they started laughing and said that's why we left the PCA too, and they were 911 owners!

I'm not sure what the phenom is suddenly with our cars. Recently I was at the Porsche dealership in Dallas Texas, inquiring about some parts and paint codes for my '74. The guys behind the counter thought owning a 914 would be bad ass. They couldnt stop talking to me and asking questions about my car, all within eyesight of millions of dollars worth of showroom 911s etc.

Was a pretty cool feeling. Maybe its the rarity of our cars today that spikes the interest??????

+1

the irony was said camera car was illegally parked.
(too close to the intersection).
he was wedged right up on the shoulder on the right hand side parked the wrong way around (the law in this country is driving on the wrong side of the road to park that way).
thats why i remember what car it was.
didn't twig it was a camera car.
though i was slowing down. i'd come into the boulevard way faster than 60ks.
so i'm thanking my lucky stars i had backed way off until i had completed my scouting survey. but the position of the camera was even too cynical for my scheming mind.

the operators have to stay inside the car and lock themselves in.
(due to a spate of road side demolition of unmanned camera cars a few years back ).
its not the cops. its all subcontracted out.
not being racist but its the province of recent immigrant arrivals from the sub continent and a former british colony. they love these sort of jobs.

i should have taken a photo.
could have sent it to the tabloids.
the best form of justice is the murdoch method.
trial by media.

ps - but i do like the portrait shot of the car.
you go on line and feed in your infringement number and driver license number and then download. its a lovely shot of my 914 on the move - and a memory of a fun day of driving. good thing i wasn't pinged in a couple of other spots there! would have been in instant license loss territory and car impounding.