Just thought you all might like to see this.
A Child From Their First Marriage
Porsche 914
By PHIL PATTON
Published: November 4, 2007
THE last legal barriers to Porsche’s control of Volkswagen may have fallen with a decision by the European Court of Justice. Its ruling last month struck down a German law and cleared the way for Porsche, already the largest shareholder, to obtain a majority stake in VW.
The prospect of a takeover recalls a difficult collaboration of four decades ago, the 914.
Nicknamed the people’s Porsche, the 914 was a midengine two-seater that grew from talks in 1966 between Ferry Porsche, son of the company’s founder, and the head of VW, Heinrich Nordhoff.
In 1967, a 30-year-old German engineer named Ferdinand Piëch, the head of research at Porsche, was assigned to develop what became the 914. At the time, he was also working on the all-conquering 917 racecar.
Prototypes for the 914 began running in 1967, and production models arrived in 1969.
Forty years after Janis Joplin had her Porsche painted with flowers, people may be appreciating the people’s Porsche once more. A 1974 Porsche 914 sold at a Christie’s auction in Greenwich, Conn., last June for $22,400, exceeding its presale estimates of $8,000-$10,000.
The 914 was born of need. By the mid-1960s, Porsche’s entry model, the 356, and Volkswagen’s underpowered sporty car, the Karmann Ghia, were both aging and in need of replacement. Why not have one shared body, the executives reasoned, with different engines? Karmann built the bodies and each maker fitted them with its own engines and suspensions. In the United States, both the 4- and 6-cylinder models were sold as Porsches. In Europe, the 4 was sold with a badge reading VW-Porsche.
The production deal was similar to the arrangement by which Volkswagen and Porsche today produce the Touareg and Cayenne S.U.V.’s. The basic chassis are built in a shared plant in Bratislava, Hungary. (The Audi Q7 is a less closely related triplet in this family.)
It was in part to preserve such partnerships that Mr. Piëch, a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche and a nephew of Ferry, has supported Porsche’s takeover of VW. He inherited a large share of ownership in Porsche and is a power in both companies.
The close link between the companies has always depended on a personal tie. The person who is the source of it is the original Ferdinand Porsche, creator of both the first Volkswagen and the first Porsche. It has been carried on in part by his offspring, including Mr. Piëch.
The attribution of the 914’s zippy shape is as difficult as was its life in the market.
Most histories have credited the unusual body design to Hans Gugelot, an industrial designer better known for his work with Dieter Rams creating the so-called rationalist modernist look for Braun appliances. Gugelot also designed subway cars for the city of Hamburg and Kodak’s round-tray Carousel slide projector.
Gugelot and Rams were both associated with the design school at Ulm, Germany. Today that Ulm style is much revered by designers at Apple, among other places. They admire its simple white boxes with rounded corners and plain round knobs.
Bernd Polster, a leading German design historian, traces the 914’s basic shape to a design that Gugelot created for a never-built car planned by a plastics company. But F. A. Porsche, known as Butzi, who designed the 911, denied that story in an interview in the book “Porsche 914 & 914-6: The Definitive History of the Road and Competition Cars” by Brian Long (Veloce Publishing, 2006).
Mr. Gugelot had died in 1965 and his car was old news at the time the 914 was sketched. Research and drawings posted at the owner Web site 914world.com suggest that the designer was most likely Heinrich Klie of the Porsche studios. Drawings for that design show some similarity to the Gugelot prototype; Mr. Klie’s was was one of five designs that competed internally at Porsche.
In any case, the 914’s crisp form and simple, unassuming lines are at least as charming as the original Mazda Miata’s. There is grace in the almost equal proportion of front and rear deck, and the Targa roof with its basket-handle roll bar. The concealed headlights, elliptical turn signals and taillights beneath the deck are all well-considered touches.
Many 914s were raced or hot rodded. The engine bay could accommodate a variety of alternate motors.
Porschephiles tend to see the 914 as a mutt. The 914 sullied the Porsche brand by some distinct, if immeasurable amount. VW fans for some reason don’t seem especially eager to lay claim to the 914 either.
But the idea of a people’s Porsche, as Mr. Polster has called it, has the power of a dream. It may be an unrealistic, even romantic dream, but it is similar to the dream of the dependable British-style sports car. The notion that we could all afford a Porsche helped fuel the mystique enjoyed by the Boxster.
From the Volkswagen side, the idea of sports cars is also persistent. The 914 was the spiritual successor of the Type 114 of 1939, a sports car on the Beetle’s chassis. Almost identical in shape to the later Karmann Ghia, it was tested in the wind tunnel. And the 914’s spiritual descendants were the sporty Scirocco and Corrado.
The four-cylinder 914/4 offered only 80 horsepower and the 914/6 just 110. In 1970 in the United States the list price for the 4-cylinder was $3,595 and $5,999 for the 6-cylinder.
The 914 is not for everyone’s taste. But even the VW version of the 914 came with something few cars, sports or otherwise, can boast: two trunks.
