Was the M471 option available for cars produced and sold in Europe available in 1972? Thanks Karl

Yes it was and as far as I know the factory made at least 8 914-6's with the M471 option in 1972.

Wondering if it would be foolish to even think about the M471 option for a '72/6 if that is not how it came from the factory.
It would destroy originality for certain, how about re-sale value?

Clones, reproductions, fakes, and resto-mods, whether a 911 RS, a Ferrari 365 GTB spider, a 356 Cabriolet, a Hemi Road Runner, a 427 '67 Corvette never approach the value of the original item. Furthermore, the "violated" car loses the originality it had. This is not even taking into account the substantial cost of properly reproducing the factory effort.

Personally, I wouldn't think to 'improve" on any factory /6 by making it into something that the factory didn't build. With that stated, however, if you sent your /6 over to the Porsche factory with the requisite boatload of Euros, and had their "special wishes" department build you a "factory built M471", that would be another matter entirely.

Paul

I thought M471 was only on the six GT`s..I could be wrong lord know it wouldnt be the first time LOL

M-471 was also available for the 1974 model cars...

Jeff is correct. There was an M471 option available for the 1974 914-4 2 liter cars. However it was not related in any way to the M471 option that was available for the 914-6 in 1971 and 1972. The factory produced approximately 23 914-6's with the M471 Competiton Option Group (15 in 1971 and 8 in 1972). The 15 produced in 1971 were originally intended to become racecars but most were eventually sold as GT look-a-likes for the street. Porsche considered the M471 optioned 914-6's produced in 1971 as factory GT's along with the 33 914-6 GT racecars that were produced in 1970 and 71. The fact that the factory was only able to document 48 factory produced cars (500 required to be homologated) in 1970 and 1971, eventually the SCCA disqualified them from the class they were competing in, resulting in the factory withdrawing their support.

Note: the quantities used above are approximate and are based on Porsche documents from the early 70's.

and even the MY'75 price list showed the 471 option

race cars, that got built by the factory, had the 491 option

Porsche offered 3 different types of cars with the competition group:
1.) M471 - race car look alike for street use or for custom GT conversion
2.) M491 - race car for track use (914-6 R)
3.) M491 - race car for rallye use (914-6 R)

later they called all of them "GT cars", but to be more speciffc they also used the terms "homologation GT" (for 471), "track car" and "rallye car"

Gustl

Very interesting story about a wonderful option. Is there a website that centers all of this in one place? If not, one or all of you experts would do all of us interested enthusiasts a favor if it were put together....

When the SCCA disqualified the GT's, John Bishop's new IMSA series was more than happy to take them. Thus the start of a long association with Porsche and IMSA.

There is a wonderful website specifically centered around the 914-6 GT:
http://www.pbase.com/9146gt
And here is another nice site: http://www.stazak.com/914/gt/

The reason for originally asking that question is looking at cars like Paul Sayegh's black '72 3.6 ltr 6 on the Home page of 914-World. Even though my original '72/6 did not have that M471 option I've always thought one day I'll have an orginal '6 and put those flares on it. But with so many non original items on my car, the engine, transmission, pulled fenders etc I thought asking the question in this forum was the first step in making a decision. Thanks Karl

The factory had made a bunch of "m471 kits" to change over a 914/6 to a GT. These kits were around for a few years and racers snapped them up to build GT clone cars. If you want to add the M471 package to your car go for it, flares done right add to the value IMHO.

Meaning, I guess, that you'd personally be willing to pay more for a car with flares? From everything I've seen, the opposite is the norm. Of course it all comes down to preference. (nice westy/914 combo by the way, I'll have to dig up a pic of ours...)

Hey Karl, since your /6 has already been heavily modified, I'd definitely go the m-471 route. You've got nothing to lose and done well it looks fantastic. You bought your car from John, right? Have you posted pics anywhere on the 'World yet?

Reid

Yes Reid I did buy the car from John and have been working on minor things, especially trying to make it drivable, suspension and wheels are set up for the track, and the job of replacing those parts means engine brakes and other things will be out of whack, I'm literally between a hard place and a rock. I did post some pix maybe on RoadGlue and not here can't remember.

Karl