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The Porsche 914 always deals with the stigma of it just being a Volkswagen that was slapped with a Porsche badge at the last minute, but time heals all wounds and these are generally accepted as being part of the family. Yes, they are rather slow, even by 1970s standards, but that is what you get when buying a 914. Unless you are spending crazy money for a 914/6, your best bet is the buy the nicest example you can find and just enough to the quirkiness of them. Today’s car, a 1974 914 2.0 is finished in the amazing color of Olympic Blue and looks to be extremely clean. Why? Because it’s for sale by its original owner.
Instead of continuing on my trend of bashing you over the head with 924s you should buy, I thought I’d take a look at Porsche’s other budget entry model – the 914. Relatively unloved by all but those who own them, the 914 is an oddball in today’s market – values are literally all over the map. Perhaps that’s in part because of the array of options offered. Porsche threw several engines at the 914 to see what would stick; from the 1.7 liter flat-four through a 2.0 flat-six borrowed from the 911. Today’s example comes from the 1974 model year, which saw light revisions to the exterior and a new 1.8-liter fuel-injected flat-four enter service at the bottom of the range. But, as usual, it was the color that attracted me to this particular example:
Welcome back to Fail Friday, where we try to explain the sometimes unexplainable. Today I’m trying to decipher why someone took a seemingly nice Porsche 914 and turned it into this “thing.” It looks like someone grafted on a giant nose to the front end of the car as well as added some side support up from the rear of the car to the Targa bar. Now what was once a fairly short and squared off car is a long, swoopy one. Inside, it doesn’t get much better as they went a little crazy with the diamond stitching as well as added some custom orange door panels. The price? Thankfully it isn’t as crazy as this car.
The aura of the 911 is so thoroughly encompassing it overshadows nearly every other Porsche model conceived and constructed, but especially this seems to be true of the 1970s. During that time Porsche launched groundbreaking models like the 924 and 928; generally, both very unappreciated compared to the air-cooled siblings. But the 914 seems nearly forgotten despite its similar engine behind the driver and atmospheric cooling setup. Why? Well, it’s not the prettiest Porsche design, it’s true – but presented properly it is still quite neat.
The most collectable are the original 914-6s, but of course the low cost of ownership for some time meant there are a lot of motor-swapped 914s cruising around. Some are better than others and not all are desirable – I’d take an original and clean 914 over a poorly swapped car. But some really grab attention, as this Signal Orange 2.2-swapped car did to me:
We all know I love coming across brightly colored Porsches. I love it even more when it’s a color we almost never see. Such is the case with this Ravenna Green 1973 Porsche 914-4 located in Arizona. Ravenna Green was a one-year-only color for the ’73 914. It exists within the realm of Lime Green as we’ve seen on the 911, though Ravenna is a little brighter and perhaps a bit more yellow. It fits right into the world of jelly bean colors that Porsche offered in the ’70s and it looks great on the 914, a car that I think always deserves a bright color. This particular 914 is fitted with the 2.0 liter flat-4 engine and while they don’t pack a ton of power they’re still capable of scooting along these light-weight mid-engined Porsches.
