Jalopnik: Porsche 914

Nice Price Or Crack Pipe: Factory Racer Porsche 914-6 For $325,000?

Murilee Martin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST

We had the Herbie The Love Bug replica score a 44% on the Crack-Pipe-O-Meter™ last Friday, but that was due to 21% of the vote going to "other", thanks to a poll glitch. Today we're going with a car that most likely earns an approval rating of about 99.9999% from our readers: a factory-built Porsche 914-6 race car that spent its working life as a test vehicle in Stuttgart and never got beat up on the race track… until a few years ago, when it hit the vintage-race circuit. The car's seller adheres firmly to hallowed eBay tradition and goes for the EASY ON THE EYES CAPSLOCK style, though we're going to have to dock him some points for insufficiently incorrect spelling and punctuation, but it's the car's price that really gets our attention: $325,000! Great car, but would you need to smoke a rock the size of your head to have that price make sense?

[eBay Motors, thanks to Brennan for the tip.

German Beaters Colonize The Streets Of Berkeley, France Considers Emergency Citroën Airlift

Murilee Martin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:30:00 EST

This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. In addition to being a four time DOTS honoree and Volvo race driver, WhatWouldJesseDo is also a devoted DOTSBE hunter. This time his travels have taken him to Berkeley (which may rival nearby Alameda in terms of Cool Old Cars Per Square Mile, People's Republic or not), where he's found three vintage German chariots parked in the same neighborhood. Apparently that wretched-looking 356 is an everyday commuter and logs hundreds of miles each week. Jump away for many photos.

DOTS FAQ

PCH, No Escape From Engine-Swapped Porsches Edition: VR6 914 or Corvair 912?

Murilee Martin — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:20:00 EDT

Perhaps you breathed a sigh of relief after Chevy-Powered Porsche Hell was over with, figuring that (with the small-block-motivated 911 winning so decisively) you would be spared the temptation of a hacked-up Porsche sporting a non-Stuttgart engine for quite a while. However Project Car Hell doesn't work that way; just because you were able to walk past the fiery gates once doesn't mean you won't be lured right back in by the same kind of bait! That's why we're returning to Porsche Engine Swap Hell today, this time going for six cylinders instead of eight.

914 owners often talk about the 914-6 when that starts-with-a-V car manufacturer is brought up. Yes, if it has a Porsche emblem on the hood and a six-cylinder engine in back, it's got to be a real Porsche, right? Not so fast, though- what if you were to put a Volkswagen six-cylinder in your 914? What would you have then? We're not sure, but you'll be sure to come up with an answer to that question soon after buying this 1974 Porsche 914 with Volkswagen VR6 engine (go here if the ad disappears). Yes, someone has gone ahead and swapped the VR6 engine out of a '93 Corrado into a Porsche 914, then slapped on a fiberglass body kit for good measure. Don't worry about the quality of the swap, because the seller assures us that a "30 year professional" (professional beekeeper? bathysphere repairman? ocarina player?) did the work; however, you should be aware that this project "needs alot, but its a great start." There's no cooling system, but you'll sort that out right after you figure out where to put the fuel tank. Hey, how about adding the supercharger off a G60 Corrado while you're at it?

When you hear the name "Porsche," what comes to mind? Aside from Ferdinand's ripoff of Tatra's patents, that is? That's right, you think of the 911 (and its identical-looking sibling, the 912)! So why beat yourself senseless trying to get a crazy engine-swapped 914 working when you could just as easily push a crazy engine-swapped 912 project up that infinitely high mountain? And we're going to make it even easier on you by giving you a shot at a 912 with an engine using the same boxer-six configuration as the Porsche powerplant that fit just fine in the 911. That's right, we've got a 1966 Porsche 912 with a turbocharged Chevy Corvair engine (go here if the ad disappears) for you, and the price is only four grand! You'll have to spend some time fixing the rust "underneath," then get to work on making the engine run again. And no worries about getting a Powerglide, because this car comes with what must be the Porsche 5-speed and perhaps an adapter plate from JC Whitney.

This 914 Sounds Like "A Gay Deep Throated Angry Demon!"

Murilee Martin — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:00:00 EDT

What we have here is a 1974 Porsche 914 with a Chevy 350 engine and a Ferrari-influenced body kit, sort of a German Malaise version of the Fierrari. The owner needs to sell because he's "just sick," plus he's accepted a lifetime career opportunity in NYC and, you know, "Goodness only knows what insurance would cost and what vandalism it would be subject to there." The disturbing part is this statement: "On the road it sounds like a gay deep throated angry demon!" Yes, that's exactly the sound we're all looking for in a car! Thanks to Yurikaze for the tip! [eBay Motors]

PCH, Great Rusty North Edition: Triumph GT6 or Porsche 914?

Murilee Martin — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:15:00 EDT

It looks like Italy has been knocked off the PCH Superpower throne by the UK, according to the results of yesterday's Choose Your Eternity poll. That means that PCH SuperGigaPower France awaits the chance to take on its historical PCH rival from across the Channel. But first, let's see how Britain fares against a rival that, though falling somewhat short of true PCH Superpower status due to the stubborn reliability of so many of its vehicles, still puts forward some strong Hell Project competition. And, just to make things interesting, let's get our contestants from Canada, where an iron atom never found an oxygen atom it didn't want to establish a caring, lifelong relationship with. We can thank HoserDave for these tips, and of course a Project Car Hell Tipster T-shirt will soon be thrown into a dogsled and mushed all the way up to his igloo.

We had a Triumph GT6 just last week, but somehow that wasn't enough British Leyland Hell! Plus it sat for 23 years, which may have been just a little too challenging. So how about a GT6 that's only been sitting for 20 years? For a mere $2,000 (Canadian), this 1972 Triumph GT6 (which its seller describes as a "Good project car right out of Austin Powers the spy who shagged me") could fill your garage with ~~dashed~~ hopes and ~~crushed~~ dreams of roaring about town in your very own six-cylinder British sports car. The seller claims the body is in good shape, but there's some scary-looking damage around the windshield frame. The "Engine rebuilt before storing in 1988 long story," and we're betting that long story has plenty of twists and turns and confusing epilogues. Would it be sacrilege to suggest dropping a 2JZ-GTE in this thing?

Call it a Volkswagen, call it a Porsche, but a 914 by any name has great mid-engined hoonage potential. You can keep things all Porsche in the engine compartment, maybe even make it a homegrown 914-6, or you can stuff a wild Subaru boxer in there for some oversteeringly dangerous fun. The great thing about the 914 is that you won't have a posse of Porsche purists ready to string you up if you feel like, say, making a 914amino out of one. So head on up to London (no, the other London), where $2,500 Canadian dollars will buy you this 1973 Porsche 914. The seller states "project car lost interest," but you know you won't lose interest, right? Especially not with "all parts are here for it some new still in the package" and "new floors welded in already." Maybe it's just a matter of bolting on all the parts and roaring away! Or maybe not... actually, almost certainly not.