The following admittedly rather lengthy parable is a history of two of my favorite cars (‘unloved toys’, as an auto journalist once snarkily referred to them), a rare 1970 Porsche 914-6 and a VW/Porsche 914-4, which despite the fashionable disdain of so-called ‘Porsche Purists’, remain an exceptionally unique and singular exercise in automotive engineering by the venerable Porsche company. With their spectacular, yet somewhat unappreciated capabilities and atypical (that is to say, not typically curvilinear in their styling, as have been most ‘traditional’ Porsche cars) styling, and regarded scornfully (again, by many recent model Porsche people) as merely ‘entry-level’ Porsches, the VW Typ 47 (AKA: 914-4) in particular has suffered unduly from this sniffy bias up until most recently (2025).
What too many of our modern Porsche enthusiasts, with their insatiable appetite for exceedingly expensive Porsche cars packed with raw power, speed and steroidal race-track characteristics forget is that the much scorned 914 is the direct ancestor of one of today’s most spectacular Porsche cars...the beautiful Porsche Cayman coupe. With its mid-engine design and benefiting from all of Porsche’s decades of experience, the Cayman is both capable and visually appealing in its aesthetics.
I have heard others remark (in perhaps unguarded moments at various Porsche gatherings) that with the Cayman, after years of designing and building generation after generation of ‘improved’ and updated Porsche 911 variants that have become typically exorbitantly expensive (i.e. well beyond the means of the ‘average’ individual), Porsche finally got it right with the Cayman.
I happen to agree with that sentiment, feeling that in the years since Porsche ventured beyond its classic 356, the company has increasingly gone astray in its effort to remain profitable yet be regarded as a visible symbol of wealth and ‘having made it’ in the economic food chain of our uber-materialistic society.
The problem appears to be that in our contemporary era too many people regard the ubiquitous 911 as the ne plus ultra height of Porsche vision and design. And perhaps, if one considers the decades of winning Porsche racing and track experiences with that car, they are right (after a fashion). Too, the 911 has become a ‘Holy Grail’ status symbol to too many individuals who lack deeper awareness and aesthetic understanding of exactly what a sportscar should and needs to be. However...
To me, individuals who slavishly (and largely unreflectively) idolise US$ 150,000 automobiles have lost any real awareness of where ‘sportscars’ came from originally and where they are going today. There is a marked detachment from reality implicit in this mind-set as hyper-performing, exotic machines, that in many cases are merely slightly tamed-down race track vehicular thoroughbreds (neutered just a bit, so as to grudgingly comply with any legal constraints that may bear), become an obsession in our grotesquely materialistic American consumer society.
These blithe souls either forget (or were never aware of) the historical background of the Porsche company’s founding origins and are usually at a loss to explain, when asked, how the concept of cars dedicated to sporting purposes even came about, roughly a century or so ago.
More’s the pity for this disregard of the crucial backstory of how ‘sportscars’ were conceived and developed back in the day, but in our modern world, with prices stratospherically inflated to the point where most Americans cannot realistically afford a Porsche [note: that is, cannot afford to buy outright, rather than lease or pay for one with installments], and co-consequent with the similarly expensive and parasitical maintenance and after-market accessories industries, buying a sporty ‘status’ car is no longer a realistic ambition for roughly 75% or more of Americans.
Sadly, modern Porsche cars have now become merely consumer items reserved for only the upper echelon of wealthy individuals, whereas in that earlier age, these vehicles were ‘affordable’ (read: still somewhat costly compared to domestic marques, but not completely out of reach) to most middle-class wage-earners. [Note: as in modern medicine, wherein the cost of health care is now so extreme that medical insurance is an absolute mandate, purchasing a Porsche, in all but a few instances, has only become possible for many through leasing or long-term loan arrangements].
Perhaps this works to their advantage, as a means of separating the upper-class from the proles and delineating their entitled exclusivity, who knows? But regardless, it leads to a certain haughtiness on the part of Porsche people as regards otherwise less expensive, but still wonderful machines such as the VW Typ 47/914.
To my mind, the only real Porsches, aside from the 914, that are worth obsessing over (and special early race machines such as the 550 and Spyder), are the original post-war cars, the wonderful, classic ‘bathtubs’ (356A/B/C). Most unfortunately, that bane of the REAL enthusiast, the wealthy car collector, has driven up the value of surviving 356s to the point where good examples now command prices well above US$125+ thousands. As such, unless senile old Uncle Hank left one to you in his will, they are just as well manufactured from Unobtainium and therefore completely out of the reach of down-to-earth, if less wealthy, Porsche people with a cultivated sense of and appreciation for historical context.
Today, my love for 914s has marked me to some extent (among my peers) as a rabble-rousing, heretical rogue who doesn’t worship at the same Church of the Holy 911 alter that they frequent. As a life-long eccentric whose favorite quote is from Philosopher and Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus’ famed 175 BCE Meditations, “The main task of life is not to be in the majority, but to refrain from joining the ranks of the insane,” perhaps my sanity seems to others to be insanity (by their limited reckoning) but I am proud to have a coterie of equally ‘insane’ peers, if that’s their take on reality.
And so, as a pretext to the following, let me present and describe two of my Porsche 914s, the one a 4-cylinder, 1.8-liter, Volkswagen-built machine and the other a 6-cylinder, 2.2-liter pure Porsche iteration that can and would beat the pants off any stock 911T of the early 70s period.
I have had others, of course, and my current (and last) 914 is a dandy, yellow 1974 4-cylinder car with a 2-liter engine that fulfills all my needs quite perfectly on our regular pleasure drives. Its name is ‘Jezibel’ but I occasionally refer to it as my ‘Screaming Yellow Zonker.’
The 914-6 (2.2 liter, carbureted) 1970:
This Porsche Signal Orange 914-6 of mine was thought to have been originally acquired new in 1970 through a formal two-914-6 arrangement with Porsche by Bob Bondurant (of the well-known Bob Bondurant School of Race Driving, then established at Sears Point Raceway), who intended to use it and its mate as advanced driving trainers at his school; the car may also have seen use as a pace car and camera car during its use at the race course. After about 10,000 to 15,000 miles had been put on it at the Bondurant school, it is thought that Bondurant returned both 914-6s to Porsche (to the same San Jose, CA, Porsche dealer it came from).
Its first 'private' owner, one B.G. of Stockton (CA), bought the car from the Porsche dealer as a ‘used’ car in 1973 and put an additional 10,000 miles or so on it. Unfortunately, about 6 months after he acquired it, his wife passed away unexpectedly and the car was then placed into covered storage for about 24 years (1974 through 1997). When B.G. first acquired the car, he had a local Porsche specialty shop (Metal Craft, a shop well known in motorsports enthusiast circles) examine it and they agreed that the paint was original and not a re-paint (it was in excellent condition). It was also determined that the car's major undercarriage components (viz. heat exchangers, valences, and rocker panels) had no rust on them at all.
B.G. planned to use the car as an auto-crosser, but was never able to put this plan into action. The car came from the dealer with suspension upgrades that included professional Koni struts and adjustable ride enhancements (it is suspected that these were all performed by the Bondurant specialists to enable the car to be used on the road-racing course), but was otherwise absolutely dead-stock. B.G. had purchased a number of engine performance enhancements that included 2.2 Mahle Euro pistons, 911E type cams, and new cam chains (to name a few), with the intent of rebuilding the engine with them (even though the engine was in good condition). This was status of the car when he sold it to the second 'private' owner, one T.B. of Grass Valley (CA) in 1997, along with the upgraded engine parts.
The second owner, T.B., had the engine dropped and taken apart, shortly after he purchased it. The tear-down inspection found that all engine internals were in good condition, probably owing to the professional servicing care and maintenance the car received while in used by Bondurant, but T.B. had it rebuilt afresh with the new engine components (already alluded to above, but including special rod upgrades and various other quality tweaks), resulting in substantially more top-end power, low-end torque, and internal displacement (now at about 2.2 liters displacement). He also installed additional new suspension components, most of which had little or no time on them, but only put about another 8,000 miles or so on the car himself, before I acquired it from him in October of 2004. The clutch was replaced with a heavy-duty reinforced unit.
I found the car to be in overall very good condition, with everything entirely stock (no bodywork, add-ons, or customisations), including the interior. The paint, as has been noted, was the original Porsche Signal Orange it came in and it has not been redone; finish was in very good condition throughout, with the only exception being a (very) slight crazing of the surface on top of right front fender (this was probably due to a slight bit of moisture that was trapped under the car cover in that area, but it was not due to rusting.
Otherwise, the body was solid and without damage, with the following exceptions: 1) a very small ding in the rear top boot lid (more of a slight dimple than a ding, really), and 2) some slight cracking of the paint, with evident metal stress at top of right rear fender arch (there may have been a fracture in the metal of the arch at that spot). I had a 914-6GT type augmented grill area engine lid (twice the meshed grill area of the regular 6, same type as was used on the fabled 914-6GT cars) installed on the car, but its original lid was fine and stored here in my garage.
Due to the suspension mods, the car sat approximately one inch lower than it did in stock configuration and the ride was stiffer (165 pounds springs were mounted in rear, along with upgraded anti-roll bars front & rear). The interior was entirely stock and in very good condition throughout, with the exception that the seat upholstered insets had the slightly later basket-weave black leatherette material on them. The car had a reproduction 'deposit' installed that was skillfully executed to appear as original; it also had the original stock radio in the dash, and a central ‘between-seats’ tray cushion had been added from a later year 914.
A set of 4 SCCA dash-plaques were affixed to the dash in a manner that did not result in marring or damage to that part of the car and the unblemished dash upper surface had none of the cracks that one usually accepts as de rigueur on an older Porsche. A set of orange race-type 4-point suspension seat and shoulder belts were installed for the driver, but the original fixed shoulder/lap combination belt remained on the fixed passenger seat on driver's right (the original seat belt for the driver’s seat did not come with the car). The passenger foot-well still had its original, secured foot block, as came with it new.
The car's 1970 tool kit and jack remained with it under rear the boot lid, while the glove box has the original driver's red-vinyl covered Porsche 'passport' and owner manuals/service logs that it came with, new. Immediately after acquiring the car from second 'private' owner T.B., I had the car completely gone-over by the local long-time Porsche specialty garage that all our PCA/SVR members are familiar with (Frank's Automotive) and they reported the car was in very good condition throughout. The car underwent a complete tune, valve-adjust, servicing, lubricant change, et al, and I also had a slight drip from the dry-sump oil reservoir fixed by tightening the hose circlamps in that location. I furthermore had the left and right rear disc brakes reworked with new pads and fresh piston seals and gaskets (they are hard to come by, these days!). The transmission was the original 1970 tail-shifter, but it had been gone through and refurbished throughout, with unusually tight and surprisingly satisfactory shifting for a less than-perfect original engineering design of its type (it operated so well, I saw no need to go with the far better and more recent side-shifting unit myself).
Candidly, I'd say that the car was in very-good condition for its age and there were no absolutely foreseeable 'issues' or maintenance problems left unattended to or anticipated (other than already alluded to right rear fender arch top). It had exactly 42, 000 original miles on the clock at that time (I had put on only a few hundred miles on it since purchase, taking it out every other week to keep the engine and mechanicals fresh, but never in wet weather). All electricals were in top condition and all lighting worked well, including the headlamp motors, etc. The car's L&R front and rear turn signal lenses were of the amber/clear Euro spec type, having been replaced by myself, and all glass was in excellent condition as would be expected. The car was always kept garaged and covered, even when in use by the Bondurant people, so the car's finish and exterior reflected this protective treatment. Since acquiring it myself, I had had the car parked indoors and additionally protected with a high quality 'breathable' fabric cover. Rubber seals, body join gaskets and so forth were all well preserved.
Although documentation was lamentably absent from original purchase up through date of acquisition by second 'private' owner, the second owner did provide me with his documentation, and I myself have always been a meticulous record and data keeper for all of my vehicles (this includes maintenance of driving, fueling, and service records). The car started immediately, even in cold weather, and ran perfectly, dropping down to normal idle when load was removed, and had a 1972 914 Targa top on it (I had the original for it and it was in fine shape). To the best of my knowledge, all main engine, body parts, and structural components had matching original numbers (except as noted in regard to engine upped-displacement/performance enhancements). Steering wheel was a replacement of the MOMO racing type, but I had the original.
So, there you have it: the car appeared to have a Bob Bondurant Sears Point racing history cachet of sorts (although the car was not raced itself); it was in stock condition (excluding the suspension and engine displacement increases) and seems to have originally been used as a school car at Bondurant’s school. The fact that it was a Bondurant car probably accounts for the lack of transferal of maintenance and servicing documentation with the car when B.G. bought it from the San Jose Porsche dealer. Wheels on the car were the original "optional" Porsche 5-bolt Fuchs alloys and suitable high-quality performance tyres were matched to them (with fresh tread all round).
It occurs to me that Bondurant probably acquired the car in Porsche Signal Orange paint due to the fact that his driving school's 'house colors' were orange (with yellow lettering). I may have even seen the car at Sears when I was working as a turn marshal/emergency medical worker with SCCA's San Francisco Region in the early 70s! Who knows?
This constitutes a reasonably solid and comprehensive past history of the car, put together directly from the accounts and records of the two previous 'private' owners, immediately prior to my obtaining it.
Had I but known exactly what a precious little jewel I had back when I first got it! I probably felt the same way that “Onkel Adolf” felt when it finally dawned upon him that his invasion of Russia was an even more dreadful mistake than ordering a brand new, 1939 Horch 855 drophead roadster for Eva!
914-4 (1.8 liter, FI) 1975 (AKA: “Red-5”):
This car I purchased from previous owner in 2003; the car had three prior owners. Although it was not originally a 'California car' (it was originally sold new in Virginia), it was in what I would say is excellent overall condition. It was purchased new by one J.R.C. of Virginia in 3/20/75 and came with substantial service and maintenance documentation from throughout its life (including original owner purchase documentation, manuals, etc.). The car's external and interior appearance was beautiful on all counts. The engine lacked the California smog-pump that strangled 914s sold in the state of California, having come from Virginia. To the best of my knowledge, it had no rust anywhere on it, although there may have been a bit of typical lower battery box rust refinishing done on it in the past (I saw no rust on it and there was no rust damage either done or visible on the lower right rear suspension member, upon inspection).
Paint was original Porsche Bahia Red color and if not original, it was an absolutely perfect repaint (while I could discern from examining it that it was not, I saw no visible evidence anywhere of a repaint job). I hesitate to say the paint was original, as it is in such excellent condition for its age (without factual knowledge), but I am tempted to say that it was. The front and rear boots were immaculate, with all components and sub-structural parts in place and as original. The interior was also immaculate, with no cracks on the dash top, all original seat belts and cockpit interior components in place; it did have a very high-quality professionally installed sound system (CD/amp/etc.) and an UNGO car alarm system installed. Wheels mounted were of the American Eagle alloy 4-bolt type, although included are the original 4-bolt Fuchs alloys for it (a set of 5, with bolts—these wheels were often known as “the 2-liter alloys”) that were offered as an option on the later 914s. All seals, electricals, and articulations seemed excellent, including the Targa lid. Front and rear turn signals again were of the clear/amber/red Euro type. Boot lids, doors, and engine lid all fit solidly and securely. The only slight flaw noted was a slightly sagging right rear engine lid support member, but since it was a minor item that could be repaired easily, I never bothered to have it tended to.
The engine and transmission were in top condition and perform flawlessly (no grinds or shift problems in transmission) with full power output for the 1.8 liter injected 914 engine type. In short, the car was a pleasure to drive and behaved impeccably on the roadway; ride was smooth but tight, as would be expected for a 914 in top shape, with attendant firm and true steering tracking. The car had 83,090 original miles on it.
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Summary Observations:
Both cars amazingly still had that unique aroma of 'new car' to them (not dolloped out of a bottle, either), which surprised me. The two cars came with accessory parts, components (a spare 914-4 side-shifting 901 transmission, an extra 1972 914-4 rear bumper, 2 spare Targa lids, engine lid, as well as a spare complete 1.8-liter VW type IV FI engine, crated). Additionally, a small but comprehensive reference library for both the 914-6 and 914-4 type cars came with the Six, along with a beautiful and fresh set of the 8 original Porsche 914-4 & 6 factory service manuals (formerly owned by a Porsche mechanic, now retired); I am sure I've failed to list a number of the spares included with it that should be noted here, but suffice it to say the aggregate logistical 'support' package I sold the cars with was substantial. All this concern with detail perfectly befitted the attention a rare Six warrants, naturally.
I was loathe to let the cars go, but my wife and I were planning to relocate to the Hawaiian Islands in the not too distant future and the island we would be living on (Moloka’i) is only 35 miles long and 10 miles wide, with a single paved road limited to 35 mph. Obviously that was no place for two beautiful free-spirited mid-engined Porsches, when you factor these facts together with the horrific potential for rusting that humid tropical environments pose. I therefore most reluctantly agreed to part with my cars as my share of certain mutual agreements reached on the matter of this move made with Madame Chairman (wifie), you see, but for reasons I shall explain, I still rue this decision today.
[Update (2005) on the Bob Bondurant School of Racing association with the 914-6. I got in direct communication with Mr. Bondurant and although the evidence is quite supportive of his link to my 6, he regretfully informed me that he no longer has the actual VINs of his two former school 914-6s available to check. Therefore, although the facts appear to be correct as reported here, this definitive confirmation from Bob himself could not be established.]
Addendum: (10 Aug 2025)
What inveterate word-slinger amongst us hasn’t lost plenteous articles, written papers and so forth over the years, due to numerous PC crashes (with all the hassle of transferring files and/or retrieving them on a new HD)?
I am sure, despite my prolific writing efforts, that I’ve lost plenty in this manner, over the past 30 decades.
The above observations, recording the known history of just two of my previously owned Porsche 914s, is a perfect example of this PC annoyance. It is also a perfect demonstration of how one starts to lose one’s formerly ‘sharp-edge’, as the years slip by all too quickly, decimating in the process our recollections of fairly meaningful information that we fervently do not wish to lose track of in the bowels of our archives.
Frankly, not only did I ‘lose’ this vital information I had painstakingly researched and recorded, I also lost the sole document it was recorded on! Until yesterday, when I came back from a ‘freshen-up’ drive in ‘Jezibel’ (my current 1974 914-4, that is), when I booted up my former leading-edge PC and was wandering somewhere in its memory banks. That’s where I tripped over the above.
Mind you, back in 2005 (nearly 20 years ago) when I bought that spectacular “6”, my knowledge of and appreciation for 914s wasn’t quite as comprehensively acute as it ended up, not long after I sold it.
That 914-6 I had (which I bought for US$15,000) and one of only 3360 ever made, was a remarkably singular specimen, complete with a fascinating provenance! Today, looking back on that beautiful example of 914 excellence, I could almost sob to think that I sold both of these cars (the 914-6 AND the 914-4) to a chap back in the Midwest for only US$25,000 total. That’s right…at today’s rates, literally the cost of (candy-glazed) peanuts at a Laguna Seca Classics event.
From my far more aware perspective of the present, I miss that wonderful ‘Six’ almost much as I miss my Sierra Hotel 5th FIS days of the mid 60s (in ADC/USAF). I mean, the ache is palpable! Call it the James Dean syndrome if you will, but without the glamour, sudden demise and all the Hollywood hype accorded to the ‘good who die young!’
However, I am back in the 914 fold once again, albeit with a far less rare, but still very sexy yellow 1974 914-4 that has become my garage confidante and ICE (Internal Combustion Engine, not the Border Patrol iteration) confessor, as I ease back into PCA, again.
The other ‘schau’ drops...
But let me give you a bit of further brief backstory on those two cars and why I sold them. There I was, on top of the Suckatomato (most tourists call it ‘Sacramento’) world with both a Six and a Four iteration of this unique Porsche development, when events conspired to prompt me to acquire some property on the so-called “Friendly Island” of Moloka’i (HI).
I fell in love with that most traditional of all the Hawai’ian Islands (except for Niihau the ‘closed island’) Moloka’i, when I took a month-long holiday there, back in 1990. As a student of Asian culture and history, back in academic days, I immediately rediscovered an earlier interest in Pan-Asian/Polynesian history. That led to the purchase of a plot of land not far from Kaunakakai (the ‘major’ settlement on the island, on the Southwest Shore) and my ambition was to build a retirement hale (cottage) there for wifie and I.
Consequently, I took a one month writing sabbatical on Moloka’i, so as to lay some ground work and get a closer, more intimate perspective on the island. One result of my month-long experience was the completion of a book on Moloka’i that combines my personal observations with bits of relevant Hawai’ian and Moloka’ian history, titled Marooned on Moloka’i: Coconuts, Dreams and Death. [If anyone is interested, it is available on AMAZON in hardcover.]
Long story mercifully short, it turned out that “the Friendly Island” wasn’t quite as friendly as the Hawai’ian State Public Affairs people would have us haoles believe. In fact, Moloka’ians tend to be downright xenophobic, when it comes to accepting newcomers into the inner circles of the Moloka’ian community. It’s entirely possible to settle in on an island like Moloka’i, spend 3 decades physically there, be part of the island community (technically a ‘Kama’aina’, or long-time resident) and STILL be treated like an outsider. Of course, haoles have, in most cases, only themselves to blame, given the fact that they try to impose their perceptions of reality on the ‘Kanaka Maoli’ (indigenous/locals), a characteristic haole trait the locals have highly resented ever since the Presbyterian evangelical missionaries first arrived on Hawai’ian shores, back in 1820!
At any rate, we eventually gave up trying to fulfill this retirement dream and had no real choice but to put our property on the market. The result of this turn of events was that we suffered a huge financial loss, when the property we had purchased in 2005 turned out to have dropped to a small vestige of its pre-2008 value, thanks to the market crash of that year. We ended up finally selling it to a ‘local’ for about half what we had plunked out for it.
But more importantly (to me, at least) was the fact that our pending (but unsuccessful) relocation to Moloka’i had prompted me to prematurely sell both of my excellent 914 specimens, including that rare ex-Bondurant Six, which were long-gone by the time it became apparent that we would not be moving to the islands, after all.
After I read over the above historical detailing of my former 914 cars, all this now-forgotten history comes back to me with the impact (as the 70s ‘Firesign Theatre’ comedy troupe so whimsically put it in their ‘Nick Danger: Third Eye’ sketch) of “a hot kiss at the end of a wet fist.” It remains one of the most regrettable undertakings I’ve ever shouldered, despite also being one of the most illuminating.
I’ve long since lost track of that beautiful Six. Awareness that as a retired pensioner with now-limited means, I’ll never make the acquaintance of another Six quite like that remains a deep regret, and it still rankles me when I think about the cruel and whimsical capriciousness of the Austro-German gods that determine the fate of Porsches! But such are the lessons we must all learn as we continue down the thorny path to that stark precipice that awaits all of us at life’s end, nicht wahr?
What’s that apocryphal old German saying? Oh, yes...“Wir werden zu schnell alt und zu spät klug!“ („Too soon old and too late smart!“)
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A final word:
What’s English notable raconteur and intellectual G.K. Chesterton have to do with all the above? Not much, but I’ve recently been doing a lot of reading of Chesterson’s brilliant social commentaries and I’m sure that if he had been aware, back then, of Porsche or the good doctor’s bastard grandson, he would have made some mention or another of it in his many observations about life.
If anyone is interested in getting started with Chesterton, having previously not made his acquaintance, I would heartily recommend his ‘What’s Wrong with the World.’ And now, excuse me but I have a hot driving date with a mild-mannered but screaming yellow zonker named Jezibel…
But heck, come to think of it, who needs Austro-German gods when you’ve got a Porsche 914 (of any ilk)?
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