Why did this Porsche have a VW badge?

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the 4 cylinder 914 was going to be a VW 914 and the 6 cylinder was going to be a Porsche 914

In the states we only ended up with the Porsche 914 and the Porsche 914/6

👍︎︎ 31 👤︎︎ u/twiggymac 📅︎︎ Aug 13 2021 đź—«︎ replies

Still my favorite Porsche

👍︎︎ 8 👤︎︎ u/Baldish 📅︎︎ Aug 13 2021 đź—«︎ replies

I had the 74, 2.0L 914. It was a fun little car. The guy who bought it from me had it shipped back to Germany.

👍︎︎ 5 👤︎︎ u/122922 📅︎︎ Aug 13 2021 đź—«︎ replies

Wasn’t Porsche bought by VW?

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/CrimsonBlackout 📅︎︎ Aug 13 2021 đź—«︎ replies

Built by VW.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/Could_It_Be_007 📅︎︎ Aug 13 2021 đź—«︎ replies
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(music) The Porsche 914 wasn’t really a Porsche at all. Well it was, but it had a bunch of Volkswagen bits in it. But then again, it wasn’t exactly unique in that respect! What was different about the 914 was the Porsche and Volkswagen badge on the back, and the fact that it was sold in Volkswagen dealers, right next to the Type 2 panel van! It was born out of a mutual need for a sports car, but its development would severely damage the close relationship the two companies had shared for decades. This is the Porsche 914 story. (music) Volkswagen’s 1960s Type 3 chassis produced not just a new mid-range car, but the updated Type 34 Karmann Ghia sports car. “Sports car” might have been a bit generous – it got to 60mph (100 km/h) in 27 seconds, but it looked the part, and for a little money added another arrow to Volkswagen’s quiver of cars developed on a post war shoestring budget. The name “Karmann Ghia” might give a clue to how Volkswagen did this for so little. The body was designed by Carrozzeria Ghia, and it was all build by coachbuilder Karmann. By the late 1960s Volkswagen had grew to rely on the sales and caché of the Karmann Ghia to pull in customers, so they looked for a replacement. Porsche were also growing. Up until now, their only production cars were the 356, introduced in 1948, the more expensive 911 released in 1964, and the cut-down 911, the 912 launched just one year later. But they wanted a car below that 911 that clearly differentiated itself from their top-of-the-line model. They’d started exploring ideas for something to replace the 912 a year before it launched but funding the development of an all-new car was expensive, as they’d found out with the 911. The Porsche company had started out life in the 1930s not as a car builder in its own right, but as a consultant, doing development work for others. This was how the type 1 or Beetle had been born, and Porsche had designed every Volkswagen since. But the “people’s car” company were growing and were building up their own design department to take over these responsibilities. The deal with Porsche had one more car to go, so both companies agreed it should be a car Porsche could sell as an all-new entry-level car, and Volkswagen could use as something that would put the Karmann Ghia to shame! Although Porsche’s car would have natural competition from Volkswagen’s, they knew their engineering prowess would make it better, and the high-volumes Volkswagen was likely to achieve would make production costs much lower. That meant higher profit margins, or more margin to drop the price to beat the competition, or maybe even both! With Karmann signed up to build the body, the heads of both companies shook on the deal, and development began. Development would be headed up by Porsche’s new designer, Ferdinand Piëch, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche who’d founded the company. All production Porsche’s up to this point were rear engined, but its racing cars, including the 906 that Piëch had just produced, were mid-engined. The engine was the heaviest part of the car, so having it hanging off the back or the front made it slower to change direction. Piëch decided from the outset that the new car would be mid-engined. It would also be lower than the 911, further aiding handling. The mid-engined layout gave the new sports car the luxury of a lot of storage space, in this case both behind the engine and up front. To help weight distribution, but maybe not safety, the fuel tank would sit directly in front of the driver! The final car also had the disadvantage that the front boot had to be opened to get to the fuel filler cap open. The shape would take inspiration from its ancestor, the 356, and the Le Mans winning sport car from the 1950s, the 550. It was quickly decided the new car would have a lightweight, removable fibreglass targa top, so the body was designed essentially as an open top from the outset with extra reinforcing. This wasn’t simply a cut-price 911 Porsche were designing, this would be their next-generation sports car. Safety was high on Porsche’s mind, except maybe for that fuel tank! They built front and rear crash structures into the chassis, along with a central safety cell, quite forward thinking for the 1960s! They put the car through extensive crash testing to prove it was effective. But in the process of building the chassis they unwittingly created what 914 owners would call the “hell hole”. There’s a low point below the battery that can get eaten away with leaking rainwater and battery acid. That heady concoction can be too much for the miniscule drip hole, and when it eats through the metal it can fall directly on the right longitudinal beam, eating through a structural member of the car! Porsche also located the thin fuel lines under the battery, and the water and battery acid can, under extreme circumstances lead to a lot of flames and misery. The designers raided both the Volkswagen and Porsche parts bins to keep costs down. The front suspension came from the 911, with Volkswagen front brakes. As for engines, Volkswagen’s model would use an enlarged version of their tried and tested 4-cylinder from the Beetle, that would also be used on the upcoming type 4 large family car. Porsche’s version would get more power with the entry-level 6-cylinder from the 911. Both would use the 911’s 5-speed gearbox, although Porsche’s version would use lower gearing. Inside it would also be a mishmash of parts from both companies, but it was brought together into a cohesive design. The body’s width, wider than the 911, was made to look even wider by the straight-lined dashboard. The driver would get an adjustable seat and storage bin, but the passenger would get neither of these things. Porsche knew it was the driver made the purchasing decision, and who they needed to cater to! They were cutting corners, not with the quality of the vehicle, but with features to ensure it could be sold to cost conscious Volkswagen customers. Development was progressing well when Volkswagen’s head, Heinrich Nordhoff died. He’d led the company for 20 years through a period of expansion and profitability, but the chairmanship didn’t go to his chosen successor Carl Hahn, but to Kurt Lotz. Nordhoff had had a deep relationship with Porsche – his daughter was married to the 914’s designer, Ferdinand Piëch, who in turn was the nephew of Porsche CEO, Ferry Porsche. With close ties like this and a long-standing relationship, all Ferry Porsche and Heinrich Nordhoff needed to do to agree to build a new car was to shake on it. -Under Lotz, the relationship got muddier. He didn’t recognise the verbal agreement, in his opinion Volkswagen had all the rights to the Porsche 914 body, and if Porsche wanted to use it, they needed to stump up some cash for the tooling costs. This new vehicle would only be known as a Volkswagen. This threw the whole programme into chaos, but negotiations soon began to try to resolve this crisis. In the end a strange compromise came together. In Europe the car would be sold in Volkswagen dealers as a Volkswagen-Porsche through a newly created joint company that would market it. In North America it would be sold as a Porsche, marketed through another joint company between Porsche and Volkswagen’s luxury brand Audi that was trying to get a foothold in North America. Rumours started that Volkswagen and Porsche were merging, but although from the outside it looked like they were getting closer, in truth they were further apart than ever. (music) The 914 was launched in 1969, to mixed reviews from the press. Some hated it, but it became Motor Trend’s “Import Car of the Year” in 1970. The 914/4, that was immediately available would have the Volkswagen 4-cylinder engine, with the 914/6 sporting Porsche’s 6-cylinder engine following later in the year. With its front and rear boot, the car was surprisingly practical, although maybe not as practical as the promotional shots showed! The removable targa roof allowed the car to quickly become an open-top, and the top stored neatly in the rear boot. Some markets offered a small seat cushion and seat belt between the two seats to make it a 3-seater for a small child or a cuddly toy! The price, at least for the 4-cylinder model was fairly reasonable, when adjusted for inflation it’s about as much as a Fiat 124 Spider or an MX-5, or slightly less than half of a modern-day Porsche 718! But although it looked the part, and despite fuel injection, that 4-cylinder Volkswagen engine gave the car a 0-60 time of 13 seconds – hardly something to get the pulse racing. That, and the awkward gear shift was maybe why some reviewers gave it such poor marks. But a cut price Porsche with good handling and a cracking price isn’t anything to be sniffed at, and it quickly became Porsche’s best seller. The German press had problems with the concept of a Volkswagen Porsche. They started calling it a “Volksporsche” or “People’s Porsche”, but it had the unfortunate concatenation of the “VoPo”, also the abbreviation of the East German police of “Volkspolizei”. Volkswagen and Porsche had to specifically ask the press not to call it that! Those who drove on the left side of the road didn’t have a problem with it at all as the 914 wasn’t sold in their country, despite Porsche of Australia teasing one at the 1971 Australian Motor Show. Crayford Engineering of Kent offered to convert the car and showed one at the 1970 Earl’s Court Motor Show, but only 11 recorded conversions ever took place. Several 3rd party designers eyed the relatively inexpensive 914 chassis and proposed alternate bodies. Coachbuilder Heuliez showed off a reinterpretation at the 1970 Paris Auto Show, essentially a 914 with a larger boot. A similar idea was shown by BMW 503 and 507 designer Albrecht Goertz at the 1970 Turin Motor Show. Giorgetto Giugiaro showed his interpretation of a what could be done with the 914 chassis as the Tapiro, also shown at the 1970 Turin Motor Show sporting both Volkswagen and Porsche badges. The car got a powerful 2.4L 6-cylinder engine, and the latest supercar style – gullwing doors, not just for the driver and passenger, but for the engine bay as well! These designs were exciting, but Porsche were a company of limited finances, and they poured all their efforts into making the 911 a success, as that was the car they had complete control over. Some early 914’s had reliability issues, but these were quickly cleared up. The 914/4 was all very interesting, but gearheads were waiting to see what Porsche could do with the car when left to their own devices. The result was the 914/6, released later in 1969. Despite the lack of fuel injection it got much better acceleration from the larger 6-cylinder engine. The 0-60 time was now under 10 seconds, and top speed increased to 125mph (201 km/h). The wheels, which looked like they were lifted from a Volkswagen 411 were changed out for Porsche branded ones, and the car got the option of Porsche’s 4-speed Sportomatic semi-automatic gearbox. This did away with a clutch pedal, automatically shifting when the driver moved the gearstick to another gear. But it failed to impress customers, and almost all of them chose the regular 5-speed manual. And the 914/6 wasn’t cheap. Volkswagen charged Porsche a pretty penny for every chassis produced, and once Karmann had built the car, and the 914/6 models had been shipped to Stuttgart to get their Porsche 6-cylinder engines put in, the retail price wasn’t much less than the entry level Porsche 911. At that price, why not just buy a 911? Although 914/6 sales weren’t strong, the 914/4 continued to sell well, and it was soon outselling the 911. But it wasn’t selling well enough to justify the massive cost outlay. The Volkswagen board wanted answers, and the light fell squarely on CEO Kurt Lotz. He’d managed to damage the long-standing relationship they had with Porsche, he was damaging Volkswagen’s relationship with trade unions, and the cars Volkswagen were making weren’t making them any money. After just 3 years on the job he was out, replaced by long-time Volkswagen man, Rudolph Leiding. Leiding focused on profitability, and started by ending development of the mid-engined EA266 Beetle replacement, that was expected to be far too expensive to produce. Although the work to develop it was being done by Porsche, again designed by Ferdinand Piëch, Leiding worked to repair the relationship with Volkswagen’s long-term partner. His foresight to invest in new models would put the car company back in the red, but would prove to be the foundation for its long-term success. Maybe what the 914 needed was more power! Porsche prepared the 916 – a car that would use the more powerful 2.4L 6-cylinder engine from the 911S, or maybe even a 2.7L from the 911 Carrera. It would give the car serious power, and of course a price to match! But Porsche decided it wasn’t the best car to release, as it would overlap their more profitable 911. Sales of the 6-cylinder version of the 914 were so weak that after selling around 3,300 Porsche and Volkswagen called it a day in 1972. They would replace it with the 914 2.0L, using a Porsche performance tuned, enlarged version of Volkswagen’s 4-cylinder engine producing 100hp (74 kW). By using this mass-produced engine it was a great deal cheaper than the 914/6, but less powerful, further increasing the gulf between the 914 and the 911. By 1973 the car had been improved with anti-roll bars, giving better handling, the manual gearbox had been transformed into something usable, and the passenger could finally adjust their seat! The base model also got a small update enlarging the 1.7L engine to 1.8L, boosting power a little, and helping to offset some of the power that was lost with detuning to comply with US emissions rules. The 914 also grew ugly bumper protrusions to comply with US crash rules, but they were quickly replaced with larger black bumpers that were at least a little better to look at. From the start, Volkswagen and Porsche had been keen to show off the 914’s prowess on the racetrack. In the US it was entered into SCCA racing, and in Europe it competed in the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1970, winning its category and finished 6th overall. To put the icing on the cake, Porsche’s 917 won their first overall victory, and Porsche took first, second and third place. To celebrate their upcoming entry into the 1974 Can Am championship, Porsche prepared a special “CanAm” edition. But after CanAm rules changes, Porsche decided not to compete, so instead released 1,000 special edition cars as the “914 Limited Edition” in black and yellow known as the “Bumblebee”, and red and cream known as the “Creamsicle”. Other than a few trim details though, these were essentially a 914 2.0Ls with a fancy paint job. The 914 Limited Edition served as a close-out special of sorts, as Porsche and Volkswagen called an end to 914 production in 1976. Volkswagen dealers would go back to selling mainstream family cars like the new Golf and Passat, with a bit of sports flair provided by the new Scirocco, and that would work out just fine for them. Porsche would use the old 912 as a bit of a stopgap in the US for its entry level car as the 912E before introducing the 924. The 924 would be another joint project between Volkswagen and Porsche, showing the trouble caused by Kurt Lotz had been patched up, and the two companies saw value in further collaborations as they didn’t naturally compete with one another. The 924 had its own similar hiccups on the path to production, but that’s another story! The 914 became a successful car, at least for a sports car. When production ended, almost 120,000 had been sold – most of them the cheaper 4-cylinder model. The 914 and 911 cemented Porsche’s standing as the producer of high-quality sports cars around the world. The 914’s designer, Ferdinand Piëch, would move to Audi in the early 1970s, and eventually became the head of Volkswagen, despite having a large share of Porsche stock. Porsche and Volkswagen would continue their closely entwined collaborative dance until 2011 when they effectively merged both car divisions. The 914 was just one step along that road that had begun when Ferdinand Porsche had designed Volkswagen’s first car. To show their appreciation of his 20 years of leadership, the Porsche development team created a special 914 for CEO Ferry Porsche. The 914/8 was presented on his 60th birthday in 1969 and used a detuned 3.0L racing V8. Despite the kind thoughts though, Ferry didn’t actually like the car very much, maybe because of the sour taste the deal with Volkswagen had left, and it was eventually donated to the Porsche museum.
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Channel: Big Car
Views: 102,867
Rating: 4.9601126 out of 5
Keywords: porsche 914, porsche volkswagen 914, porsche vw 914, vw 914, volkswagen 914
Id: qdSP6j4Adlk
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 20min 10sec (1210 seconds)
Published: Fri Aug 13 2021
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