912 (912 and 912E)

The Problem the 912 Solved

When the 911 went on sale in 1964 it was, by the Porsche Club Great Britain register's account, not well received in America because it was regarded as too expensive. Porsche's own history describes the 912 as a bridge between two models, built for customers who preferred the four-cylinder engine over the 911's six, and closing the price gap between the 356, still in production, and the new car. The solution was direct. The 1,582 cc Type 616 flat-four of the 356 SC was reduced from 95 to 89 hp at 5,800 rpm, mounted in the 911's steel body, and sold with reduced cabin trim as a cost measure. The result weighed around 2,127 lb, roughly 250 lb less than a 911, and listed at $4,700 in the United States in 1965 and DM 16,250 in Germany.

Launch and Reception

Production began in April 1965, Conceptcarz giving 5 April, with European customers served from June and the US market from September of that year according to the Porsche Club GB register. The Porsche Vehicle Research Department kept a small block of early chassis numbers for its own use; Wikipedia records 13328, 13329, 13330, 13352 and 13386 to 13397, and the oldest known survivor is serial 13394. Road & Track tested a five-speed car in 1966 at $4,690 and recorded 0-60 mph in 11.6 seconds, the quarter mile in 18.1 seconds at 78 mph and 119 mph flat out, under the headline that oversteer was a thing of the past: the lighter engine had shifted the weight distribution very much in the 912's favor. The magazine's only real complaint was the five-speed's dog-leg pattern with first on the left and down. Stuttcars records that through 1967 the 912 outsold the 911 by two to one, and Renndriver gives 6,401 912s against 3,390 911s in 1965 alone. Silodrome notes that some historians credit the car with keeping the company solvent.

Targa, Rallying and Yearly Change

The Targa, with its brushed stainless roll hoop, removable roof panel and a heavy plastic rear window that unzipped, entered production in December 1966 as a 1967 model. Porsche later called it Version I; enthusiasts call it the soft-window car. In January 1968 a Version II with a fixed glass rear window was added and most buyers chose it, which is why soft-window Targas are now the scarce body. In 1967 Sobieslaw Zasada won the European Rally Championship for Group 1 series touring cars in a 912. The PCA model guide tracks the small changes: block-script badging and the last year of 4.5-inch wheels in 1967; for 1968 the US safety package of dual-circuit brakes, a collapsible steering column, winged door handles, side reflectors and a padded dash, plus 5.5-inch wheels. Carburation is described differently by different sources, with Gooding and Stuttcars listing twin Solex 40 PII-4 units and Porsche's newsroom naming Weber 40 IDF downdraughts.

The Long-Wheelbase Year

For 1969 the 912 received the 911's revised platform, with the rear wheels moved back about 2.5 inches to a 2,268 mm wheelbase, flared arches, improved ventilation and an electric rear-window defroster. It was the last year. Wikipedia attributes the end to the reallocation of production facilities to the new 914-6 and to tightening emissions regulations; the mid-engined 914 became the four-cylinder Porsche from 1970. Porsche says 30,745 912s had been built by July 1969; other sources put it at 30,000 or more than 32,000, as the production notes explain.

The 912E Interlude

Porsche's newsroom says internal discussions about reviving the 912 began in 1972. By 1975 the 914 was ending and the 924 was, in PCA's words, still nearly a year away, so Porsche mated the G-body 911 shell to the 914's 2.0-liter Volkswagen Type 4 flat-four with Bosch L-Jetronic injection, secondary air injection, thermal reactors and exhaust gas recirculation. The prototype, car number 0, received its California Clean Air Act certificate on 30 July 1975 after covering 59,323 miles. Sold only in North America for 1976 at $10,845, $3,000 under a 911S, the 912E was the only 912 with a galvanized shell. Car and Driver recorded 9.8 seconds to 60 mph and preferred it as a daily driver, but the badge acquired a reputation it has taken decades to shed.

Corrosion dominates. The 1965-1969 shells were unprotected steel and Renndriver names the floors, front trunk, battery box, windshield surround and headlight bowls as the recurring sites; Stuttcars notes that the 912E's galvanized chassis was specifically intended to overcome the common 912 rust problem. The Type 616 flat-four is a 356 engine and shares that car's needs: it is a pushrod unit with a 9.3:1 compression ratio, and it responds badly to neglect of valve clearances and to overheating from missing or damaged cooling tin, though none of the sources fetched here gives a systematic fault list. Carburetor wear on the twin Solex or Weber units shows up as poor idle and flat spots, and the split-shaft Solex arrangement mentioned by Stuttcars for 1968 has its own linkage issues. The dog-leg five-speed gearbox is a 901-family unit and worn synchromesh on second is common to the type. The early three-gauge dash cars have a water-bladder washer reservoir that perishes. On the Targa the plastic rear window yellows and the zip fails. The 912E has its own list, drawn from owners rather than published guides because the 912BBS forum threads on 912E engine issues and thermal reactor replacement were not retrievable here: the thermal reactors run hot and are frequently removed, the Bosch L-Jetronic air-flow meter and its wiring age, and Heacock Classic's observed 23.0 mpg against the 30 mpg claim suggests how sensitive the injection is to condition. Rennlist's owners report close to 25 mpg in traffic and over 30 mpg on the highway from cars in good order.

The body is the car. Renndriver lists the floors, the front trunk, the battery box and the areas around the windshield and headlights as the primary rust sites, and none of the 1965-1969 cars was galvanized; only the 912E was. A 912 that has been on the road for sixty years will have been welded somewhere, and the question is whether the repairs were done to the original panel lines and whether the suspension pick-up points and the front pan were addressed rather than skinned over. Targas add the roll-hoop base and the rear deck seams. Matching numbers can be established against the factory record: Gooding's 2023 catalogue cites the Porsche Factory Record for the engine and gearbox of chassis 454553, and a Porsche Certificate of Authenticity or Kardex copy is the usual document. A great many 912s have lost their 616 engines to 911 sixes or to larger four-cylinder builds; Gooding's 1969 Targa carried a 1,720 cc unit, honestly described. Whether that matters depends on the buyer, but the price should reflect it. Year-specific details are worth checking against the PCA model guide: non-adjustable front strut towers and a water bladder for washer fluid on the earliest cars, a three-gauge dash on 1965-1966 coupes, block-script badging from 1967, the 1968 US safety items, and the flared arches and defroster of the 1969 long-wheelbase car. On a soft-window Targa the zip-out plastic rear window and the rear shelf are the parts most often replaced or converted, and the Version II glass window was offered from January 1968, so an early car with glass may not be original. The five-speed was optional and its presence should be confirmed rather than assumed. On a 912E, look for the thermal reactors and emissions plumbing still in place, the L-Jetronic in working order, the factory sunroof if claimed, and the galvanized shell free of accident repair; the North American-only market means most are still in the United States.

As of September 2026, classic.com carries the 912 in three groups. The short-wheelbase 1965-1968 car shows an average price of $51,371, with a coupe benchmark of $57,391 on an upward trend and a Targa benchmark of $47,058; recent results it records are $47,500 for a 1966 coupe on 8 August 2026, $55,000 for a 1968 coupe on 7 August 2026 and $56,201 for a 1965 coupe on 24 July 2026, all online auction sales. The 1969 long-wheelbase group averages $51,791, with a coupe benchmark of $55,186 and a Targa benchmark of $67,292, and recent results of $40,000 on 28 August 2026, $57,912 on 13 July 2026, $59,950 on 20 April 2026 and $64,000 on 6 April 2026. The 912E group as of September 2026 shows a benchmark of $45,705 trending upward and an average of $43,965, a high of $125,912 on 24 January 2025, a low of $26,000 for a cabriolet conversion in April 2023, and recent sales of $60,000 on 18 August 2026, $56,000 on 14 May 2026, $47,500 on 16 June 2026 and $50,000 through PCARMARKET on 6 October 2025. The very low figures classic.com lists as record lows ($17, $258 and $358 on 28 October 2024) are data errors rather than transactions. For the top of the market, Gooding sold a restored Bahama Yellow 1967 coupe for $114,400 against a $60,000-80,000 estimate at Scottsdale in January 2017, an unrestored 1969 Targa for $60,500 at Pebble Beach in August 2017, and a mechanically restored, matching-numbers 1966 coupe for $53,200 without reserve at Pebble Beach in August 2023 against an $80,000-100,000 estimate. All Gooding figures are as published by the house, which does not state on the lot page whether premium is included.