914 (914/4 and 914/6)

A Handshake Between Stuttgart and Wolfsburg

Volkswagen wanted a successor to the Type 34 Karmann Ghia; Porsche wanted something cheaper than the 912 beneath the 911. In 1967 Ferry Porsche and Volkswagen's Heinz Nordhoff agreed, by most accounts on a handshake, that Porsche would design a mid-engined sports car which Volkswagen would build and sell with its own four-cylinder engine, while Porsche took the same body for a six-cylinder version. Ferdinand Piech handled the mechanical layout and the first prototype ran on 1 March 1968. Nordhoff died weeks later and his successor Kurt Lotz raised the price Porsche paid for each body; the two companies then formed the VW-Porsche Vertriebsgesellschaft to sell the car in Europe as the VW-Porsche. In the United States, which took the great majority of production, it was simply a Porsche. Curbside Classic records the venture DM 200 million in the red by the end of 1970.

Four Cylinders From Osnabruck, Six From Zuffenhausen

Shown at the Frankfurt IAA in September 1969, the car reached America early in 1970. Karmann built every body at Osnabruck and completed the 914/4 there around Volkswagen's 1,679 cc Type 4 engine from the 411, with Bosch D-Jetronic injection and 79 hp at 4,900 rpm; Porsche claimed 13 seconds to 62 mph and 110 mph. The 914/6 bodies went to Zuffenhausen for the 1,991 cc flat-six of the 1969 911 T on twin Webers, 108 hp at 5,800 rpm, with 911 brakes and five-stud hubs. Both shared the removable fiberglass roof stowed in the rear boot, pop-up headlamps and a five-speed transaxle with a dog-leg first and a tail-shift linkage whose two right-angle turns gave the early cars their vague gearchange. Motor Trend named the 914 its Import Car of the Year for 1970; Road & Track called it unpretty and timed the four at almost 14 seconds to 60 mph, though its 914/6 test produced 8.7 seconds and 123 mph.

The 914/6 Problem, the 916 and the 914/8

The six was the better car and the worse proposition. In the United States it cost $5,999 against $3,495 for the four, and in Germany DM 19,980 against DM 11,955, close enough to a 911 T that most buyers took the 911. Porsche's figure for the run is exactly 3,338 cars between 1969 and 1972, other sources say 3,332, 3,351 or 3,360, and every breakdown agrees that the great majority were built in 1970. Competition kept the six's name alive: a Sonauto-entered 914/6 GT won the GT class and finished sixth overall at Le Mans in 1970, the works took a triple victory in the Marathon de la Route the same year, and Brumos won the 1971 IMSA GTU championship. Two further directions were abandoned: the 916, a fixed-roof car with 911 S or Carrera RS power aimed at the Dino 246, reached eleven prototypes before its projected price ended it, and two 914/8s with 908 flat-eights were built in 1969, one for Ferry Porsche.

1973: The Car It Should Have Been

The 1973 model year fixed the 914's two real faults. Porsche enlarged the Type 4 engine to 1,971 cc with a 3.7 in (94 mm) bore and 71 mm stroke, giving 99 hp in Europe and 95 hp in American trim; Road & Track recorded 10.3 seconds to 60 mph and 119 mph, with the early cars' oversteer replaced by steady understeer. The Type 914/12 side-shift gearbox replaced the tail-shift linkage, 5.5-inch wheels and matt-black bumpers became standard, and a center console with extra gauges was offered. 1973 was also the peak year, with more than 27,000 cars by Stuttcars' count.

Bumpers, Emissions and the End

For 1974 a 1,795 cc engine with L-Jetronic injection replaced the 1.7 in America at only 76 hp, and rubber bumper guards and the Bumblebee and Creamsicle Limited Editions arrived. 1975 brought heavy federal impact bumpers, California catalytic converters and a relocated fuel pump. The 1976 cars, 2.0 only, were sold in the United States alone with the badge reduced to a decal. Production ended in spring 1976 as the front-engined 924, the next joint project, approached. Just under 119,000 had been built, more than the 911 in the same years, and for four decades they were the cheapest way into a Porsche badge, which is why so many were rusted, converted or raced into the ground.

Rust is the 914's defining weakness and every ownership source consulted says so. The battery tray in the engine bay leaks acid onto the boxed sheet metal that carries the right-rear suspension, and the resulting hell hole is the single most common structural failure; the longitudinals, jacking points, floors, rear trunk floor, cowl and firewall follow. On early cars the battery also sits above the fuel lines, and corroded lines combined with a hot engine bay created a fire risk that owners address with braided stainless lines and by moving the fuel pump forward, a change the factory itself made from 1975. The Bosch D-Jetronic injection on the 1.7 and 2.0 is sound when its vacuum sensors and wiring are good, but many components are no longer available and harnesses grow brittle with heat, which is why so many cars were converted to carburetors; the L-Jetronic on the 1.8 is considered more tolerant. Oil leaks concentrate at the pushrod tubes and at the engine-to-gearbox joint, where a failed flywheel seal will contaminate the clutch. The clutch cable tube can break free from its welds at the rear bulkhead, leaving the clutch unable to disengage fully. The early tail-shift linkage gives a vague change and worn first and second synchromesh is common in the five-speed; seized rear calipers are found on cars left standing. Six-cylinder conversions with front engine mounts transmit noise into the cabin, and the 2.0's heads and oil coolers are getting hard to find. None of this is exotic, but the sum of it is why the Porsche Club of America's guide observes that all Porsches end up costing about the same.

The 914 is a unitary steel body whose strength lives in the boxed longitudinal sills, and every specialist guide starts there. The battery sits on a tray in the engine bay above the right-rear suspension console, and decades of leaking acid and trapped water rot the tray and the boxed structure beneath it, the area owners call the hell hole; a car with a poorly repaired tray or a soft right-hand suspension mount is a structural rather than cosmetic proposition. Inner and outer longitudinals, especially behind the side jacking points, floor pans, the rear trunk floor and its trailing edge, the firewall behind the sound insulation, the front trunk floor, the cowl at the base of the windshield and the door bottoms complete the list. One simple check is to remove the roof and look at the door gaps at the top rear of each door: a car whose sills have gone will sag and close the gaps. Front-end collision damage is the other structural hazard; Classic Motorsports notes that a 914 hit hard at the front rarely tracks straight again. On the six, five-stud hubs and the left-hand dash ignition are original features, and a warranty booklet or Porsche production record establishing the matching Type 901/36 engine matters because so many fours have been converted; the Porsche Club of America's guide holds that a converted four is worth less than a genuine six however good the work. On the fours, engine codes should be checked against the car, since twin carburetors can mean either a deliberate conversion from injection or a replaced engine, and the 2.0's cylinder heads and oil coolers are increasingly scarce. A 1973 or later side-shift gearbox is the one most guides prefer; the earlier tail-shift can be lived with but should shift cleanly. Roof and body seals, suspension bushes and heat-embrittled wiring harnesses are the common consumables. Because a proper repaint means complete disassembly, a car in an acceptable original color is worth more than one that needs paint.

As of September 2026 classic.com tracks the 914/6 and 914/4 as separate markets. The 914/6 benchmark stands at $83,279 with a downward trend indicator, against an average recorded sale of $85,140; the lowest tracked result is $33,000 for a 1970 car in September 2022 and the highest recent one is $95,200 for a 1970 car at Gooding Christie's Pebble Beach sale on 14 August 2026, with other 2026 results for 1970 and 1971 cars recorded at $52,500, $70,000 and $80,000 through online auctions. The 914/4 benchmark is $23,916 on an upward trend, with an average sale of $24,769, a floor of $728 for a 1970 project in October 2024 and August 2026 results of $43,000 for a 1976 car and $38,750 and $8,750 for two 1974 cars, the spread illustrating how much condition drives this market. Exceptional cars sit far above the benchmarks: Gooding's Pebble Beach 2024 sale took a Ravenna Green 1970 914/6 fitted with a 3.2-liter 911 engine and 915 gearbox, restored at a documented cost above $300,000, to $173,600 against a $100,000 to $150,000 estimate, and RM Sotheby's sold a 1972 914/6 with FIA papers and a 200 hp engine for EUR 73,600 at Monaco in May 2018. None of those lot pages states whether the figure includes buyer's premium, so they are quoted as published. classic.com's own caveat is that many 914s have been through engine conversions and modifications, and its listings include six-cylinder tributes built on four-cylinder shells; separating a genuine 914/6 from a converted car is the first job in reading any result.