Porsche 914/6 collectability

[Neunelfer]

Jeff has a beast Raj... see if you can talk him out of it!

[Neunelfer]

[Frank Beck]

Wow. The nose augmentation on the black car is... interesting. Needed more trunk space or that is the fastest race track blower on the planet.

Speaking of augmentation: Bernd, assuming that you had to slightly bump the rear fenders to squeeze those 7's in there? Beautiful car.
And while I'm thinking about it: Was the car delivered from the factory with the hood badge or added later? Seems to be debate on this issue.

[Neunelfer]

Always added later. None were delivered from the factory with badges except the good Dr.'s 8

[super9064]

In regards to the hood badge, is this something that some American dealers would routinely add to enhance the image? Was it something that they would do to boost the price a bit, a dealer option? Or was it more like owners adding a little more Porsche DNA to the pot.

[Frank Beck]

Raj,

Pushin hard... if you were someone else I would say you had a stable full that you're getting ready for market. lol

I'm in TOTAL agreement with you; undervalued for way too long. I think good, original cars will be pushing 6 figures in the next few years. I'm sure someone else has already brought up this point but with far less than 1000 original/restorable cars left (just a guess- I've totaled two myself...), it's definitely a scramble for Porsche collectors worth their salt to have at least one in their collection. Yes/no?

[John Straub]

Yep, I think some dealers and owners put the crest on. I always liked it better without.

John

[mrgreenjeans]

Always added later. None were delivered from the factory with badges except the good Dr.'s 8

Totally agree here, not a one came from the factory with a hood crest. The special cars that belonged to the Piech and Porsche families were the exceptions. And those didn't even really look anything at all like the production cars in detail .

THEN there is the one pre-production prototype that mysteriously came to America, imported somewhat incorrectly and surreptitously to Ca. when it was supposed to be destroyed. The rusty car found out in the desert parked by a house, with lots of weird anomalies about it. Everything is Very different about that, but I digress......

The dealers applied the badges, with or without customer input, or later, owners added them to create ambiance or authenticity. Dealers also added the radios. None came installed from the factory, and no antennaes were drilled into the car till lot - boy had his way with his instruments of destruction. There is tremendous variation in location of drill sites, hence very few cars seen at a Concours have the same hole and antennae arrangement OR the same height application of the badge on the hood.

I cannot tell you when at Porsche Club shows, how often I am approached by Porsche people and asked why my car is missing the badge.....did someone steal it ? They are often argumentative with me, saying all Porsches had them.

BUT, these cars are really Vo-Po's and built by Karmann Coachworks in Osnabruck, with only the sixers being COMPLETED in the Porsche factory, trucked there for finishing and drivetrain installation. Hence too, the awkward arrangement of build structure to the car, qualiy control , and the complete lack of forethought to rust management.

Karmann I am quite confident , had a special application of rust additive applied to the structure to the already impure steel the panels were molded in. This along with the known fact, the bodies would sit around outside , shuttled inside as the yard emptied and was refilled with more bodies --in white--being unloaded, somewhat in a haphazard way with no thought to body # and engine # being anywhere remotely close in proximity. A real sordid way of keeping things in line so to speak.
Check out some of the data , pictures, and info on 914 World and 914 Club sites, truly amazing stuff there to behold.

Especially the story about the proto ending up rusting away by some guy's house in the desert with doors, trim , windows, lights, build structure being no where close to size and fitment parameters to the rest of his descendants........just amazing stuff.

[Bernie B]

Speaking of augmentation: Bernd, assuming that you had to slightly bump the rear fenders to squeeze those 7's in there? Beautiful car.
And while I'm thinking about it: Was the car delivered from the factory with the hood badge or added later? Seems to be debate on this issue.[/QUOTE]

[Bernie B]

Hey Frank, I had the fender lips rolled up in my Auto-X days so the Firestone race tires wouldn't rub, but currently I'm running 195/65 R 15's on the front 6" and 7" rear wheels in an attempt to have the period look. As far as the Porsche badges are concerned they were most likely dealer installed, it was a demo and I agree they were never installed at the factory. Kind of like the Ferrari script was never factory installed but rather dealer installed here in the U.S. on the Dino 246 (did I really just say the "F" word?)