Remember when air-cooled Porsche 911s were mostly just weird old sports cars for relatively sensible money? Yeah, things have changed a lot in 15-ish years. Now pre-996 911s are in new car pricing territory, and pricing on 356s left the affordable realm decades ago. So what do you do if you’re an air-cooled dreamer on a reasonable budget? Well, if a water-cooled Porsche just doesn’t do the trick for you, how about a 914?
Alright, it’s not the first Porsche that comes to mind, and its origin story has been the source of many digs, but the Volkswagen influence just means this is an air-cooled sports car for which parts don’t cost an arm and a leg. Plus, the targa-topped body style is fun, and the mid-engined layout is a far bigger story than the engine under that mesh cover. You can still buy a Porsche 914 for sensible coin, and despite being from the ’70s, it’s something you could use every nice weekend.
Now, you certainly won’t get a six-cylinder 914/6 for nice used Miata money, and examples on that end of the spectrum tend to be impact bumper cars in fairweather daily driver condition, but sports cars are meant to be enjoyed. Without further ado, get your driving gloves on, because we’re about to take a dive into the affordable end of the air-cooled pool.
What Are We Looking At?
In the late-1960s, Volkswagen and Porsche each had their own slight problems. Volkswagen’s Karmann Ghia coupe was getting a bit long-in-the-tooth, and Porsche wanted something different than the four-cylinder 912 as an entry level model, likely to add distinction to the then-fairly new 911. In an attempt to kill two birds with one stone, the companies collaborated on project 914, with Ferdinand Piëch—yes, that Ferdinand Piëch—as project lead. At the time, Ralph Nader had drawn new attention to automobile safety and everyone thought convertibles would eventually be banned in America, so the project involved drawing inspiration from the 911 Targa.
The result was a mid-engined targa-topped two-seater that could accommodate both Volkswagen’s Type 4 flat-four engine and Porsche’s air-cooled flat-six, and the plan was to sell the former as a Volkswagen and the latter as a Porsche. Unfortunately, the project hit a bump in the road when in 1968, then-Volkswagen chairman Heinz Nordhoff died. His successor, the board-elected Kurt Lotz, decided to not honor this prior agreement, wanting all 914s to be badged and sold as Volkswagen products.
After much bickering, the solution was a traditional compromise. While Porsche would sell the 914 under its own brand in North America, most European models were sold as the VW-Porsche 914 by a newly formed marketing company, VW-Porsche Vertriebsgesellschaft GmbH. In 1969, customers got their hands on this mid-engined roadster, and it was thoroughly a VW-Porsche.
The standard engine in early 914 sports cars was a 1.7-liter air-cooled flat-four pulled directly out of the Volkswagen 411E, including that car’s Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection system. Pumping out 80 horsepower, it came mated to a 901 five-speed manual gearbox out of a Porsche 911, but with a flipped ring gear to reverse the rotation of drive and play nicely with the mid-engined layout. With longitudinal torsion bars and MacPherson struts up front and a coil-sprung semi-trailing arm setup out back, the result was a sweet handler but a car that would launch right before U.S. emissions standards would seriously impact performance. By 1973, output had fallen to 76 horsepower in 49 states and a mere 69 horsepower in California, and with the rare but expensive 110-horsepower six-cylinder 914/6 getting discontinued, there was a need to fill a gap.
The solution was to punch out the Volkswagen flat-four to two liters of displacement, resulting in 91 horsepower and 109 lb.-ft. of torque. This brought the zero-to-60 mph time down from somewhere in the 13-second range to 10.3 seconds, not that far off from the much later, far more modern first-generation Miata. Add in revised suspension and upgraded interior appointments, and the 914/2, later called the 914 2.0, was born.
At the same time, 1974 saw the base engine rise in displacement to 1.8 liters and gain Bosch L-Jetronic injection, but shrink in output to 74 horsepower in 49-state trim. Two years later, output for the two-liter model would drop to 87 horsepower, but that still isn’t bad for the malaise era, and there’s plenty to celebrate beyond straight-line performance. Although somewhat stiff, later 914s are pretty much vice-free mid-engined cars with simple and easy-to-maintain mechanicals, canyon dancers with serious old-school cool. From the pop-up headlights to the fiberglass targa roof, these are still great vehicles for a Sunday drive, and you can still get into one for reasonable money.
How Much Are We Talking?
Right out of the gate, it’s a good idea to temper expectations. A two-liter 914 will be hard to find for cheap, so you’re likely looking at a 1.7-liter or 1.8-liter car, possibly with some flaws. Something like this 1972 model that sold on Bring A Trailer last year for $13,914, or about the price of a well-kept stock 1.6-liter NA Miata with a hardtop these days. This 914 has some light patination to its Saturn Yellow paint, the sort of dings and scratches normally accumulated over 50-plus years of driving, but it’s already received new upholstery and some minor rust repair, its floors look pretty great, and it seems like a really nice summer toy.
More often, you might find something like this 1971 Porsche 914, which hammered on Hemmings Auctions for $11,460 last year. It’s been repainted, and it has some rust on the battery tray, but it’s also an early car with the original D-Jetronic fuel injection, and was made before tightening emissions standards could really constrain output. It’s definitely a little bit of a project, but it seems like a fair driver for the money and doesn’t appear to need much welding.
Looking for more of a project? How about something like this California-based 1972 model listed on Craigslist for $7,000? Alright, so there’s some light surface corrosion on the interior floor and in the engine bay, along with some fairly thorough-looking surface rust on the battery tray, but for a 53-year-old car, that’s not bad. Plus, it runs and drives, the seller claims to have tended to the weatherstripping which is fiddly work, and it’s a pre-smog car for those living in the Golden state. Considering $7,000 doesn’t buy you a perfect Miata anymore either, this thing might be worth a gander.
What Can Go Wrong On A Porsche 914?
As this is a car from the ’70s, you really do need to watch out for rust. Battery tray corrosion is common enough that the area underneath the tray has earned the nickname the “hell hole,” and is normally the first sign of rot requiring serious welding. So long as it hasn’t made it past the tray, repair isn’t too hard, but much more extensive fab work is needed if the ledge beneath the battery tray is a bit soft. From there, check the gussets, the tunnel, the attachment points for the front suspension arms and surrounding panels, and the front corners of the engine bay. Proper rust repair is seriously expensive because it typically requires cutting out the rot and welding in fresh metal.
Beyond that, check for patch panels, make sure the engine runs nicely and still features its original fuel injection system, make sure the serial numbers are all good and the transmissions shifts okay. You know, fairly basic classic car stuff. There isn’t really anything fancy about a Porsche 914, but that helps make it one of the easiest Porsches to own.
Should You Buy A Porsche 914 For Used Miata Money?
While the Porsche 914 isn’t a modern sports car, that’s a huge part of its charm. It’s old enough to feel really classic, but its fuel injected, mechanically simple, and generally quite reliable. If you’re looking for something of that era and have always wanted an air-cooled car, a decent 914 is absolutely worth a look. It’ll feel leagues more sophisticated than an MGB or a Triumph Spitfire, and parts are much easier to source than those for a Fiat X/19.
Top graphic credit: Bring A Trailer
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