The best vehicle I ever owned was a 1972, Porsche 914. I loved this beautiful car for so many reasons. First, it was just plain looked Cool. The innovative design was futuristic and yet classic in it’s own right. That Porsche drove live an extension of my body projected onto the highway. It was fast and light, easy to park and always turned eyes: a real guy catching model in Bahia red.
After driving almost daily my best car for 12 years, I sold it for $500 less that the original sticker! Purchased new in Alaska, I shipped it to Seattle, then flew in it to southern California.
I felt custom molded, slumped into the perfectly conformed driver’s seat. There’s just something about a manual 5 speed that gives a gal a real sense of pleasured control slipping smoothly through all that clutching. An immediate identity with performance can occur when you have left hand on the wheel, left foot clutching, the other poised and feeling the accelerator as your right hand readies in sync slipping shifter into the perfect gear, the spot. Five points of contact (including your bottom); you are One with the 914.
Transitioning into the next level of acceleration, it is like going airborne ” back to the future in the Professor’s Delorian”. I almost bought one of those but didn’t. I’m not a mechanic. I just love the machines.
My red beauty clung to the road like gumbo on your boot. Just cain’t shake it off. Curves: that two-seater was simply made for twisty ups and downs. A perfectly balanced mid-engine apparatus whose four points of contact, the wheels, kept all in line. It laid low into the road, like pouring a viscous material moving at 90 mph.
Acceleration was phenomenal since the horsepower didn’t need to push much weight. The super quiet engine’s mileage was into the low 30’s. I never had problems of any kind.
Targa topped convertible…perfect idea. The top was light. It fit into the rear boot like a glove, not complicated or any tricks. I added a chrome luggage rack to the rear lid, a nice handy touch. The stuff I hauled on there! Use your imagination; excellent for long road trips. There was, of course, a bonnet too, like packing a well made suitcase, there was always room for what I needed and some to spare. XOXOX-914 Porsche1972