TheSamba.com :: View topic - 914

Tue Mar 06, 2012 9:49 pm

I have never been so impressed with a car before. I have had this 914 for several years and have slowly worked on it. Tonight I drove it. What indescribable fun. Cornered like a pancake. It makes me want to go driving right now (I have no idea what time it is but I want to go driving) yum yum yum

Wed Mar 07, 2012 2:09 am

yes, one of the best driving cars made.

Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:43 am

I think that the going ratio for a 914 is about 10 hours of work for every ten minutes of driving time. You have been working for three years? Then you have a good couple of weeks coming to you...

Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:37 am

Shadd wrote: I think that the going ratio for a 914 is about 10 hours of work for every ten minutes of driving time. You have been working for three years? Then you have a good couple of weeks coming to you...

The worst will be relieved if you get rid of the FI and use a pair of carbs. That'll leave the stupid plastic top to deal with, and maybe a window winder now and then.

Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:07 pm

hill wrote: Shadd wrote: I think that the going ratio for a 914 is about 10 hours of work for every ten minutes of driving time. You have been working for three years? Then you have a good couple of weeks coming to you...

The worst will be relieved if you get rid of the FI and use a pair of carbs. That'll leave the stupid plastic top to deal with, and maybe a window winder now and then.

Not really....if its a 1.7L with D-jet (or a 2.0)....the injection when tuned properly will outperform vrtually any carb you can put on the engine....throttle response, hp and torque.
The D-jet got a bad name because of poor wiring harness (you can get factory spec replacements from Bowlsby and JMskater)...no published tuning info whatsoever.....and people hacking around with it with no idea what they are doing (not entirely their fault from the above reasons).

In this day and age thats not a problem. All the info you need for tuning is out there. Get a better FI friendly cam (there are several available)...a better exhaust (available), upgrade the ignition (carb or FI needs it).....better valves (needs it anyway) and the 2.0 VW bus TB (almost dirt cheap) a bit of careful of diligent tuning...and the stock 82 hp can be a reliable 90+.

Or....the lazy way to make 76 hp with twin carbs.....Ray

Sat Jun 09, 2012 12:37 am

hill wrote: Shadd wrote: I think that the going ratio for a 914 is about 10 hours of work for every ten minutes of driving time. You have been working for three years? Then you have a good couple of weeks coming to you...

The worst will be relieved if you get rid of the FI and use a pair of carbs. That'll leave the stupid plastic top to deal with, and maybe a window winder now and then.

I spent six years in Portland with a fuel injected Type 3 that had been converted to carbs. It was horrible; there is nothing worse then an amateur conversion. I’ve had 4 MGBs and 2 Jensen Healeys so I know how a dual carbed motor should drive. But there is no way around it; fuel injection is a vastly superior way to go, that’s why everyone except NASCAR left it behind years ago.

Sat Jun 09, 2012 12:46 pm

raygreenwood wrote: hill wrote: Shadd wrote: I think that the going ratio for a 914 is about 10 hours of work for every ten minutes of driving time. You have been working for three years? Then you have a good couple of weeks coming to you...

The worst will be relieved if you get rid of the FI and use a pair of carbs. That'll leave the stupid plastic top to deal with, and maybe a window winder now and then.

Not really....if its a 1.7L with D-jet (or a 2.0)....the injection when tuned properly will outperform vrtually any carb you can put on the engine....throttle response, hp and torque.
The D-jet got a bad name because of poor wiring harness (you can get factory spec replacements from Bowlsby and JMskater)...no published tuning info whatsoever.....and people hacking around with it with no idea what they are doing (not entirely their fault from the above reasons).

In this day and age thats not a problem. All the info you need for tuning is out there. Get a better FI friendly cam (there are several available)...a better exhaust (available), upgrade the ignition (carb or FI needs it).....better valves (needs it anyway) and the 2.0 VW bus TB (almost dirt cheap) a bit of careful of diligent tuning...and the stock 82 hp can be a reliable 90+.

Or....the lazy way to make 76 hp with twin carbs.....Ray

or a Raby cam and a few mods and you have a FI'd 115hp fun car that's very reliable. I hate it when people dump the FI for carbs.

Wed Jun 27, 2012 11:22 am

there's a lot of opinions out there on 914 handling. having owned several of them, including a 3.0 liter 914/6, i can speak from experience when i say that i hate the handling of this car. absolutely hate it!

yes it feels like its on rails.... at first. that's because your driving it slow. start driving it fast, like at a track, and you'll soon discover the problem. all that weight in the center of the car, as soon as the car reaches the limit, it spins like a top! happened to me several times on the street even, when the roads were wet. making a left turn through the intersection, and the whole car does a 360! spins completely around and pointed back in the right direction again! :lol:

the porsche 944 has a similar almost-50/50 weight distribution as the 914, but does so in a completely different way. instead of putting all the weight in the middle, they put all the weight at the ends. engine at one end. gearbox at the other end. it is far far far more controllable when driving at the limit. it's amazingly forgiving. you can get completely sideways tokyo-drift style and then calmly straighten back out. in a 914? not a chance. 914 is straight line, or spin like a top. no thanks. even a 911 with its "unique" handling from heavy ass-end is more controllable at the limit than a 914.

Wed Jul 11, 2012 6:52 am

Mine was a 1970's experience with both a 914 and a '73 type 3 that were injected by (was it?) D-Jetronic systems that never seemed to be predictaable in anything but their ability to frustrsate with cold start or hot start impossibilities at random, fuel leaks, and smoked grounding circuits with almost no info available to help figure it out.

The used 914 I had came fraught with problems which were effectively resolved finally by a conversion kit. BTW, the car will hold the road but it's got to have soft compound sticky tires to do it. Otherwise it's an easy car to do donuts in.

The type 3 was good from new until about 68k miles. It had been bought for my wife new by her mother and in Marin Co. Ca it seemed like there were no knowledgable mechanics at the local VW dealership or at the one in SF. They both wanted to change out the control box for every incidence and the car was out of warranty before the problems started. That box ran about $2K as I recall which at the time was two thirds of what the car was worth. After the car dropped a valve it's rebuild by me included a switch to carbs and it ran beautifully from then until wrecked in the late 1980's.

I've had a knack for tuning carburators that began to develop in 1963 when I was given a TR3 at age 14, so they don't spook me and were a whole lot cheaper to buy and run that the early FI systems with their near unobtainable parts and no tuning or repair info at all. There wasn't even an internet to seek help with - only the public library.

Hence my attitudes.

BUT, I've been seeing a bunch of attractive 914 ads lately and think I'm getting the bug to pick one up just to play with.....if I do that I'm sure I'll find all the resource available for the cars these days and might well elect to stick with an FI system. I do know that there's no more efficient engine management and have a Megasquirt conversion of a 1977 Toyota FJ40 under my belt that worked great and was fun to tune on a laptop while driving around our back hill roads.

OK?