VW-Porsche 914 Celebrates Anniversary

The VW-Porsche Sales Company (VW-Porsche-Vertriebsgesellschaft mbh) was established in April 1969 by Porsche together with Volkswagen.

Back in the mid 1960s VW was looking for a successor to its then rather outdated Type 34 sports coupe, better known as the “Karmann Ghia”. At the same time Porsche was striving to expand its position in the market with a sports car in the promising segment beneath the 911.

Porsche’s Ferry Porsche and VW’s CEO Heinrich Nordhoff agreed in spring 1966 on a joint venture destined to benefit both parties: Porsche was asked to develop a low-cost mid-engined sports car intended to enter the market as a Volkswagen with four cylinders and as a Porsche with a six-cylinder boxer engine.

The VW-Porsche 914 was presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show on 11 September 1969 as the first mid-engined sports car built in Germany in series production. The combination of the two brand names Volkswagen and Porsche however turned out to be an image problem for the new model series commonly referred to by the press as the “Volksporsche” or “People’s Porsche”. This was a particular disadvantage for the 914/6 powered by the two-litre flat-six carried over from the 911 T 2.0. For despite its outstanding performance, the 914/6 was hardly accepted by most of Porsche’s existing customers.

The four-cylinder VW-Porsche 914, on the other hand, became a genuine success in the market, accounting for a production volume of 115,631 units until the series ceased production in spring 1976, and thus becoming the best-selling sports car of its time.