This is my beautiful Porsche 914 which I also own. It is a 1972 model and the original engine was a 1.7 L engine with the Bosch fuel injection but I changed all that after the engine needed rebuilding. I bought this car second hand in 1990 in Vancouver, Canada from a guy who was selling it. I drove it for about a year and then I stared fixing things up little by little. The first things I replaced were older parts that had fallen apart or even fell off of my car. I was not very happy with the brakes so I installed a larger 19mm master cylinder from the 914-6 or early 911's. After that we rebuilt the calipers, machined the rotors, installed stainless brake lines and higher performance pads. The car felt better but still needed more. After saving some money for about a year or so I decide to have the engine rebuilt by a professional. It would have cost over 2000 Canadian dollars to repair the injection, so for a fraction of that price I bought some new 40mm Twin Dellorto Carbs with K & N filters, polished manifolds and a complete linkage kit designed for the 914. Next the engine was pulled out and fully disassembled. I replaced almost everything, all bearings and gaskets. The heads were fitted with much larger valves, ported, polished and fly cut for slightly higher compression. The new pistons and cylinders were massive. 103mm compared to the stock 90mm. The case was machined for the new barrels and a higher lift cam was installed. Total displacement was now 2179 cc or about 2.2 liters and compression was set at 10.5:1 .After getting the engine back in and running we set it all up and had the engine compartment sprayed in metallic silver to match the outside paint that would come later. Other goodies added were 2.0 liter stainless heat exchangers, Bursch race muffler, 090 Distributor, blue wires and Bosch platinum plugs. Now the car was running great and had lots of extra power. I replaced the clutch with a heavy duty unit, machined the fly wheel and upgraded to the improved later style side shifter from the 1973 on 914's. Now I was getting serious about my 914.

After driving the car for a while I was pleased with the engine and its performance but the car still lacked in a few departments. The suspension was seriously lacking and so soft it felt as if I was floating. Luckily for me I was able to find a complete front suspension from a Porsche 911 S Model. The 914 and 911 are virtually identical in the front suspension area, except that the 911 unit is lighter, has heavier torsion bars and of course the much more larger ventilated discs which I wanted plus the 911 S model had even larger, lighter aluminum front caliper than standard 911 T and E models. Another bonus about upgrading to the 911 suspension was I could install real Porsche alloy five bolt wheels. The originals were four bolt VW units. I purchased a nice set of 5.5 inch x 15 inch factory alloys which had been polished by the previous owner from the Porsche owners club and popped those on the front for a while. After a local machine shop re-machined the original hubs and rear discs to work with the five bolt wheels for the rear. I needed new tires to go with the new wheels so I got a great deal on the latest BF Goodrich Comp TA/ ZR's sized 195/50 ZR-15. The front struts from the 911 suspension had KONI inserts so I replaced the rear original units with new KONI's and 140 pound Weltmiester springs. All the bushings on the car were replaced with Teflon coated pieces and last the suspension was aligned. The car felt great and the brakes were superb. The car was finally balanced. I still planned on improving it more but I felt the car needed a new look.....

The car was originally signal orange. I wanted to change the image of my car and thought it would be a great idea to repaint the car in beautiful polar silver. The color is the same as the newest Porsches. I had the body work redone by a pro who removed the rusted side panels and fabricated new ones plus the side marker lights were removed along with the old vinyl covering the side panels. The work took over one month to complete and the results were fabulous. I replaced lots of rubber weather stripping, new front glass, trim and replaced the bumpers and bumper seals with new black ones. On the inside of the car it was quite bad and in need of some serious attention. The old brown interior was thrown away and I purchased new plush carpet in black. I found a nice 914 that had been wrecked and bought the complete interior from that for only 100 Canadian dollars. It was like new and in very good condition. Other interior goodies were a Momo Monte Carlo steering wheel and a matching gear shift knob. In addition I also replaced the broken AM radio with a nice Kenwood unit with CD changer and high power 6 x 9 speakers squeezed into the kick panels. Now I was rolling !!! My car was looking great and was a blast to drive.

As you know I am living in Japan now so I can't drive my car. I miss it and will return home someday I hope. The car has been sitting for about three years now with me in Japan here and all. So there are still a few things I want to do to this car. I never really finished it because I moved overseas. In the future if I can afford it I plan to upgrade to even larger brakes, tune the suspension more with new torsion bars, anti-roll bars and of course the dream is to have a real Porsche motor from a 911.