2009 PCA Parade Concours, Where were the 914's? Options

[Pat Garvey]

I just got back an hour ago from a vacation in South Carolina.

Lots of backed up mail after a week, but I went straight for Pano & the Parade results. Of course, me being me, I went straight for the concours results.

Total dissappointment! Not a single stock, or even mildly modified 914 tok its class - not one!

What happened? Only 90 plus cars entered in the entire event & none of you west coast or midwest people made the show?
Pat

[Scott S]

It’s really not surprising to me that the 914 is not hugely represented. Unless someone has a car like yours Pat that has been maintained for a very long time, a “normal” 914 (not a GT, factory 6, 916, race pedigree, etc etc) is just not a practical choice to restore to a competitive concour level – unless you are a very talented craftsman that can do the work on your own and do not factor in their own labor as part of the cost. I love 914’s. I just could not justify throwing 30-50k into a true competitive concour restoration knowing the value of the restored car wont offset it – or even break even. As well, probably the larger issue is that there are simply to many other options of cars that would cost a similar amount to restore that not only will bring a far greater ROI, but also have a much larger following of enthusiasts making them always much easier to sell. This site is great example of the real “world”. 99% of the restorations on this site have mods to both the suspension and engine. Proabably 85% have significant mods (flares, 6 conversions, etc). So, if such a small percentage of the actual true 914 enthusiasts are restoring the cars back to stock, you can imagine how small the percentage is of overall Porsche folks who would take the plunge on a true concour resto. Would many own one as a toy/race car? You bet – and thankfully – as this is the group that supports the parts vendors.

It kinda sucks, but it is just is what it is… a 914.

A bit off topic, but the Audi guys really have it bad. My brother is very involved with the Ur Quattro Coupe and original S4 cars (the big bodied 89-92 version). These guys dump hoards of money into these huge horsepower builds and either blow them up and start over, or sell them for simply nothing. My brothers car had something like 25-30k dumped into the motor and suspension of his car. He bought it for 7500.00 a year or so ago and has since put another 5-10k into the thing in the past year – and all of that has been hot rodding – not any sort of needed repairs. He thinks it is probably still worth no more than 10k…. but it is realllllllllly fun - and still worth as much as they guys who have the perfectly preserved examples in their club. Heck, he just bought a near perfect, unmolested S6 wagon with under 50k miles to use as his daily driver - it is like a brand new car. It cost him less than 7k to buy and ship it to Colorado from the east coast.