Minerva's 914 Lives Again!, A Tale of Rebirth Options

[Minerva's 914]

May 1973, my wife Minerva purchased her first new car. She chose this 1973 Alaska Blue / Tan interior 914 2.0 with Appearance Group. Between 1973 and 1992 she and I drove it just over 81,000 miles before pulling it in the garage and lifted it up on jack stands. In 2010 I decided to begin the restoration to return her car to her. A complete disassemble and paint by Dee Lashley started the process. I then reassembled it only to discover the engine was locked up due to water getting into the cylinders while out of the car. I shipped the short block off to Fat Performance in CA for a line bore check (it was fine) and new jugs, etc.. Upon return in 2011, the car sat for over two years waiting for the local "In By Noon, Out By June" shop to setup the fuel injection with the idea to give it back to Minerva May 2013, the car's 40th birthday. When that deadline past without success, my next idea was to give it to her on her 16th birthday. LOL, okay I'll explain. Minerva is a leap year baby, meaning she only has a REAL birthday every 4 years and Feb 29, 2016 was to be her 16th real birthday. How cool is that? Well, even thought the shop owner apologized for missing the car's birthday he assured me he would finish it by 2016. A full 3 years to get it done. When he missed that date as well, I was furious and arranged to move it to Black Forest Racing in Denver NC and put it the capable hands of John Forbes and his wonderful staff. That happened in June of 2016. John said he had 2 projects in front of me but he liked my story and said he would do everything in his power to finish the 914 by Minerva's birthday this year. Feb 26, 2017, I picked up Minerva's car and gave it to her for her 16.25 birthday. Thank you SOooo much John Forbes for working so hard to make this happen!!!

[Minerva's 914]

[Dave_Darling]

Interesting. Your car is a 73 (has the correct firewall hole for the side-shift) but the transmission is a tail-shifter. Was an early transmission swapped in? Was it converted over to side-shift but the TS end cover left on?

Alan Caldwell bout an early 73 2.0 new, and it had a side-shift transmission with a tail-shift end cover.

--DD

[Minerva's 914]

Interesting. Your car is a 73 (has the correct firewall hole for the side-shift) but the transmission is a tail-shifter. Was an early transmission swapped in? Was it converted over to side-shift but the TS end cover left on?

Alan Caldwell bout an early 73 2.0 new, and it had a side-shift transmission with a tail-shift end cover.

--DD

No, the photo you're looking at has a dummy early tarnny case installed to facilitate the engine installation while waiting for the clutch package to arrive. The next day when the clutch, pressure plate, TO bearing, and disk arrived we had the engine ready to go, supported the engine, popped out the dummy trans case which is lighter and easier to handle, installed the new clutch package, installed the original trans and we were off to the races.

Good catch though!