In my naivety I thought that once the 911 was the car of choice for the Porsche machine its humble VW beginings were a distant memory, but recently my eyes have been opened to the 912. Produced along side the 911 between 1965 and 1969 it even outsold the legendary 911 in late 60's. Why you might ask, well the large flat 6 hung out of the back had given the 911 and bad reputation in the handling stakes. The 912 though had a much lighter flat 4, giving it a engine sound that harks back to its Beetle predecesor. Although the engine simirlarities end there, engine came out of the 356. With less pendulum action around the twisty stuff it was the drivers car of choice at the time, well atleast the car your almost guarenteed wont meet a tree down a country lane backwards anyway. To top it all off it was cheaper, sold as the entry level Porsche as the time.
But as history is written by the victors and VW spent the last 50 years sorting out the tail action of the 911 the low power 912 was lost with the improvements and an increasing pedigree of both the Porsche brand and the 911 flagship.
Today the 912 with modern tinkering to its engine now can produce the same power as its 911 stablemate of the same period but still with that better handling, all this and its much cheaper than the 911. And to be honest apart from the badge on the back could you tell the difference????
For more information-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_912
http://www.912registry.org/history.htm
An early start to a Sunday saw me heading down to the Telford Convention
Centre for what’s deemed the opener for the Volkswagen show season, where the
cars built over the winter months first see the light of day. Now this isn’t a
show I’d been to before so I didn’t really know what to expect when I arrived
at the already full car park at 8am!!!!
It’s the first weekend in August which in the northwest of England means
its Volkswagen Northwest and the early start to a Sunday morning. I was there
for the day as I had arranged the Scirocco Register’s club stand so had plenty
of time to take it all in. Well if the rain that was forecast held off.
In my naivety I thought that once the 911 was the car of choice for the Porsche machine its humble VW beginings were a distant memory, but recently my eyes have been opened to the 912. Produced along side the 911 between 1965 and 1969 it even outsold the legendary 911 in late 60's. Why you might ask, well the large flat 6 hung out of the back had given the 911 and bad reputation in the handling stakes. The 912 though had a much lighter flat 4, giving it a engine sound that harks back to its Beetle predecesor. Although the engine simirlarities end there, engine came out of the 356. With less pendulum action around the twisty stuff it was the drivers car of choice at the time, well atleast the car your almost guarenteed wont meet a tree down a country lane backwards anyway. To top it all off it was cheaper, sold as the entry level Porsche as the time.
So when do you think this Porsche concept was built 2004, 2000? No this was actually built, but never officially shown, in 1988!!!! That’s 22 years ago!!!! Sports cars manufacturers are only just coming round to producing 4 door alternatives in the likes of the Porsche Panamera, Aston Martin Rapide and Lamborghini’s Estoque. To think that a working “prototype” of the Panamera was produced in another automotive time is a revelation. The 989 is based around the 928 front engined car produced at the time with an elongated 911 body just like the current Panamera. Unfortunately due to sale of its front engined cars slowing and the early 90’s recession Porsche shelved the car in 1992. To say Porsche were well ahead of the game is an understatement if that had been released just think what cars we would have today and that new supercar saloon niche. All we need to find now lurking around in the Porsche R&D; bunker parked next to this would be a 4x4 with an inflated 911 body also produced in the 1980’s. 
