I owned (2), a '73 w/ 2.0, Appearance Group, and Richie Ginther bars. The other was a '73 w/ 1.7 without Appearance group and little else. What they were not; fast, quiet, or enjoyable in really cold weather. As they are air-cooled, they used an air-to-air heating system exchanger that was marginal when new and non-existent as the heater boxers rusted out & perforated. In the 80s replacing them with stainless-steel ones was a near $1K expense, mild steel a little less than half that.
What they were; an absolutely blast to drive from late April through October. They had good handling even with skinny tires and the stock suspension. My 2.0 with better bars felt like it was glued down in turns. Power on the 2.0 was enough to get you moving along at a good clip. Although not great off the line, once you were going it was OK. Plus, the shifter had superb Ferrari like feel. Oh not wait; it was really like a wooden spoon in a bowl of bread dough. Vague w/ "race" pattern so 1st is over & down w/ reverse helpfully placed directly above it. You could nick reverse on your 1-2 shift, ouch! Brakes were OK as was the driver's position but, you were nearly low enough to drive under a semi trailer. The car could be very scary at night in traffic. Other vehicle lane changes as if I was invisible were common and I started anticipating that the more I drove my first one.
I liked them both and think about another as a final project car. There is a lot than can be done with them such as Subaru motor and true Porsche suspension brakes rather than VW parts bin. It would need to come from CO or AZ as they rust terribly if they never went in for the battery tray recall. Rain would wash acid off the top of the battery right onto the weakest point of the body and rot it away. You can tell a bad one when you open the door and stand on the sill. The 914 will flex and droop down. Really bad ones left on dirt in yards may even collapse completely.
