1969 Porsche 912

The Porsche 912 was similar in design to the 911 and eased the transition from the 356 to the 911. In comparison with the 911, the 912 had fewer amenities, less power, and weighed about 250 pounds less. A 5-speed gearbox was matted to a detuned 356-based 4-cylinder engine. The engine was mounted in the rear and powered the rear transaxle. Disc brakes and independent suspension with torsion bars gave the car excellent and impressive handling. The Recaro seats kept the driver planted and the rack-and-pinion steering was very responsive. For an additional cost, the owner could have air-conditioning, rear window wiper, halogen fog lights, electric sunroof, and/or three-point seatbelts.

The 912 came in both the coupe and Targa flavors with the coupe being the more popular. About 2562 of the 34,959 912's were Targas.

The 912 was offered to the public in 1965 and stayed in production until 1969 when the mid-engined 914 was introduced. Due to its low cost, it easily outsold the more powerful 911's during the first few years. In

1967, the 912 was awarded Car and Driver's 'Readers Choice' for its class. During that same year a 912, driven by Sobieslaw Zasada of Poland, won the European Rally Championship.

At the end of the 914 production in late 1975, a version of the 912, dubbed the 912E, was introduced. Internally, the vehicle was labeled the Type 923. The 'E' stood for 'Einspritzung', in German meaning 'fuel injection'. It was powered by a 2-liter, 914-derived fuel-injected engine and had had Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection and an air pump. It used the 911 body, but has smaller wheels and tires and non-vented brake rotors. The fuel-efficient engine, rising fuel costs, and lower speed limits made the 912E a safe-buy. After 2099 examples were produced, the 924 entered the scene. The 912E was the last air-cooled four-cylinder vehicle produced by Porsche.

During its production run that includes the 912 and 912E, nearly 35,000 examples were produced. It had achieved victory in the racing world, served as European police cars, and was featured in the movie 'Spy Games' starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt.

by Dan Vaughan

Coupe
Chassis number: 129022045

With the 1964 introduction of the new six-cylinder 911, Porsche figured they would loose market share with their higher priced model. The answer was the 1965 introduction of the 912. The success was in the use of the 911 coachwork and utilization of a 356 based flat-4 cylinder engine. The 912 also carries many 356 traditions in its seating and interior accompaniments. In its first year the 912 outsold the 911 by two-to-one. 1969 Porsche 912 productions was 4,679 units and Porsche produced 31,270 units in the five years of production.

This Porsche is a duplicate of the owner's first Porsche and incidentally his first automobile as well.

Targa
Chassis number: 129010788

This Porsche 912 is painted in its original paint color of Sand Beige and it has its original interior. There is a rare hard window targa and tool kit.

by Dan Vaughan

Coupe
Chassis number: 462699

The pervious owner of this Porsche 912 purchased it as a project car to turn it into a Hot Rod for vintage rally use. It was given a bare metal respray in Guards Red, and the interior stripped to the bare essentials. The original seats and other interior parts that were removed have been boxed up and remain with the car. The original engine was also removed and crated, while a new enlarged 912 4-cylinder engine was sourced, tuned and installed for increased performance. The suspension and braking system were modified to cope with the increased horsepower.

The engine is an overhead valve flat four-cylinder engine displacing 1700cc and fitted with two carburetors. The engine offers 105 horsepower and is backed by a 4-speed manual transmission.

by Dan Vaughan

Coupe
Chassis number: 129022748

This Porsche 912 Coupe is finished in Irish green and rides on ventilated chrome wheels. It has the original tools, jack, spare, and owners manual.

by Dan Vaughan

Targa
Chassis number: 129010762
Engine number: 4096555

Porsche produced approximately 34,000 examples of the 912 between 1965 and 1969 and fewer than 2,600 of those were Targas.

This particular Targa was delivered on August 29 of 1969 in Northern California. It left the factory trimmed in burgundy with a black leather interior. The car was sold by its original owner to Spencer Aust of Los Gatos, California, on the strict condition that he be contacted first if Mr. Aust ever decided to sell. After three decades, Mr. Augst contacted the original owner as promised, who re-purchased the car with 85,852 miles on the odometer.

In 2007, with 89,920 miles on the odometer, the car received a mechanical overhaul. The engine was rebuilt with a big-bore kit (1,720 cc) and a high-performance, high-lift, and a long-duration camshaft. Retractable seat belts were installed and the original seats and carpets were covered.

by Dan Vaughan

Coupe

The Porsche 912, produced from 1965 to 1969, was the entry-level model. It was 33% less expensive than the 6-cylinder 911 model. The 912 accounted for 45% of Porsche production between 1965 to 1969. The 1,582cc flat four-cylinder engine delivers 90 horsepower compared to the 178 hp in the 911s. 75% of 912 production was by Karmann Carosserie, Osnabruck.

In 1963 Porsche executives decided to introduce a new four-cylinder entry-level model with 356 engine power for the European market. Initially, the new car was known at Zuffenhausen as a number with a zero in the middle, 902, like it's predecessor 911 (original internal factory designation '901'). This '902' designation was never used publicly and after 1968 the '912' project number was used to indicate the 12 cylinder flat-engine developed for the Porsche 917 racing car.

Paul Hensler, eventual Chief Departmental Manager for Development, Mechanics, was assigned the project in 1963 by Porsche to supervise the design and implementation of a new horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine for the 902. It was up to Hensler to use components from the new 901 six-cylinder engine and produce a higher performance than with their 356SC engine, all while keeping costs lower than their Carrera 2 engine. Claus von Rücker proposed increasing the displacement of the 356 Type 616 engine to 1.8 liters, add Kugelfischer fuel injection, and modify cooling and valve systems. Porsche chose not to go with either of these design projects and instead decided to modify the 1.6-liter Type 616 engine to the 902.

Chassis numbers 13328, 13329, 13330, 13352, and 13386 through 13397 had been set aside by the Porsche Vehicle Research Department for research testing of the 902 before 911 production began in 1964. Today the oldest 902 known to exist is Serial Number 13394. The Type 912 was a mishmash of Porsche products composed of a 911 chassis/bodyshell powered by a 1.6L, four-cylinder, push-rod Type 616/36 engine that was inspired by the Type 616/16 engine used in the Type 356SC of 1964-65. Though the Type 616/36 engine had five less horsepower than the 616/16 with a lower compression ratio and new Solex carbs, it still delivered the same maximum torque at 3,500 rpm compared to 4,200 rpm for the 616/16.

On April 5, 1965 Porsche officially began production of the 912 coupe as the 356 model production ended. After the Spring of 1965 order for 356s were no longer taken and production officially ended in September 1965. Manufactured as Porsche's entry-level offering, the 912 was a sports car introduced in 1965 through 1969. The type 912 was a variant of the legendary Type 911 and an efficient compact performance four-seater that delivered 90 hp at 5800 rpm. Because of the high-efficiency petrol engine, low drag and low weight the Porsche 912 was capable of up to 30-mpg fuel economy. The production Type 912 vehicle featured excellent weight distribution, handling, and range compared to the 911. Wanting to the keep the 912 price near the 356 Porsche deleted some of the standard featured on the 911.

In June of 1965 the 912 was first available to European customers, and soon became a market leader, predominantly in the USA. The 912 was especially popular in the US where many of today's Register Members car originated. During the first few years of the 912 production, the sports car actually outsold the 911 nearly two to one in 1966. The appealing 912 had smart styling and performance that made it very popular with new and old Porsche buyers, and the price, reliability and good construction only made it more attractive.

The Porsche 912 was a good transitional car between the 356 and the 911. The 912 was similar to the 356, and appreciated by the public for its power, exceptional aerodynamics, ergonomics, and style. The 912 weighs around 250 pounds less with the flat-four than a standard 911 of the same year, which greatly improved the front-rear weight distribution. The Porsche 912 was a 'green' low-fuel consumption car thanks to its low-weight, low-drag, and fuel efficiency, many years before hybrid vehicles became as popular as they are now. In 1967 the 912 won Car and Driver's 'Readers Choice' Poll for its class.

During a five-year manufacturing run Porsche produced nearly 30,000 912 coupe's and around 2,500 912 Targa body styles. In December 1966, production of the Targa, Porsche's patented variation of the Targa, was introduced as a 1967 model. The Targa came with a removable roof and heavy transparent plastic rear windows that opened with a zipper. Porsche transformed the Targa into a coupe with a removable roof in January of 1968 with a Targa 'Version II' option with a fixed glass rear window.

The German autobahn police (polizei) received a special version Type 912. The 100,000th Porsche car was outfitted into a 912 Targa for the police of Baden-Württemberg, the home state of Porsche.

After the 1969 model year, Porsche chose to discontinue the 912 production. At the time production facilities for the 912 were being used by the new 914-6, which was a six-cylinder high-performance version of the 914 Porsche-Volkswagen joint effort vehicles. The second reason behind Porsche's decision was that the 911 platform had returned to Porsche's traditional three performance-level ladders that included the powerful 911S, a fuel-injected 911E, and the base model 911T. U.S. emission controls also played a big role in the decision as stringent controls made it a lot of effort to make the 912 compliable.

The four-cylinder 914 superseded the Type 912 in 1970 as Porsche's entry-level model. Porsche believed that the 914 would be a little less expensive to sell and manufacture than the 912. Unfortunately, the 914 was soon discontinued in early 1976. In 1967 the 912 costs around £2,428.

As a 1976 model, the 912 was re-introduced to the U.S. auto market after a six-year absence as the 912E (internal factory designation 923). The new 912 models shared the 'G-Series' bodywork with the 911S and was powered by an 86 bhp 2.0 L Volkswagen air-cooled engine. The engine was refined with a new Bosch L-Jetronic (Air Flow Controlled) fuel injection system. The 912E took the entry-level space left by the 914. During this time the new 924, another Porsche-Volkswagen joint effort car, and the official replacement of the 914 were being finalized and put into production. Aimed at the U.S. market, around 2,00 of the 912 E were produced from May 1975 until July 1976.

Over the years the Porsche 912 has proven its capability also as a successful racecar. Sold to the public for street use, the 912 even made Porsche factory rally history when Polish driver Sobiesław Zasada was behind the wheel of a factory-loaned 912 to win the European Rally Championship for Group 1 series touring cars. Zasada drove once again in the 1967 Rally of Poland, the second oldest rally in the world, and one of the oldest motorsport events worldwide, in his 912 race No. 47 and finished first overall. The 1967 Rally of Poland had a starting field of 50 entries.

On January 29, 2012, Hayden Burvill, Alastair Caldwell finished first in class in their #35 1968 Porsche 912 as a vintage rally car, and 7th overall in the 2012 London to Cape Town World Cup Rally. The rally was a 14 country, three-continent, 8,699 miles, 26 driving-days events.

Sources:

http://www.912registry.org/history.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_912

http://www.912register.co.uk/porsche912histor.html

by Jessican Donaldson