1971 Porsche 914/6 Inside the G-Games- An Egineer's Dream

Final Score: 99.8 pts.4 Fourth Place

"The clutch is gone on the 914." Not 10 minutes after I learned every engineering nerd's dream car was here for the driving, it was out of contention. The 1971 Porsche 914/6 european car brought to our little cornering party looked like it could, on paper at least, walk away with the contest.

The 1994 RX-7 we brought is considered lightweight, at about 2,800 lbs, but the Porsche undercuts that by more than 800 lbs. The RX-7's compact rotary engine is shoved behind the front-wheel centerline, keeping the polar moment low and the car eager to rotate, but the Porsche again out-geeks it, placing the engine almost dead center, one small rust hole away from burning the driver's backside. And don't even get me started on the center of gravity. The Motronic 3.2-liter flat six pilfered from a 1990 911 is exactly that; flat. The 914's engine is so low it can lick asphalt.

It's a shame we wouldn't get to see it perform. Or would we? Moments after word of the smoked clutch, Greg Landry, the Porsche mechanic from German Parts & Restoration who brought the car, scoured the pits for borrowed tools and headed for the trackside garage. Within the hour, Kennedy Performance Clutch arrived with a replacement and Landry slapped it in, taking less time than most people take to change their oil.

In the contest, the 914 was impressive, but not up to the level of the RX-7. The difference is the little stuff. The 914 is assembled with all the best parts, but was never dialed in to take maximum advantage of them. The 914 has an adjustable suspension, even in stock form, allowing and requiring corner weighting to get consistent handling in both directions. The corner weighting had never been done, nor had the shocks-Bilsteins up front and Boge in the rear-ever been adjusted. The car's owner, and owner of GPR, Dave Shepard, was so happy with the way the car performed as his daily driver, he never felt the need to nit pick.

Picking nits may have pushed the 914 into the 1g club. As it was, the car pulled a scorching 1.03g turning left, but managed only 0.95g going right, averaging out to 0.99g. On the slalom, the car seemed more consistent, with its direct, non-assisted steering offering plenty of feedback. The wide rear fender flares-covering the 245/45ZR-17 tires-had an annoying tendency to re-arrange cones, requiring a wider line than sightlines would imply. The road course was most troublesome, where the 914's notorious monkey motion shifter foiled attempts at a fast lap.

It could've been closer. With a new shift mechanism and a few hours adjusting the suspension, Hoeck's RX-7 could've had company at the top. But even with its quirks, the 914/6 is still an engineer's dream. -Dave Coleman