Since the 914 Safari build is nearing completion. Thought I would pen a few words on the inspiration and journey building it. The 914 was developed between VW and Porsche in the late 60’s. You can see this partnership when looking at parts on the 914, a lot of them are stamped with the “VW” logo. The 914 seems to be the redheaded stepchild in the Porsche world. While 911 Safari cars have be gaining popularity, and prices of 911’s in general have skyrocketed past anything normal, the 914 for the most part, has stayed in the shadows.
After working with the fine gents at Renn Films, I got the bug for old school Porsche’s. But not having the income for a 911, I was on the look out for a 914 and found mine in Atlanta, Ga. Being 100% honest, I shouldn’t of bought it. Had way more issues than I thought, but I did, and after finding the issues started tearing it apart in my garage. Why not spend more money on a car that had problems? Makes total sense. One I got past a certain point I said “F$*k it” let’s make it badass, and 2-3 years later we are here.
After doing a project around Jim Goodlet's 911 rally car (I’m a film director by trade), I knew I had to do a 914 Safari, but this one isn’t like anything you have seen. Frankly it will piss a lot of people off who are more traditional. If you are reading this and think I messed up a perfectly good Porsche, I hope you at least read this and understand that my goal is to make the car better (not “ruin” it, car had a good bit of rust), and combine my different motorsport and regional automotive loves. My first car was a 1964 Impala, I got into Japanese cars when I was in high school, and love drifting and WRC (Group B, Subaru WRC era, etc). This build combines elements of my history with cars.
So let’s get into the build. After some searching I found a shop NW of Atlanta to help with my crazy ideas, Countersteer. They never worked on Porsche’s before, which means they were perfect for this. I found in my search and experience (this might be the region I’m in) that any shops that “work on Porsche’s” don’t think outside of the box and will over charge you for everything. I needed a shop that had some badass fabricators who could care less for how it’s suppose to be done but care more about doing a job correctly and are open to solving problems.
So going back to my automotive history and inspiration for this build, it’s a couple things that it needed to be. The overall idea was if you combine a Group B 3000c class car with a Dakar rally car that you can drive on the street, what would you get? So first, car is was going to be white. Why? Because race cars are delivered body in white from the factory. Plus white with black looks awesome. Second, a rally/drift suspension, this should be obvious. Thirdly, a turbo engine that also has fresh air anti lag. Why? I’m a big believer that a car should give you an emotional feeling when driving it, whatever you like, you should get a smile when driving. Have you ever heard a WRC launch? If that doesn’t make your internal 12 year old self smile, stop reading this, it’s the BEST. Turbo, flames, anti lag, crazy noises that sound like the motor will blow up, make me so dam happy.
So what are the plans for the car? Drive it. A. TON. I have a plan on driving it from Anchorage, AK to Baja Mexico and take it to Iceland. I want to drive it a lot in the snow and daily it as much as possible. If you got this far I hope that this inspires you in some small way. Whatever form of automotive you are into, build what you want, have fun, and enjoy everything along the way. Oh and pissing off some people along the way is okay :) Cheers