How Far Would You Drive Your 914?

Hello, fellow Porschephiles. Would you believe me if I told you I just spent four days in the cockpit of a 1974 Porsche 914, covering 3200 miles of American and Canadian highways and byways? Well, I just completed that trip, and it was amazing. I can now cross that one off my bucket list.

My 19-year-old daughter was my copilot. With a crash course on how to drive a manual transmission, especially that odd shifting 901 gearbox, she would co-drive when my eyes just couldn't take the jarring any longer.

This 914 was one of my dad's Porsches, it was his DE car for many years. Actually, a good part of the mileage on that car is from lapping Watkins Glen, Lime Rock, and Pocono. He was a lifelong PCA member; Central NY region. Yes, this was Marvin Jennings' car. When he passed in 2009, my mother (Mabel) wanted to keep that Olympic Blue 914 (we sold his 89, 944 S2 in 2010).

When we started out, the car had 57,000 and some change on the odometer. It rolled to over 60K just about the time we made it to Kennewick Wash. Our journey began on August 14th in Dryden, New York, and took us through New York, the Province of Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and finally, Washington.

Several weeks prior to flying out to visit my mother and pick up the car, the creek that flows next to the house in Dryden flooded. And as Murphy would have it, the flood waters flowed through the garage where the 914 was parked. Mabel had told me that the car was dry on the inside, the water level just barely to the rims. The water level was actually mid-rocker panel and filled the floorboard of that 914 through the emergency brake and the heater box cables. When I opened up the car the weekend before our trip, there was a ½ inch of standing water on the driver's side. It was not a pretty sight. We spent two days pulling out the interior, scrubbing, mopping, and drying the car out. Luckily, no damage or bad smells, just soggy.

So, I changed the oil, installed a new set of oil cooler hoses, put some air in the tires, made sure the brakes were solid, and off we went. Our first stop was Marathon, NY, where Marvin is buried. My daughter had never visited her grandfather's grave. There are four generations of Jennings in that cemetery. Next, we stopped in Newark, NY, so my daughter could see where Mabel's parents were buried. Then off down NY 31 through Rochester and onto Niagara Falls. Our plan was to cut through Canada and re-enter the US at Sault Ste. Marie. We made it about 100 miles north of Toronto on that first day. We spent the night in Barrie, Ontario.

The second day out, we missed a turn some place and ended up in the 1000 Lakes area of Ontario, about an hour east of where we should have been. Thanks to Dr. Google and Mickey D's free Wi-Fi, we reoriented ourselves and made it to Sault Ste. Marie and re-entered the U.S. Once back in the US, instead of stopping for the night, we decided to press on to Minneapolis MN, where my younger son lives. We made it to his residence at 4:00 am the next morning. Yes, my daughter and I spent 24 hours straight in that 914. And I now can tell you from experience, 914 seats become quite uncomfortable after 8 hours, at 16 hours your looking for any excuse, short of suicide, to end the pain. At 24 hours, you're paralyzed, there is no feeling from your hips to your toes and I guarantee you will need therapy to learn to walk again. We spent the next two days recovering at my son's.

On the 18th, we were back on the road and headed for Fargo, North Dakota. The plan was to drive US Route 2 from Fargo all the way to Spokane. If you have never driven US 2 through the heartland you are missing one of America's great treasures. It may be flat, but it's certainly not ugly. We finished up that day in Bainville, Mont. On the 19th we drove for about 14 hours and finished up our trip in Kennewick, Wash. This took us through Glacier National's Lewis and Clark Pass, Lolo Pass, and 4th of July Pass into Coeur d'Alene. We rolled into Kennewick at midnight.

The car ran super the entire trip. And even with 0-to-60 times somewhere north of 12 seconds (sometimes it felt like days), that 1.8 liter fuel-injected (original fuel injection) VW-powered Porsche kept up with modern traffic running at 70 to 80 MPH. We averaged better than 30 miles to the gallon. The car never used a drop of oil.

The only mishap: when we pulled into Pasco, the exhaust ran loud, and the car was backfiring. We had lost 4 out of 6 header bolts someplace between Spokane and the Tri-Cities and had a 1/4" gap on the driver's side exhaust flange. That was fixed the next morning.

Forty-three years ago, Porsche and VW built one tough little car, and 43 years later, it proved its worth. All in all, an excellent adventure!

More stories, more cars August 12 at Preston ParkPorsche owners are bringing their cars and stories to Preston Park on August 12.

The INWR Show and Shine is a People Choice event with a twist.

Jennings' shared his story as an example of the Porsche Stories he is after for this event.

"The better the story, the greater the forgiveness for bug stains and stone chips."

Saturday, August 12th

9 am to 4 pm

Preston Park, Waitsburg

Coppei and Preston Avenues

Information and registration at 

https://tinyurl.com/yhn6h5bn