1974 914/6 "Papa Smurf"

Long story here.... it all started out back in 1993 when Nadine's dad said he was selling his daily driver 914. She immediately told him that we wanted to buy it. Now, at the time, we didn't own any Porsches, and I only knew of one 914 in my life - that of my Aunt and Uncle - and always hated them. 911's were real Porsches, not a 914....

So, a few months later, there we were, flying out to Colorado to pick up this baby blue stock 914. They left it in Stapleton Airport in Denver as they left on vacation. We flew in, found the car in the long term lot, and proceeded to drive it back to our home in New Jersey.

Other than being about the most uncomfortable car I had ever been in, all went well until we got to Davenport, Iowa. For some reason, every time we filled up with gas, the car would have hesitation problems. Well, before we left, a friend suggested we take along the Porsche Club of America's monthly magazine Panorama, specifically the one that lists all the Region officers throughout the country.

So, trusty guide in hand, we called everyone in Iowa we could find. We were directed to a towing company that sent a driver to come out to help us, then had us follow him to his house for further investigation. After trial and error (and a few "this is really a Porsche? Never seen one of these before" comments) we determined it was the fuel tank crushing the fuel lines under the tank. We then proceeded to take out the fuel tank, replace the lines, and reinstall everything.

Viola. All was fine....until South Bend, Indiana. More hesitating. Out came Panorama, and we were able to reach the local Newsletter editor (who's name escapes me now). My first thought was "what could a newsletter editor possibly know about cars?" Obviously, I was not privy to the whole PCA idea that just about EVERYONE knows something about these cars. So we were directed to his house for assistance.

When he opened the barn doors behind his house, I knew we came to the right place. In this "garage", was a full blown 928 race car, a couple 356 project cars a few Alfa Romeo street and race cars, a nice 911, etc. etc. etc. Guess he knows something about cars.... We once again determined it was fuel starvation due to the tank crushing the fuel lines. So, instead of jacking up the car and pulling the lines away from the tank from underneath, we came up with a temporary but innovative approach. We propped up the tank with a few wedges of wood to keep it up, since it seemed the issue happened when we filled the tank and it settled down heavy. But then the front deck lid wouldn't close because the tank was up too high, so we shimmed the hood with washers, and off we went. No additional problems the rest of the way and we made it to NJ in 3 days.  Oh, one funny moment was when we stopped at a hotel in the pouring rain. I got out to see if they had a room. The lady at the desk looked at me, walked back into the back room, a guy looked out at me, asked if I really needed the room for 2 people (ah, yes, Nadine MY WIFE would not appreciate sleeping in the car) and finally gave us a key.

(more to come.....)