euro and american, what are the differences?

[boogerboy72]

Ive just been pondering latley what the differences were between the European models, and the American models. Any one know?

Oh FYI, victory by design: Porsche, comes on tonight at 8 on speed vision, if your interested.

[Alfred1]

Lots of good information here (click the 60's and 70's links) and here . Some of the differences were that the European 2.0L four cylinder motor had an 8:1 compression ratio while the US version had 7.6:1. The European 1.8L was carbureted and had a higher c/r (8.6:1) than the US version which had the L-jet f/i.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Those are the major differences.

European 914s did not have side marker lights on the front fenders.
They did not have charcoal cannister systems, and possibly other pollution control details.
They did not have the "shock absorbers" for the 5 MPH bumpers in the 75-76 cars; they had a plain metal frame under the black rubber cover.
There were wiring differences, e.g. in the operation of the fog lights/driving lights.

There were other differences, but the major mechanical ones were covered in Alfred's note.

--DD

[Jason Porter]

They also had Wolfsburg horn pads, instead of Porsche ones. And someone said these things aren't VW-ish.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

The hubcaps also had VW embossed into them, US cars were blank.

Euro cars did not have the PORSCHE lettering on the enigne cover..

[Acox914]

*euro cars also had removable buulb headlights (halogens?) vs US sealed beam
*Their fog light lenses werent textured (for lack of a better term) to let more light out
*euro lenses obviously
*gauges were metric
*owners manual was in german LOL
*Their LE was diffeerrent than a US LE (bowlsby can tell you more)
*none of the euro cars had P O R S C H E sidescripts.

more to come

[airbill337]

If I'm not mistaken, didn't euro's have a split clear/amber turn signal lenses as to american having just amber in the front?

[M. Hendrix]

Ayup!

And high er compression in many cases.


M

[Bleyseng]

Never had the air pumps, smog crap on the 2.0l 100hp motors.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

The 1.7s had the same 8.2:1 compression. (Ignoring the "EB"-code CA-spec 73 1.7s.) The 1.8s had a whole lot more compression (8.5:1 vs. 7.3:1), while the 2.0s had less than a half-point more (8.0:1 vs. 7.6:1).

I figured the "Euro lenses" (amber/white front, white/red/amber rear) were a given. However, different countries specified different lenses. The Italian front lenses, for example, were all white. The French rear lenses were amber/red/amber, I believe. There were other varaitions from country to country.

Note that not all European owner's manuals were in German... I even have an English-language European 1974 owner's manual. Somewhere. (I really wish I could find that thing!!!)

--DD

[M. Hendrix]

The English-Euro manual must be something like the shop manuals..

I am glad to have spent a year working with an Englishman, helps in the translation.


M

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

I like how they specify in the Haynes 914 manual, in the English to American glossary, that "use of a torch refers to a flashlight, not a open flame or welding torch"

The sad thing is that the only reason they put that in there was because some idiot used a welding torch to look inside his fuel tank or something equally stupid..

[CHAZZ]

Some euro had a rear fog lamp. Also some had white or clear
turn signals. I am not sure if 75-76 euro had the smog devices???

Chuck

[Ron Meier]

ANYBODY, translation or not, that would stick a live flame in a gas tank DESERVES what they got.

And the difference between Euro and USA models, well................., some were sold in Europe and some were sold in the USA. (Miles would even understand that, but I'm not to sure about Dave and Potter)


Ok, I'm returning to my underground hole....uhhhh.....bunker, yeh that's it bunker with my 3/4 mil in my pocket. Yeh, I like that.....bunker.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Originally posted by CHAZZ
Some euro had a rear fog lamp. Also some had white or clear
turn signals. I am not sure if 75-76 euro had the smog devices???Chuck

The single rear red fog light was an option in Europe.
The clear (white) front turn signal lenses were Italian-spec, as I said earlier.
The 75-76 cars did not have the smog pump or catalyst found in the US-spec cars. I am not sure if the exhaust on the 75-76 European cars was the same nasty power-robbing setup that non-catalyst US-spec cars got, or if they kept the better-flowing 74-style setup.

--DD

[Bleyseng]

No, it was not from what I gather DD. The euro cars where all 100hp engine with the 73-74 exhaust.

Geoff

[unclerichy]

Dr. Johnson's "A Restorer's Guide to Authenticity" is a good resource. I'm suprised someone didn't mention it earlier.