Porsche 914 & 914/6 Horsepower & Torque
It Doesn't Take Much
Porsche 914 vehicles stand
only four feet (1.25 meters) tall and weigh under 2200 pounds (1000
kg). Subsequently, it was not necessary to equip Porsche 914 models
with overly powerful engines to achieve a satisfactory level of
performance. This enabled the manufacturers to produce a car that is
both
fun to drive and economical in the four-cylinder Porsche 914 as well as
the more powerful six-cylinder version, the Porsche 914/6.
Seven Years, Seven U.S. Production Engines
Unfortunately, a pricing dispute with chassis manufacturer Karmann
caused the cost of the 914/6 to climb near that of the 911 model,
resulting in poor sales and the termination of production after the
1972 model year. VW-Porsche realized
that a market remained for a 914 with more power than was provided by
the original 1.7 liter
air-cooled Type 4 engine, so a 2.0L engine
option was introduced in 1973. Such marketing decisions, changing
emissions standards and
geographical standards variation (e.g. California) resulted in Porsche
914 cars being delivered to the United States with seven different
engines over the seven year production run.
How They Compare
The diagram accessed via the (rather large) thumbnail above is a
composite of the
horsepower and torque curves for the various U.S. specification Porsche
914 six and four-cylinder engines (1973 California specification 1.7
liter "EB" engine specification curves not included...
sorry). This comparison provides a (somewhat busy) visual of the
effects of various engine differences. In addition to displacement,
aspects such as the domed pistons and higher compression of the 1.7 "W"
or "EA" code engines and the heightened emission control on the 1.8
liter "EC" and 2.0L "GC" engines played a large role in the engine
performance characteristics. Horsepower and torque information and
graphs for the individual U.S. specification engines is available via
the buttons in the left panel.
Resources & Methodology
All information contained in the HP & Torque pages is based on data provided in original Porsche 914 and Porsche 914/6 factory Owners Manuals, Service Manuals and "Porsche 914 Technical Data" sheets. The graphs have been standardized through aspect ratio adjustment, metric to English conversion (where necessary), standard calculation conversion to SAE Net (where necessary), and, in the case of the "GA" engine charts, scale adjustment (to correct a factory drafting error). Obviously, consistency is necessary for proper comparison.