I don’t know about you, but I usually avoid talking about cars with most people, as I find most people don’t care much about these things. But every once in a while, you realize that someone you know is a fellow petrol head, opening up a whole new world of possibilities. Including the possibility that said friend is the owner of a stunning mid-‘60s Porsche.
Case in point: my buddy Mike and his Porsche 912. I’ve known him for a couple of years, but only recently did we broach the subject of four-wheeled transport. Mike is Thai-American and he co-bought this car with his brother back in the mid-‘90s, when he was in college in California. This was his daily runner back then, alongside a ’68 Camaro that tended to have a guzzling problem.
Not that the 912 should be mistaken for an economy car, but it’s certainly more sober than a contemporary Chevy V8. About a decade ago, Mike relocated to Bangkok and he had to decide what to ship and what to sell. The Camaro changed hands and stayed Stateside (though he still pines for it) and the Porsche, by now quite a bit worse for wear, crossed the Pacific.
At that point in its life, the 912 was still unrestored – and that was really starting to show. The paint was dull, the floor had holes and the roof was leaking, but it was still running. At least the 200% import tax, which is calculated by some Thai customs official going on e-Bay to guesstimate the car’s worth, was not as high as it might have been, due to the car’s condition.
Over the next few years, the 912 was restored to its former glory by the country’s oldest Porsche importer – pretty much as state-of-the-art as one could get in Thailand. The car was stripped down to the bare shell and rebuilt, resprayed and re-upholstered to a new life in the tropics.
This car’s Irish Green hue has a knack for changing quite a bit from one photo to the next due to the cloudy conditions. This always happens to an extent, but it’s particularly flagrant with this Porsche. With a ray of sunshine, it really pops. This colour was the third most popular on the 912 for 1966, after “Light Ivory” and “Polo Red.”
So what’s a Porsche 912? In short, it’s a 911 with a 356 engine. It was launched in April 1965 – about 18 months after the 911, which premiered Porsche’s first monocoque design and an all-new flat-6. But the 4-cyl. Porsches still had a following, so it was only logical for Porsche to continue making the 356’s largest flat-4 – derived VW block, it had grown to 1582cc and was tuned to 90 hp (DIN). The 912 was heavier than the 356, but had better aerodynamics.
The 912 was quite a good seller on both sides of the Atlantic, initially outselling the 911 by two to one. The price difference between the 911 and the 912 was substantial: this car’s recommended price when new was US$4690 (i.e. about US$100 more than the previous year’s 356 SC), compared to the 911’s hefty US$7370. The 912 appeared on American shores only by late 1965, so that the remaining 356s could be sold off – especially the drop-tops, which for structural reasons would not be available on the new Porsches for the foreseeable future.
Instead, Porsche devised a quasi convertible in the Targa, which was available on both the 911 and the 912 from late 1966. After 1967, the 912’s sales slowed down significantly; in 1970, Porsche replaced the 912 with the mid-engined 914, made in collaboration with Volkswagen. The 912 had a rather short life, but quite a productive one: 30,000 were made (including about 2500 Targas), which is a shade less than the 911’s tally for 1965-69.
Oddly enough, the 912 later reappeared for one model year only (and only in North America) as the 912E, packing a 1971cc fuel-injected version of the flat-4 that had appeared on the 914 and still only produced 90 hp. Only a couple of thousand 912Es were made, as a coupé only, from May 1975 to June 1976. After that, 4-cyl. Porsches would tend to have their engines in-line, out in front and cooled by water. The end of an era, in so many ways.
Perhaps the 912 is the best Beetle derivative ever made, tied with the philosophically opposite (but equally brilliant) Transporter. Certainly, this is one of the best-looking shapes in the history of sports cars. Kudos to Butzi Porsche, grandson of Ferdinand, who designed this masterpiece. He ingeniously took the best bits off the 356, such as the gently sloping beltline, the painted aluminium bumpers and the frog-like headlamps, but stretched and slimmed the design, giving it much more dynamism than the soap-bar 356.
Our feature car, of course, is not without a few niggles, as with most 53-year-old cars still on the road. The lovely little “912” script on the rear lid is missing in action (Mike has it somewhere, he assures me), the Porsche script is post-1966 and the windshield wipers seem to be mounted like a ’68-’69 car – minor details. Being a US-market car, this 912 has red turn signals, which I don’t think I had ever seen before. I don’t know how Mike and his brother managed to get this plate, but it sure adds a cool touch!
There is something austere about the interior, but in a pleasing, no-nonsense Germanic way. It’s plain, but also plainly not cheap. The brushed aluminium strip makes for a pleasing contrast with the otherwise all-black interior.
One surefire way to ID an early 912 is by its instrument binnacle. Only the 1965-66 cars have three dials, instead of the 911’s five. After 1966, Porsche spruced up the 912 a bit and gave it the five dials. It would probably have been cheaper to have done that from the beginning, but the 912’s lower status was emphasized by Porsche, at least initially. And that meant no clock, apparently.
In the middle of the dash, a very nice period Blaupunkt radio. The only problem is to find decent music for it to play, something other than the schmaltzy Siamese pop smothering the airwaves around these parts. The flat-4’s distinctive staccato makes for a much better soundtrack, in my view. I remember a French article comparing the sound of an air-cooled flat-4 (the Tatra T600’s, I seem to recall) with a cage full of angry pigeons. The Porsche’s pigeons are among the angriest I’ve ever heard, with a deeper note and even more chaotic flapping than the corresponding VW engine.
This 912 script is also found on the first couple of model years only. Underneath, we can see one major alteration to the original car: an A/C vent. Driving a Porsche with only natural ventilation in the dry Californian climate is one thing, but it’s quite an uncomfortable task in steamy Southeast Asia.
The A/C unit is mounted under the hood near the driver’s side, just ahead of the bulkhead. There is still enough space to put a couple of small sports bags or a very slim suitcase under the bonnet, but nothing too bulky. The spare wheel is sunk in the floor of the trunk, which also houses the battery, near the left headlamp.
The real space for luggage in a 911/912 is behind the front seats. I have personally been in the back seat of an early ‘80s 911 Turbo once, over 20 years ago. My first Porsche experience was therefore rather a painful one, though the exhilaration of the Turbo’s acceleration did make up for it. The rear seats in these cars are pure punishment, and are rarely used as a result. Folding the rear seats gives the Porsche a sizable rear parcel shelf, turning it back into the two-seater it really is.
I thought Porsche were making their own bodies by the ‘60s, as they bought Reutter (who made most of the 356 bodies) outright in 1963. Apparently, only about half of the 912 bodies were manufactured by Reutter/Porsche in Stuttgart, the rest – including our CC – being made in Osnabrück by Karmann.
There are a lot of strangely-placed knobs, levers and switches throughout the 912’s cabin, usually unlabeled. One for the front hood, one for the engine lid, one for the petrol tank. Which is which? Suck it and see. The left-hand ignition key is also a Porsche specialty, though I remember the family Peugeot 504 had this quirk as well.
The ultimate oddity is this button on the armrest, which is the door latch. Ergonomically pretty awkward, but full marks for style, originality and simplicity.
Here’s the familiar flat-4 pushrod pigeon cage, with its twin carbs and anarchic latticework of pulleys, hoses and cables. The engine seems completely buried in the bodywork – surely there’s enough space in there to add a couple extra cylinders. Oh, wait…
The 912 came out with two gearboxes: the standard 4-speed and the $35 optional 5-speed, which our feature car has. A top speed of 190 kph (119 mph) was claimed – a respectable figure for the times and the type, but pretty tame compared to the 911.
Acceleration is almost leisurely by current standards. The car takes 12 seconds to reach 100 kph from standstill – not exactly hair-raising. But today’s cars coddle you in a cocoon of padding, airbags, sound-deadening material and electronic gadgetry, whereas a 1966 Porsche is pure analog pleasure. It’s the original pressing vinyl in mono played on a lamp-amplified direct drive turntable to the modern car’s mp3 player on button headphones.
As a self-confessed lover of the rear-engined air-cooled machines of this world, it was impossible for me not to fall for this curvaceous Porsche. Perched on its skinny 15’’ tyres with that flat-4 note and its streamlined green body tastefully chromed, it really is a breed apart from the bloated and rubbery 911s of the ‘80s and ‘90s. I still associate the 911 with those later models, unfortunately, as that’s what rear-engined Porsches were when I grew up. Impressive, but not attractive, except for the few old ones that had escaped the ravages of 20 years of rust.
But the 912 is not the 911. Mathematically, and therefore scientifically, it’s 1 better. They look 99% identical, but I distinctly remember figuring out the 912’s uniqueness as a teenager in that it clearly had a Beetle engine, and understanding (through books, in these pre-Internet days) that the car’s short production life meant that all 912s were of the ‘60s / original Porsche design, i.e. the only really beautiful one.
The 912’s short life made it a far less attractive car than the 911 on the used car market, so many were sold off cheap and ended up rusted in pieces – survival rates are not very high. What I didn’t understand then and still really don’t today is why Porsche killed off the 912 so quickly. They did it to give the 914 a fighting chance, I guess, but that was perhaps not a very good decision in hindsight.
The 914 makes the automotive world richer by its very existence, but it was not a very good experience for Porsche, with the troubled VW joint venture and the misfire of the 914/6. Plus the 914 killed off the Volkswagen Typ 34 Karmann-Ghia, which I also happen rather like.
This cursed 914 is a bit of a blessing in disguise, of course, as it means the 912 never suffered the fate of the 911. With the exception of the oddball 912E, it stayed frozen in the ‘60s, a perfect incarnation of the quintessential Porsche design of the 20th Century. And yet it is also one of the last links to the 356 and the Beetle, to the pre-war origins of Ferdinand Porsche’s cribbing of Tatra’s research.
Of course, you will have realized the presence of this matching Vespa 150 in some of the photos I took of the Porsche. This is a 1964 model, and quite a cute little thing it is, too. The detailing on these is just to die for.
But photobombing this two-stroke photobomber is this little red pickup truck on the other side of the street. It’s quite a familiar sight in Thailand, where it was produced for over 20 years.
This is a late model Mazda Familia, which I’ve covered before. Coincidentally, this little Mazda is also an early ‘60s design that made it to the late ‘90s, just like the air-cooled 911.
I left the Porsche a thoroughly besotted man. The magic of the 912 lies in its simplicity. It will give you the feeling of speed without sacrificing your license and will fill your ears with angry birds whenever you press the pedal on the right. And it’ll looks damn good while doing so.
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: 1969 Porsche 912- The Economical 911, by David Skinner
My Dad’s Ex-Curbside Classic: 1969 Porsche 912 Targa – Blame It On Mom, by Tom Klockau
COAL: 1968 Porsche 912 Soft-Window Targa – And The Number That Shall Never Be Spoken
, by Michael Inno
Very cool and the matching Vespa is a nice touch, The Mazda Familiar utes appeared here briefly in the 70s a rival to the Datsun 1200 Roadstar utes there was one in the powerstaion fleet I worked at, Ive rarely seen one since that job.
Great piece Dr T, and perfectly expressed. The 911s of later years were impressive, but the original was always the only beautiful one. Photos like these very sweet ones here prove that it still is.
Great story, beautiful 912 and I like the matching Vespa as well. I’m the owner of an Irish Green 912 as well and also liked the color enough to have the tandem my wife and I had built painted in the same hue as our 912 (See the referenced “The Number That Shall Never Be Spoken”.
Your 912 is fantastic. Excellent Irish Green tandem, too — it seems great Mikes think alike.
For a blue-collar neighborhood, we had many neighbors with imported European cars. Our Norwegian neighbor drove Ramblers and Volkswagons. He has been stationed for years in Korea and Japan. Our Dutch neighbor drove a DAF and Volvos. Our Mexican neighbor drove a SAAB. These men were naturalized American citizens raising their many sons and daughters in Chicagoland. There were many languages spoken around us.
So it wasn’t out of the ordinary for us growing up there, to see an imported European car, including a Porsche like this one. There was a 1966 911 in the same color green garaged across the street from my childhood home. Our neighbor bought it in Germany while he was stationed there. He had also married a German girl, whom couldn’t have been a nicer mom and neighbor. They had two daughters, the same ages as two of my siblings.
We knew it was a very special car because it was obviously very beautiful and extraordinary in engine sound. It was lovingly cared for and maintained as though it was a jewel. It was rarely exposed to Chicago weather. As kids growing up in that blue-collar neighborhood, we all stopped playing baseball in the street and silently watched this perfect little green car slide up our street. We always new it was special.
So it is a very nice surprise to see photos of this 912. It looks identical to the 911 I saw growing up.
I had a ’68 912, originally sold in Italy. She had the 5 speed, which given the small engine, was a blessing! The car did involve you in driving it, and that made it tremendous fun to drive.
Somebody had put Fuchs 5 spoke alloys on the lil car with Yoko A007 rubber. She absolutely STUCK thru curves, but if 2 raindrops hit the road…..WATCH OUT!!!
I spent many an hour polishing her plus admiring the graceful curves and how they blended together into a unified shape. Many St. Pauli Girls helped to enhance my enjoyment of studying her shape…:) Curiously the Lt. Ivory enhanced her shape to my jaded Industrial Designer eyes.
The bad part was that the little motor did not prove very reliable by the time I bought the car. That, combined with rust, caused me to sell the lil 912. Fighting rust in the Mid-We$t is a loosing proposition. 🙁 DFO
Lovely tribute to the 912.
It was dropped because performance expectations were rising during the 60s, and Porsche replaced it with the 911T, which had 125 hp (IIRC) and was significantly cheaper than the “real” 911/911S.
Given the very substantial price difference between the 912 and 911 during their time together, it’s not surprising how well the 912 sold, although I didn’t realize the extent of the numbers. The 912 was really the continuation of the 356, and the 911 was initially the replacement for the Carrera, the uber-Porsche.
The 912 was really the last “affordable” Porsche of the rear-engine line.
“Do not misuse”? Is that the cigarette lighter? I’ve never seen that label on one before. Was that common on cars from that era?
I wonder, too, what that is. I did some research and determined that you are correct about it being cigarette lighter. I’ve never seen the label, but it might be aftermarket replacement part from the Autozone or like rather than original Porsche part (fully encased plastic cap).
Fully agree with your assertion that this is an American aftermarket part. Nobody else would label a cigarette lighter like this.
Except I’m in the US and as I said I’ve never seen that label on anything, either. I honestly wondered if it was a German thing.
I was also curious about that knob from the moment I saw it. Was hoping it was for something more interesting than a lighter though. Like a manual choke or performance enhancer, maybe opening an exhaust baffle or something. How does one misuse a lighter?
What a lovely car! And I love its oddball status. First, it’s a 912 and not a 911. Second, it is a beautiful shade of green and not resale red. And finally, well, just look at it! Thanks for writing this one up.
A lovely tribute to a beautiful car.
Beautiful car. Putting the four in this was sort of a misstep, because for so relatively little money you got that brand new shape with a proven Porsche engine – what’s not to like about that? Didn’t know there was a brief concertina version. It’s probably been mentioned in the other pieces, but the 912 with its lighter rear was considered a better-balanced driving car than the 911. Nice Vespa.
Lovely car in one of the best colors. Thanks for sharing it and going over the history – both of this car as well as the car model itself, nicely done as usual.
Great article thanks Tatra! Im so in agreement about not talking cars to people who dont really care, its really soul destroying..
…And it makes places like CC even more appealing!
Lovely feature! I had the opportunity to buy a restored 912 back before the AC Porsche price surge, I have regrets about that from time to time…
A little over 20 years ago I searched hard for an early 911 to buy and came very close to getting a 1967 model (in red). Due to some expensive house renovations, I put off the purchase and the car had been sold by the time I was in a position to proceed a few months later. I eventually bought a 1981 911SC targa which I enjoyed for a few years before selling it upon entering another period of relative impecuniosity.
When I was looking at the 1967 car I also test drove a couple of 912’s. I admit not remembering much about them other than the different engine note and much less power than the 911 – not surprising I guess given they had the same body shell. As Don Andreina notes above, I believe 912’s are meant to be less tail-happy than 911’s due to the lower engine weight and shorter engine overhang out the back but I don’t recall noticing any real difference at the time. Although my test drives were fairly careful and I doubt I got the cars anywhere near their handling limits.
What I do remember is how light the steering, gearchange, brakes and general “feel” of the 1967 911 was compared with the 911SC I eventually bought. I think “delicate” is a word motoring journalists sometimes used to describe the controls and feel of early 911’s. I’d agree with that and I expect that 912’s are much the same. Interestingly, the only other car I’ve had which comes close to that sense of lightness (and interior simplicity) is the first generation (two-seat) Honda Insight. Being a low power car an Insight is probably more akin to a 912 than a 911, but it seems to glide along almost effortlessly despite the lack of oomph! OEM handling leaves a bit to be desired, but a few aftermarket mods give a big improvement.
I find the Insight lots of fun to drive in a sporting way that does not risk my licence every minute. I think the 912 might work in very much the same way – although with the huge increase in old Porsche prices in the last few years (affecting even the “lowly” 912) buying one is well outside my budget.
Thanks for the engaging article!
The 911/912/Type 1 had lived so long, and became so popular, their quirky attractiveness is easy to take for granted. It’s great to re-examine what allure their designs actually had.
I wonder how this 912 would compare with the same year American air cooled, rear engine car, the Chevy Corvair Monza?