Background
Can you think of a classic sports car that’s as good looking as a Sixties Porsche 911 but that has better handling? That’ll be the Porsche 912. But to understand the Porsche 912 put thoughts of the 911 to one side for a minute, and think instead about the 356. The 912 was the successor to Porsche’s first sports car and viewed as such, a very worthy one too. And far from being a poor relation, it actually outsold the six cylinder car for the first few years of production.
Introduced to the European market in 1965, the 912 was based on the brand-new 911, sharing virtually everything but an engine. The 912 was equipped with an air-cooled flat four, continuing a formula that had worked so well for the outgoing 356 as Porsche further refined the 911 — and its new flat-six engine — into one of the most iconic sports cars of all time.
In the early 1960s, Porsche was planning to discontinue the Type 356, which would leave them with the newly-introduced 911 as their only product. Concerned that the considerable price increase of a flat six powered 911 over the 356 would cost the company sales and narrow brand appeal, in 1963 Porsche executives decided to introduce a new four-cylinder sports car.
They assigned Dan Schwartz to oversee design and construction of a new horizontally-opposed four-cylinder engine for the 902 (it wasn’t yet called the 912), utilizing components from the new 901 six-cylinder engine, that would produce higher performance than their 356SC engine, and be less costly and complex than their Carrera 2 engine. Another option explored was to increase displacement of the 356 Type 616 engine to 1.8-liters, add Kugelfischer fuel injection, and modify both valve and cooling systems.
But there were technical issues associated with the fuel injection system, and the project would have been complex, and it carried a higher level of risk than simply developing the existing 356 engine. There was also the consideration that needed to be given to maintenance costs for owners of the new cars, and by using an engine based on the 616/16 those costs could be kept down.
For their entry level model Porsche effectively mated a 911 in its entirety to a 356 SC engine. In this application the 1.6-litre air-cooled pushrod flat four engine was tuned to 90bhp and 90lb-ft of torque – down 5bhp from the 356, but with more mid-range grunt. Some would argue that this was a match made in heaven, with balance, style, and performance that eclipsed most sports and touring cars of the era – and it was more forgiving than the 911 because it had less weight behind the rear axle.
Although its acceleration wasn’t as vivid as the 911’s the 912 still managed the 0-60 sprint in less than 12 seconds and went on to very nearly 120mph, impressive figures for a 1600cc sports car of the period.
At its launch American racer Mark Donohue, winner of the Indianapolis 500 and renowned for setting up his own cars as well as driving them, said: ‘You’ve got to admire them for getting so much out of a relatively small engine, even the 912 – although I was most impressed with the handling. The cars have remarkable suspension systems.’
Compared with the 911 the 912 demonstrated superior weight distribution, handling, and range. To bring 912 pricing close to the 356, Porsche also removed some features standard on the 911. As production of the 356 concluded in April 1965, Porsche officially began production of the 912 coupé. Styling, performance, quality construction, reliability, and price made the 912 a very attractive buy to both new and old customers, and it substantially outsold the 911 during the first few years of production.
During its five-year production run, the 912 enjoyed a successful motorsport career and also doubled up as a police car, with the 100,000th Porsche off the production lines, a modified Targa, delivered to the German autobahn police.
Meanwhile, the 912 was busy proving itself in competition, with Polish driver Sobieslaw Zasada winning the European Rally Championship for touring cars in 1967 in a factory-loaned car – he also won the Rally of Poland in the same year. The car still competes well in modern classic rallies and track events.
In all, Porsche sold more than 32,000 coupé and Targa (Porsche’s patented take on the cabriolet) 912s between 1965 and 1969, before it was replaced by the joint VW-Porsche 914 as the company’s new entry-level sports car.
