Fully Restored Porsche 914/6 Stays in Family for More than 50 Years

By Ed Attanasio Autobody News

Brent Maxwell, 37, manager of the national accounts team for TRANSTAR, shared a story about a classic Porsche 914/6 in his family since 1970. His father, Jack, bought it while serving in the U.S. Army in Germany and it has been in the family ever since.

Q:Why is this vehicle considered so rare and coveted by collectors?

A: Basically, the difference is the six cylinders. 118,978 914s were made, and only 3,332 had six cylinders. The Porsche 914 was a joint development between Porsche and Volkswagen and was the new Porsche entrylevel model in 1970. The two-seater, also known as the “VW Porsche,” was a mid-engine sports car. Striking design features included the very long wheelbase for the vehicle length, short overhangs, the removable roof center panel made from glass fiber-reinforced plastic as well as the wide safety bar. The 914 also featured pop-up headlights.

ordered it before he left the U.S. without seeing a picture, but knew it was a mid-engine two-seater. When he first got to Germany, he was driving a little Volkswagen Bug until it was ready. He had it delivered to Belgium because there was no sales tax, and then rode the train down and picked it up and drove it back into Germany.

disassembled for a long time. I mean, it was at that time the cars weren’t as valuable as they are now. The shop that ended up doing some of the restoration work was Huber Restorations in Tulsa, OK. They are known for their work on Porsche, Mercedes, German cars, etc. and do amazing work.

The 914/6 obviously is the rarest of the 914s. It’s a first year but then it’s also a U.S. spec Euro delivery car. He knew he was going to bring it back to the States, so he ordered the U.S. version. But they actually delivered it in Europe, which is pretty uncommon.

I think he’s probably the longest original owner of a 914/6. He has all the original paperwork and title. We are trying to find out if he is surely the longest original owner.

Q:You were able to paint the vehicle while in tech school?

A:In 2005, I was in the Tulsa Technology Collision Repair Program with Mr. Brian Buford and we brought the car in and it was my first paint job that I’d ever done outside of what we learned in class on a few panels. So that was whenever we got it painted and finished what had been done by the previous restoration shop. I had some friends of mine that were students who helped me paint it.

In 2016, I repainted the exterior at Straightline Auto Restoration, after my dad rebuilt the motor, and it was finally roadworthy and what it looks like now, as far as having the interior done and everything else like that completed on the vehicle.

Q:Does the car get used on a regular basis?

A:Yes, it’s fun to drive. It’s been in a few different shows. My dad takes it out to the cruise nights that are here in Tulsa. I’ve already threatened my 8-year-old son Jack that he’s not allowed to sell the car and it’s going to stay in the family!

At the time of its launch, the 914 was available with two engines. 914 had a 1.7-liter flat-four engine with 80 hp from Volkswagen. The 914/6 had a 2.0-liter flat-six engine with 110 hp from the Porsche 911 T. In the six-cylinder models, the ignition lock was located to the left of the steering wheel, where it is typically found in Porsche vehicles. The wheels of the 914/6 are 14-inch Fuchs mounted with five wheel nuts, and the car was built by Porsche at the main plant in StuttgartZuffenhausen.

Q: How did your father Jack acquire the car?

A: Yes, he was an Army captain at that time and ran a motor pool over in Germany. He special

Q:Did he drive the car a lot in Europe before bringing it home?

A: Yes, he was really into Formula 1. He drove the car all over Holland, England, Germany, Belgium and went to many of the different Formula 1 races back then. So, the first original 40,000 miles of the car is all in Europe, a lot of that on the Autobahn and just going around to different races.

He brought it back here in 1973 and had it delivered by boat to Florida. He drove it straight from there to New Mexico where he lived at that time. And then he packed up everything in New Mexico and moved to Tulsa, OK, where we live now.

I think the car was originally taken apart sometime in the 1980s. It sat

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Standards, Certification

The National Institute for Automotive Service (ASE) announced the creation of EV technician/shop personnel electrical safety standards.

The purpose of the standards is to provide guidance, document and establish electrical safety requirements, standards, procedures and safe work practices relating to the development of an electrically safe working area for service professionals in North America working on or around electrified vehicles (xEVs). The intent is to minimize exposure to these hazards and their associated impacts.

In addition to the EV Standards, ASE has developed a new testing and certification program for all xEV vehicles including light duty and medium/heavy duty hybrid/ electric vehicles (EV) based on the standards.

To learn more about the new standards and program, visit www.ase.com/ev.

Source: ASE

Tesla Wins Autopilot Trial Related To Car Crash

By Steven Loveday InsideEVs

A jury in California determined Tesla wasn’t at fault for a crash that involved Autopilot. The jury concluded the safety system didn’t fail, and the car’s airbags also worked properly. Essentially, the message here was drivers can’t blame the car if there’s an issue they should have handled.

Tesla has offered Autopilot as a free feature for many years, though it has evolved via different hardware and over-the-air software updates. While its name suggests it may drive the car for you, it’s really a suite of advanced driver-assist systems like you’ll find in many of today’s cars.

Tesla Autopilot pairs trafficaware cruise control with lanecentering technologies and other safety features to help take the strain off of highway driving. However, the driver must remain alert and aware so they can immediately take control if a situation is beyond the control of the assistance system’s capabilities.

Justine Hsu of Los Angeles sued Tesla a few years ago. She claimed her Model S drove itself into a curb and the airbag opened “so violently” it broke her jaw, knocked out teeth and caused nerve damage to her face. She blamed Autopilot and the car’s airbag, aiming to get $3 million from the U.S. EV maker.

case on purpose.

According to Automotive News, the jurors shared with Reuters that Tesla provided a clear warning that its Autopilot system isn’t meant to drive the car on its own and the distracted driver was the issue.

A Georgetown Law professor who teaches a class about autonomous vehicles noted this verdict marks a big win for Tesla. He explained:

“This case should be a wakeup call to Tesla owners: they can’t overrely on Autopilot, and they really need to be ready to take control and Tesla is not a self-driving system.”

Tesla said its features weren’t at fault, and Hsu shouldn’t have been using Autopilot on city streets. It’s for highway use, as clearly explained in the user manual.

The jury agreed, offering Hsu nothing for damages. It also determined the airbag worked as it was supposed to. Moreover, the jury found Tesla didn’t fail to disclose any facts related to the

Despite the uniqueness of the trial and verdict, the decision isn’t considered legally binding for other cases. Different juries may make different decisions based on the facts of the case. For example, if a driver was using the feature correctly on the highway and there was a fatality, there might be different considerations involved.

Toyota Announces New Certified Collision Center in California

Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) is pleased to announce Alioto’s Garage of San Francisco, CA, is its newest independent Toyota Certified Collision Center (TCCC).

Qualified collision centers can be classified as Toyotacertified only upon meeting specific criteria, including advanced collision repair training and evaluation of the collision center’s operations, including facility, employee certifications and equipment benchmark requirements.

Scott Henderson, TMNA senior manager of collision operations, congratulated Alioto’s Garage of San Francisco, which, through its enrollment in the TCCC program and completion of Toyota’s certification criteria, has demonstrated its commitment to customer satisfaction and highquality factory-recommended repairs with the goal of surpassing customers’ expectations.

Today’s increasingly sophisticated vehicles feature an ever-growing number of components, parts and advanced materials, resulting in rapidly changing collision repair techniques and processes that require frequent and ongoing training of collision technicians. Toyota certified body shops are committed to state-of-theart collision repairs by repairing Toyota vehicles in accordance with Toyota’s specified repair procedures for the benefit of Toyota customers.

TMNA applauds Alioto’s Garage and the other qualified collision centers that meet Toyota’s rigorous training requirements for collision center managers, estimators and repair and refinish technicians needed to achieve designation as a Toyota Certified Collision Center.

Source: Toyota Motor North America

Researchers Discover Electrolyte For EV Batteries That Performs Well in Frigid Conditions

Many owners of EVs worry about how effective their battery will be in very cold weather. A new battery chemistry may have solved that problem.

In current lithium-ion batteries, the main problem is the electrolyte is a liquid that begins to freeze at sub-zero temperatures. This condition severely limits the effectiveness of charging electric vehicles in cold regions and seasons.

To address that problem, a team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne and Lawrence Berkeley national laboratories developed a fluorinecontaining electrolyte for subzero temperatures. This antifreeze electrolyte shows promise of working for not only batteries in EVs, but also in energy storage for electric grids and consumer electronics like computers and phones.

In testing with laboratory cells, the team’s fluorinated electrolyte retained stable energy storage capacity for 400 chargedischarge cycles at -4 degrees

Fahrenheit. Even at that sub-zero temperature, the capacity was equivalent to that of a cell with a conventional carbonate-based electrolyte at room temperature.

The team also determined at the atomic scale why their electrolyte composition worked so well. It depended on the position of the fluorine atoms within the molecules in the electrolyte transporting lithium ions and the number of those atoms.

“Our research thus demonstrated how to tailor the atomic structure of electrolyte solvents to design new electrolytes for sub-zero temperatures,” said Zhengcheng (John) Zhang, a senior chemist and group leader in Argonne’s Chemical Sciences and Engineering division.

The antifreeze electrolyte has a bonus property. It is much safer than the conventional electrolyte, since it will not catch fire.

Source: Argonne National Laboratory