Was this powered by a V.W. Type 4 engine like the 914?

Was Porsche in dire financial straights in the mid to late 70's? Or were low end outsourced power plant models like the 914-4 and 924for the North American market simply intended to compete with the Japanese for market share in the ''cheap and sporty'' Class?

The 912E did use the same 2.0L VW Type 4 that was featured in the final version of the 914. Porsche was a fairly healthy company in the 1970s. like most automakers, gas shortages had hurt sales, but Porsche faired quite well all considered (helped that many of their cars did quite well in terms of fuel economy).

Yet, competing with the Japanese was not really a major consideration at this point either. The why is involved here involve a few joint ventures. first among these was the 914. The 914 was designed to use many VW parts as it was sold everywhere except North America as a VW-Porsche. Porsche additionally sold an all Porsche version with a flat 6 engine, the 914-6 (a few prototypes & production examples of the 916 & 914-8 were also produced). Using VW parts for the 914 allowed Porsche to control costs on an entry level model, while VW was able to get Porsche is sports car name & design.

But the 914 was never a huge success, & it was soon discontinued. The 912 was put back into production as the 912E (with the Type 4 engine). The car was a stop gap to fill a production year with an entry level model. 1977 would bring the 924.

The 924 was originally planned to be an Audi sports car. thus it was designed with many Audi parts, including the engine. However, after the project was done, Audi decided they did not want to produce the car. Porsche, needing a replacement for the retiring 914 decided the car they designed for Audi would be an excellent replacement. With the 912E as a stop gap while they prepared for production, the new entry level car would soon be the 924.

The 924 would evolve to the 931, 944, 951, & finally the 968. As it evolved, it would make more & more use of all Porsche parts, until, with the 924S & 944, it was an all Porsche car.

Now, if u go forward to the late 1990s. at that time Porsche was in deep financial trouble, which is the reason why the 986 Boxster & 996 Carrera shared so many parts! And now that things have been good since, we've seen fewer & fewer shared parts between the two lines. But this was not the case with the earlier cars.