Despite the criticism it was subjected to as a consequence of joint Volkswagen-Porsche parentage, the midengined 914 of 1969 paved the way for a different kind of thinking in Stuttgart. The boxy, Targa-topped roadster was a sales success shifting almost 119,000 units, proving there were huge benefits for the two manufacturers to work closely with one another when developing new vehicles. It’s a relationship which can trace its roots to a time before Porsche existed as a car maker and one galvanised with the development of the company’s first Beetle-derived offerings. While it’s rare to find anyone criticise the 356, however, VW’s influence in later Porsche sports car design wasn’t always as warmly appreciated.
1972 saw the beginning of a project codenamed EA425. The work formed part of Porsche’s contract to design and produce new products for VW, and as such, the sporty coupe being developed had a silhouette unlike any Porsche up until that point in time. Designed by Porsche stylist, Harm Lagaay (he of 993, Carrera GT, 996, Boxster and Cayenne fame), the new model featured a smooth nose and pop-up headlights harking back to the styling of the 914, but that’s where similarities ended — from front to rear, the project car’s body rose wedge-like to a curved tailgate. This was quite unlike anything else Porsche had produced.
Despite already being a long time in development, the slipperier 928 was a few years away from being revealed. The grand tourer’s radical departure from the rear-engined, air-cooled configuration of the 911 inspired Porsche engineers to adopt the same ‘engine at the front, transmission at the rear’ layout for the new range-topping VW, which was due to be launched just as the last 914s rolled out of main dealer showrooms in 1976. The Wolfsburg concern’s bosses, however, got cold feet in the wake of the global oil crisis occurring little more than a year into the project. Sensing they’d be better off investing their time and energy in the upcoming Golf and Scirocco, they called time on EA425.
Porsche had
