VW Porsche 914/6 Murene

The Porsche 914, we all know it. Often considered the poor man's Porsche, it was developed jointly by the Stuttgart firm... And Volkswagen!

At Porsche, the 1960s marked an important stage in the history of the German manufacturer with the end of the marketing of the 356 and the launch of the 911. But the 911 was more expensive than the 356 and caused Porsche to lose part of its customers, a solution was found by releasing the Porsche 912, a 911 with a 356 engine. A special body based on VW Porsche was exhibited at the Paris Motor Show in October 1970 on the Heuliez stand. Jacques Cooper was the author of its design.

Jacques Cooper was born in 1931 to an English family living in France. Trained at the famous Boulle school, he had the chance to work in Paris from 1953 for the Compagnie Américaine d'Esthétique Industrielle, recently opened by Raymond Loewy. There he worked on furniture design, helicopters, agricultural tractors, etc. He was hired by Renault in 1957, and worked on the 4L, R8, Estafette and various utility vehicle projects.

In 1960, Jacques Cooper joined the household appliances division of General Motors. On the program, creation of lines for refrigerators, stoves, etc.

In 1966, with the desire to reconnect with the automotive industry, he was recruited by Brissonneau & Lotz. This company then manufactured small series of automobile bodies for major European brands, as well as railway equipment: passenger trains and locomotive bodies. He worked there with Paul Bracq, another renowned French stylist (Mercedes, Peugeot, etc.).

After various projects on Opel and BMW chassis that were not completed, Jacques Cooper was asked to study a prototype of a coupé based on a Porsche 914. For this purpose, the coachbuilder had acquired a production car.

But times were troubled at Brissonneau & Lotz. Chausson, already under the control of Renault and Peugeot, was about to take over the destiny of the Creil coachbuilder. There was no longer any question of working on such a programme based on a foreign car. Jacques Cooper contacted Heuliez, who showed interest in continuing the project. While remaining an employee of Brissonneau & Lotz, Cooper then collaborated with the design office at Heuliez.

The car was therefore built in Cerizay, and exhibited at the Paris Motor Show in 1970. It was at Heuliez that it took the name Murène.

It attracted the interest of a large number of potential buyers, who were not particularly impressed by the rather strict lines of the standard 914. Initially presented in two tones, light beige for the lower bodywork and metallic beige for the upper part, the car was repainted in 1971 in two tones of orange and yellow. Unfortunately, due to the lack of financial cooperation from Porsche on this project, Heuliez gave up on taking the risk of marketing this sports car alone. Porsche did not agree to the production of a derivative of the 914, probably to protect its partner Karmann, which was responsible for the production of the model. The car's adventure ended there, after being repainted in orange during 1971 to continue being exhibited at a few trade fairs, before spending a period of retirement in the Heuliez workshops, then being sold in 2012 following the bankruptcy of the coachbuilder.