I'm surprised there's no discussion here of 928's -- did none of you guys ever have one?
My first encounter with the 928 was a European version 928S (300hp) owned by a friend of mine in Munich, where I lived in the early '80's. There was a bone stock and completely original Lamborghini Miura in Italy someplace I was thinking about buying, and I drove down with him over the Brenner Pass in that 928. On the way back, I had to take a turn in one of the jump seats, and suffered probably permanent spinal deformation as a result. But I loved that car -- its gutsy rumble. (As to the Miura, it was orgasmic to drive, but I couldn't agree a price, so didn't buy it).
Then around 1989, now living in Atlanta and practicing law, I got sick of the BMW 325i I had bought (the only new car I have ever owned in my life, not counting one Soviet Volga sedan), with its gutless sewing machine engine and radio-knob like steering, and bought a 1983 928S, the U.S. version with a lot less than 300hp, and 4.7 liters displacement. I realized almost from the beginning that it was basically a crap car, with serious reliability problems, various Rube Goldberg type systems, and horrible space efficiency -- basically, a German Corvette (less space than a 911 in double the volume), not worth even the little finger of an early 911. But I still loved it. It had the same gutsy rumble as that 928S some years before, and made all kinds of exciting sounds. It had extremely dangerous handling -- a quality in cars I've always found exciting. It was tuned with none -- zero -- inherent understeer, due to naive faith of the designers in the "Weissach axle", an evolutionary dead end in suspension design which made an empty promise of eliminating lift-throttle oversteer. As a result, that beast had the most vicious transitional oversteer of any car I have ever driven. It was all great fun, with the razor sharp response, initial turn-in, all that -- like nothing I've ever driven. Then before you can blink an eye, you're in a lurid broadslide. Somewhere on Peachtree Avenue, praying there are no cops around to witness it.
Another other wonderful quality of the 928 was the racing pattern gearbox, with the dogleg first -- the way God intended gearboxes to work. Like the 901 box on the best 911's
I put a lot of miles on it, did a lot of repairs to it, spent a lot of money on it, drove it all over the U.S.. I had to replace the rear tires every 3000 miles or so (Pirelli P7's or Yoko A008's, 225/60 x 16's IIRC) because it had no traction control, and I always had my foot in it, burning up the inner rear tire at the exit of every corner. I kept it for a while when I moved to Europe in 1991, but realized it was idiotic keeping two Porsches in a country I no longr lived in, which I rarely used (the 928 collected bird crap in the driveway while my '70 911S enjoyed pride of place in the garage), and gave it to my Father, who had owned a million exotic cars but never any Porsche (which he considered souped-up Volkswagens), and had an exaggerated opinion about how cool that car was. He sold it a few years later after he realized how expensive the upkeep was (now in his late '80's, he drives a Ford pickup, is that where we'll all end up?).
I miss that car. Getting into it required certain gymnastics -- like getting into a space capsule (poor ergonomics!). It had no head room at all, and I am not that tall -- you sat with your head jammed into the headliner. The sunroof was the width of a letter slot. But oh, that V8 rumble, that vicious handling . . .
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Originally Posted by sithot
