RE: Spotted: Porsche 928 GTS
Discussion
When I was a student (20 yrs ago?)I used to work at the weekends surveying boats. The MD gave me a lift from Snowhill station to the yard one saturday morning. As promised he turned up in his guards red 928 GT4. Hand stitched black leather interior.
He was nudging 70mph round the roundabout, tyres at £400 a corner IIRC.
Remember it as if it was yesterday.
I wasn't jealous - he was bald, wore shiney suits and stood all of 5ft5 tall. A brummie version of Danny DeVito. I kept telling myself that for a while...
Damn fine car.
Oh, now I remember his slim beautiful blond wife. Jesus she was lovely.
I wasn't jealous.
And a big boat. Converted mill house.
etc etc etc.
He was nudging 70mph round the roundabout, tyres at £400 a corner IIRC.
Remember it as if it was yesterday.
I wasn't jealous - he was bald, wore shiney suits and stood all of 5ft5 tall. A brummie version of Danny DeVito. I kept telling myself that for a while...
Damn fine car.
Oh, now I remember his slim beautiful blond wife. Jesus she was lovely.
I wasn't jealous.
And a big boat. Converted mill house.
etc etc etc.
A point to watch out for is the cylinder head gasket erosion, alloy block /head can lead to the edge of the liner being eroded away , which can lead to the head-gasket seal being poor, as the bore is nicasil a costly repair/scrap is odds on, tip, always change the coolant on a regular basis.
Lord Flathead has provided an excellent description of what living with a (good) 928 can be like, so I won't repeat all of mine. I owned a 928 S4 Auto for nine years as my sole car & daily driver. 1990 build date, bought 1994 as a 4 year old at 34K miles, sold 9 years later with 147K miles on, all driven by myself.
My previous car to this was a manual Porsche 911 964 model.
Comparisons? There isn't one, really. The 911 of that era needs constant driver input & attention and has very inferior high-speed handling at speeds north of 100 MPH compared to a 928. Also, as I am 6ft 4", I found the 964 model cockpit of the 911 is too small to be livable-with for proper long-distance work, whereas the 928 cockpit has enough space for 2 six - plus footers with ease. You can sit in it all day and rack up 500+ miles easily if the roads allow. This is what it was designed for - grand touring & long-distance high-speed work. I regularly drove 20 to 25K per year in mine.
Gearbox choices? - the 4 speed auto-box was bulletproof on mine, (apparently it was sourced from Mercedes & also featured in the S-class of the period). I tried a manual 928 before buying but the clutch needs quite high input pressure; frankly too much to be pleasurable in city driving & congested traffic. Different story perhaps if you fancy one now to be used as a weekend toy.
Trouble, over a nine year period? One ECU problem (it lapses onto 4 cylinders and becomes a "944" engine in get-u-home mode), one new circuit board for that wonderful electronically-controlled differential (mind you, that did cost £1,000, sourced & fitted), three sets of lamp glass for the foglamps (they sit low to the road & are v vulnerable to stones coming up).. Oh yes - and two high-speed punctures; the control of both of those events being considerably helped by the dashboard tyre-pressure display, which warned you which corner was now in trouble. A feature developed by Porsche for their Le Mans cars, where the drivers were hitting 200+ mph on Mulsanne... Other than that, tyres, brakepads, routine servicing stuff.
You must keep on top of the maintanance of a car like this; a neglected one is where the horror stories can come from. My [Porsche-trained] spannerman always opined that they liked to be used regularly and if you did that then it wouldn't give much trouble. My own 130,000 miles in the same car against the non-routine events I've listed above is testament to that.
In general they have aged well but the feature that would stop me from getting another one now is the general NVH issue. The noise levels are very high when running in continuous high-speed long-haul mode, compared to the modern stuff. Modern suspension technology now gives good handling and also low tyre & wheel noise ingress to the cabin. It didn't in the 1980s when this car was being engineered. Porsche (rightly) went for optimized handling & told the customer to live with the high-speed noise.
Buy on service & owner history and budget £2K a year to keep it right.
My previous car to this was a manual Porsche 911 964 model.
Comparisons? There isn't one, really. The 911 of that era needs constant driver input & attention and has very inferior high-speed handling at speeds north of 100 MPH compared to a 928. Also, as I am 6ft 4", I found the 964 model cockpit of the 911 is too small to be livable-with for proper long-distance work, whereas the 928 cockpit has enough space for 2 six - plus footers with ease. You can sit in it all day and rack up 500+ miles easily if the roads allow. This is what it was designed for - grand touring & long-distance high-speed work. I regularly drove 20 to 25K per year in mine.
Gearbox choices? - the 4 speed auto-box was bulletproof on mine, (apparently it was sourced from Mercedes & also featured in the S-class of the period). I tried a manual 928 before buying but the clutch needs quite high input pressure; frankly too much to be pleasurable in city driving & congested traffic. Different story perhaps if you fancy one now to be used as a weekend toy.
Trouble, over a nine year period? One ECU problem (it lapses onto 4 cylinders and becomes a "944" engine in get-u-home mode), one new circuit board for that wonderful electronically-controlled differential (mind you, that did cost £1,000, sourced & fitted), three sets of lamp glass for the foglamps (they sit low to the road & are v vulnerable to stones coming up).. Oh yes - and two high-speed punctures; the control of both of those events being considerably helped by the dashboard tyre-pressure display, which warned you which corner was now in trouble. A feature developed by Porsche for their Le Mans cars, where the drivers were hitting 200+ mph on Mulsanne... Other than that, tyres, brakepads, routine servicing stuff.
You must keep on top of the maintanance of a car like this; a neglected one is where the horror stories can come from. My [Porsche-trained] spannerman always opined that they liked to be used regularly and if you did that then it wouldn't give much trouble. My own 130,000 miles in the same car against the non-routine events I've listed above is testament to that.
In general they have aged well but the feature that would stop me from getting another one now is the general NVH issue. The noise levels are very high when running in continuous high-speed long-haul mode, compared to the modern stuff. Modern suspension technology now gives good handling and also low tyre & wheel noise ingress to the cabin. It didn't in the 1980s when this car was being engineered. Porsche (rightly) went for optimized handling & told the customer to live with the high-speed noise.
Buy on service & owner history and budget £2K a year to keep it right.
Love an early manual. And as we are all company directors, the advert from the early 90s for the GTS seems apt:
"It sorts the Chairman from the managing directors"
which also shows who they were targeting with this car- Porsche said it was their flagship afterall.
Points for corrctly identifying the film and humming the very memorable theme tune:
In the early/mid 90s they were still competitive against thr Corvette and XJR-S (performance car) and against the 850 and DB7 (again, performance car magazine)
"It sorts the Chairman from the managing directors"
which also shows who they were targeting with this car- Porsche said it was their flagship afterall.
Points for corrctly identifying the film and humming the very memorable theme tune:
In the early/mid 90s they were still competitive against thr Corvette and XJR-S (performance car) and against the 850 and DB7 (again, performance car magazine)
boundary1840 said:
A point to watch out for is the cylinder head gasket erosion, alloy block /head can lead to the edge of the liner being eroded away , which can lead to the head-gasket seal being poor, as the bore is nicasil a costly repair/scrap is odds on, tip, always change the coolant on a regular basis.
A good tip indeed - coolant must be changed every 2 years...The rest of the post is utter tosh... The 928 engine is without liners and uses alusil, so it is easily repairable if the bores are scratched or eroded. Yet to see a block with any damage to the cylinders from headgasket failure. Heads yes, block never...
What good timing for this article! I just bought an '84 928S a couple of weeks ago and I love it. I'm now planning to flog my E46 M3 cab daily driver and use the Porsche everyday. I bought it because it reeks of the 80s yuppy success of my youth and I love the retro aesthetic of the pre S4 cars.
It didn't drive as I expected as it feels much bigger and heavier than it looks. The 3 speed auto needs to be worked hard to encourage any redline action and it is hardly quick off the mark. However, I'm learning that to driver her like this would seem to be missing the point. The big V8 pulls hard at any revs and you can make rapid un-fussed progress down A and B roads with very little effort. So now I can slip into the lovely comfy cabin, slide down the aviators and feel every inch the 80s success story!
Plus now I've got the Porsche bug there's a space next to the 928 for a classic 911 too!
It didn't drive as I expected as it feels much bigger and heavier than it looks. The 3 speed auto needs to be worked hard to encourage any redline action and it is hardly quick off the mark. However, I'm learning that to driver her like this would seem to be missing the point. The big V8 pulls hard at any revs and you can make rapid un-fussed progress down A and B roads with very little effort. So now I can slip into the lovely comfy cabin, slide down the aviators and feel every inch the 80s success story!
Plus now I've got the Porsche bug there's a space next to the 928 for a classic 911 too!
cerb4.5lee said:
loose cannon said:
I loved chasing the bad guys in my black 928 trouble was I was only 12 and it was on my Commodore 64
Lets get umm !!
I loved chase HQ too! Classic game, I will always lust after a 928 though, I think they are awesome.Lets get umm !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glnshAl1su0
Lets go Mr. Driver!
Automotive porn - as in 50 shades of greyish silver. Maybe it's just the picture, and silver is a fickle colour to sort, but that's like Joseph & his Technisilver Dreamcoat.
I'm out... but it is a manual, and I won't see the nasty paintwork, so I'm back in - and I'm staying in(side) where I can't see the exterior! Harsh... but maybe fair :-D
scotty_917 said:
Leins said:
J4CKO said:
Was "Risky Business" for me!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpHITx7yRio
http://youtu.be/UNzF-P9QLZs
I drove a GTS manual a couple of weeks ago. I thought my tweaked S2 was fast (320ft-lb in a 79 chassis) but the extra grunt of the 5.4 in the GTS is really something. Might not set the world on fire 0-60 compared to modern stuff, but 60-130 not much can keep up.
Drop some cams in and 400bhp+ is there for the taking.
Joel
Drop some cams in and 400bhp+ is there for the taking.
Joel
gforceg said:
I've liked the 928 since, or even before, I was bought a model kit of one (Revell I think) for Christmas '78 or '79.
There is a white S4 around this way which always raises a smile when I see it. I was actually a bit gutted when I saw it being trailered to a garage recently. I hope it's nothing serious or terminal.
A car mad uncle bought me a model kit at about the same time. I absolutely adored the shape of the car, and reckon it hasn't dated that badly at all. My sister broke the model, I've never let her forget ....There is a white S4 around this way which always raises a smile when I see it. I was actually a bit gutted when I saw it being trailered to a garage recently. I hope it's nothing serious or terminal.
First recall hearing one, goosebumps down the spine. That V8 Porsche sounded heavenly, despite my being used to V8s (walked past the TVR factory every day going to school).
A 928 - of any variety - is definitely my dream car.
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