Porsche 928 (1977)

• One can conclude the Porsche 928 in a few words: Mass, Power and Luxury. It was heavy, but the powerful V8 overcame with ease. It was costly, but the luxurious driving environment worth it. It was a high quality GT which was positioned even higher than the mighty 911 in Porsche's price list.

  The story began in 1971. In those days, Porsche was always thinking of a replacement for the 911. That's easy to understand. Since the 911 had already passed its planned life span, it would be risky if the company's fortune still rely heavily on it. Therefore they started the development of the next generation Porsche - 928.

  The original concept of 928 is clear: more powerful and with more useful space in rear seats. To obtain the 300 hp output target, engineers designed a 5-litre V8. Since the engine was heavy, they also developed a rear-transaxle gearbox so that better balance between front and rear could be obtained. By 1973, essential development was finished and a prototype was built and under testing. At this moment, the Arab-Israeli war brought the threat of "energy crisis". Big and thirsty cars no longer sold well. It was a big hit to both 928 and Porsche. The project was immediately put into low gear and production postponed until 1977.

The original 928

• 1977: The Porsche 928 launched in autumn 1977 is the new top model conceived as the successor to the 911. Its V8 power unit boasts American dimensions (4474 cc, 240 bhp/177kW). Production of the "big Porsche", the 928, starts in Stuttgart: V8 light-alloy engine, Transaxle configuration, Weissach axle.

• 1978: The 928 becomes the first and so far only sports car in the world to be voted Car of the year

• When the 928 was unveiled in Geneva show, its engine was already down-sized to 4.5 litres and power output also dropped to 240 hp. Of course it was slower than originally planned, but more fuel-efficient. Apart from the new V8, this car also featured a new invention - Weissach axle, which was a multilink rear suspension that allowed a certain degree of passive rear-wheel steering. Conventional rear suspensions introduces toe-out under braking, thus result in oversteer. Weissach axle compensates the toe-out thus result in a much neutral steering. This made 928 a secure car to drive without understeer. (convention cars build permanent understeer in the suspension geometry so to make them secure in hard cornering, but this also ruin the driving pleasure most of the time.)

  The styling of 928 was also special. Its circular headlamps were classic - in appearance they looked like ordinary exposed lamps, in fact they were pop-up lamps. Porsche apparently copied that from Lamborghini Miura. Besides, fully integrated bumpers incorporated in the smooth and round body made it like no other cars. By just seeing it, you can feel the power and mass.

  However, the most impressive to me was its engine noise. It sounded very deep, even deeper than the 911. But you will never confuse it with 911 or any car else. Even it ran slowly, the noise seemed telling you " I have a lot of potential, but normally I like to stay low-key". A 911 screamed very hard in strong acceleration, but the 928 did that effortlessly. It remained confident all the time. "My confident came from my huge torque", it told you.

  In the year of its launch, 928 won the most recognised European Car of The Year (COTY) award. That was the first and only occasion that a sports car won this title. It came as a 4.5L 16 valve with 229HP ( 219HP in US)

• 928S

  In 1980, Porsche restored the originally-planned 300 horsepower (234HP US) and 150 mph-plus performance by enlarging the V8 to 4.7 litres, accompanied with 10:1 compression ratio and dual exhaust. The name was changed to 928S in Europe but remained 928 through 1982 in the US.

928S

• Air dam (chin-spoiler) in front and a tiny black-rubber rear spoiler reduced aerodynamic drag coefficient from 0.41 to 0.38.

  928S2

  In 1982, Series 2 of 928S appeared. It got Bosch LH Jetronic fuel injection, electronic ignition and ABS. Compression ratio rose to 10.4:1 so that power had a slight 10 hp increment (310HP). 4-speed automatic box replaced the original 3-speeder. However, Porsche still called this car as "928S" in public. In the United States the first 928S appeared in 1983 due to emission requirements.

  928S2 (1985)

  Porsche didn't use the S3 label, but there was a heavily revised S2 for the US market in 1985, with a full 5 litres and 4 valves per cylinder to maintain the power while meeting US emission regulations. 288 hp and 302 lbft. To make things more confusing the only official designation for the S2 was actually a 1986S2 in the UK. The S3 is just 928 fans trying to identify the major change in 1985.

  928S4

  In the spring of 1986: The four-valve 1987 Porsche 928 S4 goes into production with an increase in engine size and power (4957 cc, 320 bhp/ 235 kW). This is the first time the car is virtually identical world wide.

  Further uprated from the 4-valve 928S2. The S4 got a beautiful nose and tail bumpers and a larger black rear wing. The V8 employed larger valves, faster cam profile and a 2-stage variable length induction manifold with resonance effect. Power and torque rose to 320 hp and 317 lbft respectively. Drag coefficient dropped to 0.34.  Porsche called the manual version and automatic version the S4, however, in 1989 a lighter-weight, tauter-tuned, 330 hp version called "928 GT" appeared as the hottest 928 - only about 50 made it to the states. So for 1990 and 1991 you could order a S4 Automatic or Manual or a GT Manual.There were two specialty version mainly for the British market; an 88 with reduced weight (less accessories) and GT called a S4 CS (Club Sport). Also, a reduced weight but with more accessories was called a 928S4 SE

  928GTS

  When Porsche launched the 928GTS in 1992, it knew it would be the last 928. Production started in the spring of 1992 and all US arrivals were designated as 1993 model Year 928GTS. As such no 1992 models were sold in the US> Anyway, this was not just a facelifted version. The HP jumped to 345HP with a larger engine displacement. Porsche really did a lot of job to enhance performance and refinement, hoping the most luxury model in Porsche's history would leave a nice memory to car lovers.

  

  The engine was stroked to 5397 c.c., with 8 balance weights instead of six to enhance smoothness. No less than 350 silky horsepowers and 362 lbft of torque were available. This enabled a top speed of more than 170 mph (Autocar's test was conducted in a less ideal bowl track).

  GTS was smoother and more flexible than its predecessor, cabin got extra sound-proofing. All these made it a quieter, smoother and easier to dirve.

  The End of 928

  During its 17 years life, the 928 never achieved its original goal - replacing the 911. There were 2 reasons: firstly, it was too expensive but performance was not proportional to the price, mostly because of oversize. Secondly, people loved 911 so much that refused to accept the idea that a 928 is a True Porsche. As a result, the great GT was always the slowest-selling model in the company's line-up. However, the biggest threat to its survival came from other manufacturers. In 1989, Mercedes launched its superb-engineered 500SL. This car was nearly as fast as the Porsche and even more comfortable and more elegant. As a convertible, the Mercedes was more attractive to the riches. Since then the 928 had to struggle for survival.

  A year later, BMW 850i added further trouble. The market positioning of 928 became embarrassing, it was neither as quick as Ferrari nor as luxurious as Mercedes, and also much more expensive than a Toyota Supra turbo. Annual production dropped to approximately a thousand units in its last year. As a result, the termination was inevitable.

European Specifications

  * Tested by Autocar  

Porsche

• Named after its founder Ferdinand Porsche, Porsche is the largest sports car maker in the world. Annual production rate in recent years is around 15,000 to 30,000 cars. In its 67 years history, it has built many greatest sports cars: 356, 911, 924/944 series and 928. 356 was one of the most beloved classics, 924/944 series reinvented the idea of "afford sports cars", 928 was the only sports car ever won European Car of The Year (COTY) title, but the most legendary still belongs to the mighty 911, which was in production for as long as 34 years and still remained as the core of Porsche's line-up.

• Ferdinand Porsche and Ferry Porsche

• Ferdinand Porsche was born in 1875. In my opinion, he was the greatest automotive engineer in history. He emerged as a designer for electric cars, then joined Daimler in 1906 to start his motor car engineering career. During his brightest years, he designed the famous Mercedes SSK (one of the greatest pre-war cars), the Auto Union GP racer (the first mid-engined race car, with a V16 engine) and the NSU "people's car", which evolved to VW Beetle after the war. His talent also expended to military area like tanks, aero engines and military trucks. Therefore he was jailed after the war until 1947, four years before his death. Maybe his greatest achievement was the establishment of his own company in 1931, which became the greatest sports car maker later.

  Professor Porsche was the last automotive engineer who design the entire car by himself. Accompany with his versatility and his influence in subsequent automotive design, few can be compared with him. His son, Ferry Porsche (1909-98), was not ordinary either. Being a greatest engineer's son and trained in Bosch, he succeeded his father to enhance the reputation of their company. In fact, it was his achievement rather than his father's to establish the solid status of Porsche as famous a sports car maker. His creations included 356 and 911.

Porsche 356 (1950)

• 356 was the first production car bearing Porsche's trademark. After World War II, when Ferdinand Porsche was still in jail, young Ferry was released in 1946 because of his less suspicion of involving the military vehicle development. Soon he started to reorganised his father's engineering consultant company and transformed it into a sports car maker that eventually became world famous.

  To create affordable sports car in such a tough period was not easy. Having reference to Italian sports car maker Cisitalia's experience, Ferry decided to build his car based on the components of a mass production car so that no matter manufacturing cost or development time could be minimised. Logically, he chose Volkswagen Beetle as the donor car, which was designed by his father before the war.

  Also because of its root, 356 was never a powerful car - the original 1086 c.c. air cooled flat-four could only squeeze out 40 hp even with modified heads. However, Porsche's body was quite light (745 kg) and super streamline, so performance was respectable. As reported by Autocar in April 1951: "The acceleration above 50 mph is quite beyond what would be expected from the engine size, and is achieved in extraordinary quietness." In later years, engines grew more powerful and the car got faster and faster. The best version was probably the 1600S Speedster, whose pure styling was the most beautiful among all (shown in above). Besides, the 90 hp 356 Super 90 and the race-purpose 130 hp Carrera 2000 Coupe also worth mentioning.

  356 was not regarded as very exciting. But it was very all round - decent handling, fine performance, comfortable, practical, economical and well-built, although not as bargain as contemporary Jaguar XK120. It was these two cars dominated the global sports car market in the 50s. After 15 successful years and 76,303 units built, the 356 retired in 1965. Its position was succeeded by the even more successful 911.

Specification

Porsche 550 Spyder (1954)

In the memory of Ferry Porsche (1909 - 1998)

• Undoubtedly, Porsche has the most successful history in motor racing among all car makers. Since the early 60s, we saw countless of racing cars came out of Weissach and dominated endurance racing and GT racing. In racing circuits, from Le Mans to Nurburgring, from Sebring to Daytona, we saw at least half of the field was filled with Porsche's machines, most of which were private enters ! To the competitors, the word "Porsche" meant nightmare while the numbers 911, 917, 935, 956 and 962 were ... well, just like counting the number of victories. All these success started with 550 Spyder, Porsche's first racing car.

  Before this, Ferdinand Porsche created several awesome racing cars, including Mercedes SSK and Auto Union's V16 mid-engined Grand Prix car. However, as Ferdinand was half-retired since WWII, while Ferry was
  concentrating on creating the company's first production car, the first racing car was not developed until the summer of 1952. Although Ferry was more a "road car man" than a "racing man", unlike Enzo Ferrari, he still had the ambition to dominate the motorsport world like his father. While he was busy in expanding the production facility and continuing the development of his own 356, he handed the whole project to Huschke vo Hanstein.

  However, Porsche was still a small company then. Although some money was earned by engineering consultant service to subsidise the programme, they still had to use the existing suspension parts and wheels from the 356, incorporated in a ladder chassis which was also modified from the 356. Engine, again from 356, was tuned to 78 hp from 1500 c.c.. Nevertheless, 550 Spyder was still unmistakably a racing car because of its aluminium body and the mid-engined layout, a first for Porsche. Weighing at just 1200 pounds, the first racing 550 Spyder immediately won the 1500 c.c. class German sports car championship in that year, 1952.

  Porsche built 8 racing prototypes before selling the car to the public in 1954. The first generation "public" 550, called 1500RS, featured a new engine - a 1500 c.c. boxer four with 4 camshafts and twin-spark plugs per cylinder. This was very advanced by contemporary standards. With 125 hp and a still-outstanding 1320 pounds weight, no wonder it continued to dominate class racing. Please note that the "public" 550 was still primarily designed for racing although it was finished in road-legal trim. Driving it too hard in public highway may lead to tragedy, one of the examples was James Dean - in 1955 he crashed his 550 Spyder in a Californian highway and died ... I saw that photo some time ago, the 550 was really fragile.

  Porsche improved the 550 again in 1956. The new car, now called 550A, received a new space frame chassis which was not only lighter, but added 3 times torsional rigidity over the ladder chassis. Engine was boosted to 135 hp. 550A handled a lot better than its predecessors.

  As 550 Spyder remained unbeatable in the 1500 c.c. class for nearly a full decade, Porsche became a famous name in motor racing. From 1960 it terminated all development of the 550 and started to take a new challenge in F1 ... I can tell you that was a failure, but after that when Porsche re-concentrated in GT and endurance racing, greater success came and lasted for nearly 3 decades ...

Specifications