The Dacon 828; If The Porsche 928 Was A Microcar
From the door frame to the tail lights to even the wheels. The Dacon 828 might as well be a Porsche.
If you took a Porsche 928, and treated like a piece of clothing, and washed it with warm water, then you would get this. It’s called the Dacon 828. It’s incredibly small, yet it looks an awful lot like the V8 Porsche that we all know and love.
This car’s story starts in South America. Paulo de Aguiar Goulart, a car importer from Brazil, is behind the efforts. EVO-Cars says the 828 project was born from booming business. There’s a lot of truth to that, because Ferraris and Porsches became Goulart’s main business. But that all came crashing down as Brazil banned imports in the later 70’s.
Goulart’s intention all along was to make a car of his own. And with imports under a strict ban, nothing was holding him back.
Thus, the Dacon 828 is born. Dacon stands for “Distribuidora de Automoveis, Caminhoes e Omnibus Nacionais.” Roughly translated, it means distributor of automobiles, trucks and omnibuses national. And 828 is a clever nod to the car that inspired the design. In 1982, Dacon put forth their 8th design.
Brazil’s ban on car imports arrived one year before Porsche launched the 928. Which means, the exotic and slippery shape never legally saw Brazilian soil. But the Dacon 828 fixes that yearning, mostly. But maybe not the driving experience.
The basis of the car is an air-cooled VW Beetle. Despite the import ban, VW parts for VW were readily available, and were put to use. But Dacon takes that chassis, and shortens it by thirty inches. It’s almost like a 928 bodied Myers Manx.
Despite the car having a wildly different front and rear end, the side profile and rear 3/4 view are instantly recognizable as 928. The framed doors are one key element. But so is the way the VW bus tail lights pay homage to the 928’s originals. Or how about the squared shaped rear wheel arch, with “phone dial” wheels nestled in there? All of these things scream 928. Yet side by side they look nothing alike.
The car wasn’t much of a success. Production totaled 47. Despite this, they still occasionally pop up on Brazilian marketplaces for sale as an interesting curiosity. We would be interested in driving one to see how that shortened wheel base affects handling!
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Photos courtesy of EVO-Cars
