gbgastowers

SwayBar

That is an amazing picture!

XS29L9B

Interesting to have an S3 and S4 on the racks, same time. Is this an assembly line, or something else?

NoVector

Yeah, it's weird that a lot have license plates on them.

gbgastowers

gbgastowers

Wisconsin Joe

That's not an assembly line. It's a shop. All are complete cars, being worked on.

I see a red & blue "SOB" on either side of the S4. A couple of 944s (maybe) brown on the ground, silver up on the lift, red on the ground with no hood & service covers on the fenders. Facing the 959s. More way in the back.

What is the white car on the lift, second row, upper left of the pic? Almost looks like a VW Golf.

I think I count 5 959s. This almost has to be a factory shop. Nowhere else would have that many.

XS29L9B

docmirror

I believe this is a post assembly 'exclusive options' shop. Many Porsches have a custom option, or group of them. From what I've heard, all the 959s went through the custom option shop as they were such unique cars. Also some cars which have been at dealers, and brought back in for customer option adds that maybe can't be put on outside the mfg. Most of the exclusive options start with the 'X..' code. Frex - XK7 is a leather shifter boot. So the 928 would come down the prod line with the standard shifter boot on it. The car would then be diverted to the exclusive group and have that swapped, and maybe some other leather bits as well. Production lines aren't well suited to doing that stuff.

Wisconsin Joe

Oh, yeah. I forgot.

Thanks for posting that article and the pic.

I'm not a huge 911 fan, and have only minimal knowledge of the 959. The article was very enlightening.

hacker-pschorr

So the photo could easily be very late 86 which accounts for the last of those 928's and the first of the S4's. The red 944 is definitely an "S" which came out alongside the S4. The wheels on the 951 are late offset so that's an 87 model too.

The big question is, what is that white hatchback in the far left? If it's an Audi that would make sense, Porsche was helping develop the engine in the RS2, but that doesn't look like one of those.

icsamerica

The picture is great. That Jalopnik article was interesting. I'll make this 928 related at the end. The point of it was that Germans over engeneer things to a fault and it's part of their culture. I wrench on a lot of cars of all brands and I LOVE german cars but this is true. I also worked for BMW on a project for awhile and the same mentality exists there too. With BMW I work on the rollout of ISIS which was there unfortunately named Bismark of a guided and planned Diagnostic system. What a complex mess, it took years to get it right. Mechanics were like, I've seen this 10 times... it's the fuel pump...but I have to follow the service plan and replace the injectors first, re-program the car then end up replacing the fuel pump anyway. BMW has a digital volt meter with an Ethernet port that had to be networked and recorded all data that the tech was instructed to take by the plan. They tried to turn every mechanic into precise data gathering point. They tortured their customers with delays, problems and operational gremlins. BMW customers never waver no matter what you put them through. One mechanical case in point... I just replaced the steering rack on my Wifes ML350 and it was a nightmare of a job, a few simple engineering changes would have made it much easier. For example, on the same bracket holding a torsion bar you there were 3 bolts. But you needed 4 unique tools to remove just 3 bolts. One bolt was Allen head, with a 16mm nut, the other nuts/bolts were 15mm. Same thing on the suspension and rack which needed to moved for the job, a mix of 21mm and 22 mm bolts. It's an ML clearance is not a problem so it would have been much easier just make all the bolts 16mm or 22mm. Conversely I just did a control arm on my Lexus RX400h. Every bolt was 19mm or 22mm. Simple. Needed 4 tools for the whole job. BTW... the Lexus has 207,000 almost trouble free miles back and forth to the Bronx. Hard miles. The only thing I replaced were, 1 rear caliper, many air filters, a few sets of brakes, a few bulbs, the cooling fans and the control arm... and the arm would probably still be OK if I didn't hit a curb hard enough to blow out 2 tires on that side.

Conversely I find the 928 simple and easy to work on. It has its quirks but still somewhat simple considering it's German. . Perhaps this is one of the reasons the 928 was considered the un-Porsche at the time. I never wrenched on a 911 so I dont know how they are.

Hilton

You're right, not an RS2 - looks like it could be an Audi 80, in which case may be a development mule? (same platform as RS2 - Audi B3/B4 platform).

Guessing its the Rossle-Bau plant (where the 500E and later RS2 were put together, as well as 959).

Bigfoot928

It does amaze me sheer number of tools that it takes to work on the 928.

928 GT R

"Exclusive department" is what I'm also thinking. Or possibly a "Mixed use facility" with some prototyping activities given the white Audi.

Got to love the white lifts and general cleanliness of the operation, even has exhaust ducting through the floor.