Epic car. It was before too, and I can only imagine what it is like now 👍

 

Had to go check to see if the website was still up. I don't think I had checked on Sterling's beast in probably a decade or more!

 

It would take too long to detail all of the modifications, and I'm not sure I want to share all of it in an open forum as there is some talk and speculation about building some production 928's. It's safe to say that the glass is stock.

 

We had a good chat about the possibility of an upgraded 928, vis-a-vis the 'Singer' type of mods on the 911 platform. Sort of like a C2 or C3 upgrade to the 911 path. Sterling is very detail oriented, and has gone through several iterations of multiple engineering steps from napkin drawing all the way to 3D digitization of certain parts. To move from a bone stock 90/91/93 chassis to The 'Sterling' would entail certain compromises to be economically viable. Determining the two end points of the economy is going to be the biggest challenge. Namely, what could we buy the base chassis for, and what market exists for the finished product. Between those two baseline numbers exists the journey of making a well-performing, elegant updated Sterling-928.

Moving from a one-off fully custom example to a marketable modified 928 with most of the gains of this car would be the challenge. The other major challenge is finding the moderately skilled labor to get from stock to Sterling without a lot of oversight. Finding good labor in the US is a horrible problem. It makes me want to think of moving the work offshore, if only to Mexico, or PR. It might be a progressive deal where we spend time with a customizer in a foreign port with the first 2 or 3 to set a process flow control, and then gradually allow more and more independent work to be done. Ideally, we could do this with imported labor right in in the Republic of Texas, but I'm concerned that there wouldn't be enough stability to make it work longer term.

This is about all I want to share publicly for the time being. It might be all pipe dream, or it might be a way to slowly help nudge the 928 back up on a pedestal. Another issue is suppliers for much of the custom or semi-custom bits that will be needed. The real upside is we have hours and hours, and years of engineering and design knowledge to tap with the originator of the first(of many?) 'Sterling's.

 

I told the creator before, but what set this apart for me is that he did this in a way that looks factory, or better then factory, like a RUF or Alpina conversion.
My projects look like I did it, under a shade tree, in Missouri.

I think the world is ready for the Sterling to be done more then a one off unicorn.

Look at Barret Jackson, vast majority are restomods selling at premiums.

 

I had the honor of getting a close up look at Sterling's beast a couple of weeks ago. I was blown away. A gorgeous creation, beautiful inside and out. Long time coming, but well worth it. Congrats on a job well done Sterling!

 

Sterling, you been working on it since before there was a WWW and all we had was a majordomo mailing list.

I hope you are more-or-less finished now, and I won’t have to read about you pulling out the engine, again, any time soon.

And BTW, yeah, it rocks.

 

I don't know if it's true whether more 'Sterlings' will be built, but if so, then this would be competition to it. I found it interesting that he has a whole engineering team working on it. The video has been out 6 months but I saw it for the first time today, and was surprised I watched until the end.

I did not care for the headlights, I like the quarters and rear end, and would buy the rims today if they were available.

 

I despise just about everything about that 928. I also think calling it the 1st ever 928 restomod is a farce of epic proportions. They don't even have a running prototype, so how can it be the 1st? It's not done yet. If they are counting started projects, maybe I am the 1st since I started my "restomod" in 1997 & have had several running versions over the years. However starting a project and having a finished or semi finished car can be decades apart, so I don't really see mine as the 1st even if you use their definition of having a non running static display. I've had that since 1997... lol

 

The difference to me is that I would invest in a Sterling and I would not invest in a Nardone. Personal preference of course. Sterlings skills are quite evident and I'd order the first one in Cobalt Blue.

Probably cost $500k and in this case - worth it!

 

With all due respect... Sterling's effort appears amazing... But I happen to have a little bit more insight into the Nardonne project than most...

Why the hate???

The Nardonne project takes all the good bits of the 928, irons out a lot of the crap ones and moves the car into the 21st century. Moreover, the engineering team that worked on it, is well and truly World class. Why the hate and belittling?

Put it this way - Italtecnica is good enough to develop most of the racing projects of Ferrari and Maserati. I have seen more of the new 5.0 engine detail than publicly available. It's a proper masterpiece, it's modern, and yet it preserves the character of the original. It's also integrated within a modern Can-Bus architecture, bringing in a ton of possibilities to make the car handle better and go faster.

The suspension - an Achilles heel of the 928 these day has been thoroughly re-engineered. We are talking about everything, not just a new set of OEM bushes all round. It still has a proper Weissach rear axle, but it's one which works with modern, wide and sticky rubber. It has new hubs which work better with modern brakes and modern tyres. It has Tractive active suspension, specifically developed for the 928. I have seen the pieces. They make the OEM design look like they were made last century, Oh, wait, they were made for 225 section rubber in 1972. Doh! So why the hate?

The 6spd gearbox which fits in the original housing and just works...

The new structural carbon fibre framed rear hatch, because, yes, the 928 is quite noodly by today's standards. Step back and think... What does that mean - it means that a world class professional chassis engineer was paid decent money to build a model of the 928, evaluate it's weaknesses and address them. Anyone else done that on a 928 or everyone just slaps a set of Bilstein's and hopes for the best?

The list goes on and on...

But to sum it up - it's the most production like 928 you can get today... Because it was developed by people who make a living out of developing awesome products. not hobbyists like most of us are... Because the Nardonne 928 shows what can be achieved when money really is no object and excellence is expected...

 

Personally, I don't care for the changed body lines. I believe Porsche got the exterior completely right in 1978.

 

I get it - I too like certain bits of the Nardonne design and absolutely dislike others. My question was more general and was more concerned with the engineering integrity, which is off the scale and not achieved by anyone else yet... Hence my observation...

 

"it's the most production like 928 you can get today..."

Only you can't get a nardone car, and it's not finished, and it doesn't run yet, and in my eyes it's ugly.

 

The prototype with the new engine/transaxle/suspension/cf body and interior is being finished as we speak... Still no answer to my question... Haters gonna hate... Or maybe the grapes are sour...

Sterling's work is great, but I do get quite annoyed when I see sycophant musings by people who may freeze in their tracks if they have to do more than a simple brake pad change...

Anyway, I am sure Thierry is quaking in his boots - with deposits for 10 cars already paid, I think I know which car is more likely to be seen out and about sooner...