928cs

According to the information booklet edited for the 1989 GT (WKD 495.921):
"GT cars are supplied with standard running gear, including the shock absorbers.

Boge gas pressure shock absorbers can be ordered as optional extra equipment (M474) for entry of the car in sport racing events. The "M" number is reserved additionally for Dunlop tires (Goodrich for the USA).

Bridgestones tires are supplied as initial equipment in conjunction with M474 only when this is expressed by the customer (Z order)."

But, I have found only 24 1989 GT delivered without M474, all of them RoW cars.

Tom in Austin

Since this was resurrected ... what is the bottom line, is there any difference in North American-market springs since 86.5 MY?

It sounds as if the color-markings might have only been meant to designate 'tolerance groups', like maybe they used the color-markings to match left to right on a given car, but the differences were so small Porsche did not consider these markings to represent different parts?

UDPride

Interesting. So basically all but one 1989 US GTs came with M474, even though M474 was an OPTION just like on an S4, and not a piece of standard equipment rolled into the price.

Ive seen a 928 GT window sticker but it DOESNT have Sport Shock Absorbers as a listed option. Im wondering if M474 came with the 89 GTs but was not an additional COST and is lumped into the "928 GT Indicators/Packages" line item? Cant imagine the sticker I saw was of the one and only car that did not get Sport Shock Absorbers. So odds are the car had them, but nowhere on the window sticker does it say so. But the option code sticker definitely has M474.

Thats what leads me to believe M474 was "free" on the GT and you need to go by the hood sticker, not the window sticker to prove you have it. Whats the room think?

928cs

It is always difficult to tell what is an option and what is standard, because this can change from a market to another.

The sticker on the car is not an "option" sticker, but an "equipment" sticker. This an indication of what must be put into the car during the building process, so it is independent from the destination market of the car.
This is the same for the information booklet, that is made to help technicians to maintain the car.

All in all, I'm almost sure the M474 was "standard" for the GT and only skipped when this was specified by the customer.

And don't forget the factory can make mistakes, so we are not even sure there was really a 1989 928 GT delivered without M474.

UDPride

I tend to agree. And when you say M474 being considered conventionally standard on the build line, Im also assuming it means it was a no-cost standard item to account for the "GT" form of the car. If you wanted it on the S4, you could obviously get it too, but you had to pay for it.

For any GT w/o M474, it was handled kind of like sunroof delete.

928cs

As I told you, what was standard or optionnal was defined by the market, and the year.

For example, nearly all 1989 928's delivered in France were equiped with the limited slip differential (M220) and the sport suspension (M474).
Just the very first cars of this model year don't have these two "equipment" codes. And they were optionnal the years before.

This was the choice of the importer.

UpFixenDerPorsche

Errrrk. Hope you have plenty of denture adhesive.

By way of assistance, FWIW, comparing my 'stock' 89 S4 suspension performance to that of a friend's 'stock' 90 S4 is like chalk and cheese.

The ride in his car is smooth, controlled and stable. AFAIK has basic Bilsteins.

The ride (then) in my S4 was like a waterbed on wheels. Rolled about in all directions and slammed in and out of every hole in the road. Factory Boge's.

Whatever suspension bits Porsche put into the 90 cars would be well worth looking at.