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While researching this car I came to the conclusion that Pearlglanz was in fact the last 928 completed.
Why do I say this?
The Wendelin Wiedeking/Porsche Museum car was completed on July 20th of 1995...
Pearlglans was completed on November 20th 1995... Fully four months later!
The assembly line build date in the door jamb is 9/95, almost 2 months after the Wiedeking/Museum car was completed on 7/20/95.
Pearlglanz completion date (after instillation of Exclusive options) was 11/20/1995.
What is the source of the story that Pearlglanz is not the last 928? Has it been confirmed by Mr. Robert Linton?
It is possible that the Museum car was ordered after Pearlglanz but completed first? Perhaps it has the last order number - but it is certain that Pearlglanz was the last 928 off the assembly line, and the last 928 completed by Porsche Exclusive.
Congratulations & Enjoy!
Dave
P.S. If someone has other conclusive information I will entertain it, but the evidence I have reviewed is pretty darn solid...
While researching this car I came to the conclusion that Pearlglanz was in fact the last 928 completed.
Why do I say this?
The Wendelin Wiedeking/Porsche Museum car was completed on July 20th of 1995...
Pearlglanz was completed on November 20th 1995... Fully four months later!
The assembly line build date in the door jamb is 9/95, almost 2 months after the Wiedeking/Museum car was completed on 7/20/95.
Pearlglanz completion date (after instillation of Exclusive options) was 11/20/1995.
What is the source of the story that Pearlglanz is not the last 928? Has it been confirmed by Mr. Robert Linton?
It is possible that the Museum car was ordered after Pearlglanz but completed first? Perhaps it has the last order number - but it is certain that Pearlglanz was the last 928 off the assembly line, and the last 928 completed by Porsche Exclusive.
Congratulations & Enjoy!
Dave
P.S. If someone has other conclusive information I will entertain it, but the evidence I have reviewed is pretty darn solid...
Dave,
your ears must be ringing, I just completed a review of similar evidence sent to me by Andrew McCulley regarding this. I have to get an official appraisal of the car prior to shipment such that it's insured properly, so was just reviewing the information I have. Evidence that this is indeed the last 928 is certainly compelling. The Museum Car door tag
We do know a few things about the car:
PerlGlanz and the Museum car were produced on the last day of 'production' for the 928 - 9/08/95 - this per readout from the Porsche dealer database. I have no evidence that any other cars were produced as late as these two.
PerlGlanz is most certainly the last US 928 Produced, and the very last 928 produced that has been or ever will be, available to the public for purchase.
PerlGlanz was the very last 928 to leave the factory, as it was invoiced out 11/20/95 (once again from the Porsche dealer database), the Museum car Invoiced 11/02/95.
PerlGlanz was the most highly optioned 928 ever produced, and yes, there was significant items that took the factory longer to complete the final production. It was definitely the very last 928 to leave be completed and leave the factory based on the invoice date. Thus it was the last technically fully 'produced'.
The door sticker on the museum car is a special sticker, not the usual Porsche door jamb sticker as on PerlGlanz. It shows a Porsche badge with '09/7/95' as a build date (it gets fuzzy as I blow up the photo from an article on the Museum car, so it's a bit hard to read), and '61291' which would be it's production number. I don't know PerGlanz's production number yet. If you read that date as the Europeans do, that would be July 9th, 1995. If you read it as a 'American' date, that would be September 7th, 1995. The PerlGlanz sticker as shown in Dave's pic above reveals '9/1995' with no day, indicating it's September/1995 Production.
Last edited by VanD; 03-13-2022 at 01:34 PM.
Reason: Add pics
In post #197 you referenced a build date of 9/8/1995 as the final production date for both cars. I'm fairly certain that is not true. We observe that the Porsche production crest date in the lower left quarter the museum car is 08/7/95? HOWEVER as we discussed the europeans put the day first (01 - 31) and the month second making the date it came off the assembly line and went into the Exclusive department probably July 8th, of 1995. It makes good sense that the exclusive options on that car would have only taken 12 days, because that was not a hugely optioned car.
Here is another (anecdotal) reference published by Arnold for the Porsche Museum car being finished on July 20th, 1995.
In post #197 you referenced a build date of 9/8/1995 as the final production date for both cars. I'm fairly certain that is not true. We observe that the Porsche production crest date in the lower left quarter the museum car is 08/7/95? HOWEVER as we discussed the europeans put the day first (01 - 31) and the month second making the date it came off the assembly line and went into the Exclusive department probably July 8th, of 1995. It makes good sense that the exclusive options on that car would have only taken 12 days, because that was not a hugely optioned car.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it is the second most heavily optioned 928 ever built - nowhere near as bespoke as Perlglanz, but not necessarily accurate to say it was not a hugely optioned car. No idea how long it usually took to install Exclusive options, but it sounds to me like they took a few months to complete Perlglanz. Just not sure how they allocated production numbers - by the last car to roll off the assembly line or the last car to roll out of the factory?
Last edited by Range Rover; 03-14-2022 at 10:39 AM.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it is the second most heavily optioned 928 ever built - nowhere near as bespoke as Perlglanz, but not necessarily accurate to say it was not a hugely optioned car. No idea how long it usually took to install Exclusive options, but it sounds to me like they took a few months to complete Perlglanz. Just not sure how they allocated production numbers - by the last car to roll off the assembly line or the last car to roll out of the factory?
Pearlglanz was/is the most optioned 928... Not sure where the misunderstanding came from.
My research indicates that Pearlglanz was the last order number, the last car off the assembly line, and the last 928 completed.
I'd like to take credit for knowing/having the production sequence/order/sort/"internal code number" number from Perlglanz, but I don't.
At the risk of being pedantic, I think it's important that we're all on the same page about what numbers are what. I think the sort number is the key to deciding whether Perlglanz #0137 or the Midnight blue museum GTS #0459 was the last body built . Starting in May 1983, the options sticker placed in the cargo area had a 'Sort Nr' with 7 digits of form XXX-XXXX at the top:
The word 'sort number' was included on the rear cargo sticker (but not in the sticker in the warranty book)through the end of 1986, it disappeared starting with the S4s.
As best I can tell, the 1st digit is always '1', which means 'production body', the 3rd digit is the calendar year of production (the only exception I've seen is one of the early '94 M718-code cars, where the digit was still a '3'), and then the last 4 numbers are an internal serial number for the model year. AFAIK only Porsche knows the correlation between the Sort number and the VIN number. The sort number is not referenced in either a Porsche Classic PPS document, nor is it in the build sheet information that is obtained from the Porsche Provider Network at the dealership.
The sort number was on multiple spots in my Azurite blue '93 GTS (S/N PS820108), including the body under the rear bumper cover, a sticker on the bottom of the seat, inside the driver's door, under the sunroof, and it was stamped into the body at the leading edge of the spare tire well:
Interestingly this stamping is not present on my Midnight blue '93 GTS (PS820084). For whatever that's worth.
Anyway, Alex will find the sort number on Perlglanz soon enough. We just need someone to jump the velvet rope at the museum and have a look under the rear cargo carpet at the options sticker for the sort number before security escorts them out.
Last edited by Rob Edwards; 03-15-2022 at 01:49 AM.
Pearlglanz was/is the most optioned 928... Not sure where the misunderstanding came from.
My research indicates that Pearlglanz was the last order number, the last car off the assembly line, and the last 928 completed.
All I’m saying is that #0459 was the second most heavily optioned 928 ever built. Earlier you stated that “it was not a hugely optioned car.” Maybe by comparison to Perlglanz it wasn't hugely optioned, but it was a pretty hugely optioned 928.
Last edited by Range Rover; 03-15-2022 at 08:31 AM.
" ... We just need someone to jump the velvet rope at the museum and have a look under the rear cargo carpet at the options sticker for the sort number before security escorts them out. "
LOL: I would love to do that Rob, the next time I will visit (on my previous visit during May 2014 they had unfortunately another GTS displayed, as I checked form the VIN in it's windscreen then).
Looking around a bit more, I found the following German article from 5th May 2016: https://www.focus.de/auto/gebrauchtw...d_5482331.html
On it's photo 19, the German text states: "Bild 19/20 - Der Porsche 928 GTS wurde am 2. November 1995 ausgeliefert": meaning that this car was delivered on 2nd November 1995 to it's 1st owner, being the then Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking. However: in the rest of the article text there is no further reference to that date nor any factual proof of that what so ever (we would need to see the driver book, which typically in Germany has that date in it and the persons name + signature) - so who knows...
I'd like to take credit for knowing/having the production sequence/order/sort/"internal code number" number from Perlglanz, but I don't.
At the risk of being pedantic, I think it's important that we're all on the same page about what numbers are what. I think the sort number is the key to deciding whether Perlglanz #0137 or the Midnight blue museum GTS #0459 was the last body built . Starting in May 1983, the options sticker placed in the cargo area had a 'Sort Nr' with 7 digits of form XXX-XXXX at the top:
The word 'sort number' was included on the rear cargo sticker (but not in the sticker in the warranty book)through the end of 1986, it disappeared starting with the S4s.
As best I can tell, the 1st digit is always '1', which means 'production body', the 3rd digit is the calendar year of production (the only exception I've seen is one of the early '94 M718-code cars, where the digit was still a '3'), and then the last 4 numbers are an internal serial number for the model year. AFAIK only Porsche knows the correlation between the Sort number and the VIN number. The sort number is not referenced in either a Porsche Classic PPS document, nor is it in the build sheet information that is obtained from the Porsche Provider Network at the dealership.
The sort number was on multiple spots in my Azurite blue '93 GTS (S/N PS820108), including the body under the rear bumper cover, a sticker on the bottom of the seat, inside the driver's door, under the sunroof, and it was stamped into the body at the leading edge of the spare tire well:
Interestingly this stamping is not present on my Midnight blue '93 GTS (PS820084). For whatever that's worth.
Anyway, Alex will find the sort number on Perlglanz soon enough. We just need someone to jump the velvet rope at the museum and have a look under the rear cargo carpet at the options sticker for the sort number before security escorts them out.
This sort number is not a body number. This is the order in which the car's order was entered into Porsche's computer system. This doesn't mean that this sequence was used after to produce the car, then deliver it.
So far, I expect to discover that Wiedekeing's car was entered just after the Green pearl. I will try to find the numbers of both cars. Sadly, the sticker is missing on the Pearl, and I have forgotten to search for the stamp next to the spare wheel .
But all in all, this is not really relevant for each car.
I don't have any skin in the game, but it seems there would have been some event/fanfare when the last one rolled off the line. And one would think Porsche would have commemorated that event with a special crest on the car. I've never seen that crest on another 928; but then again, I don't get out much.
This sort number is not a body number. This is the order in which the car's order was entered into Porsche's computer system.
That's very helpful Samuel, I didn't know the significance of the sort # before.
I don't have any skin in the game here either, other than trying to understand how the cars moved through production and came off the line- certainly there are multiple steps and thus some wiggle room on how one defines the last car- Last ordered? Last body produced? Last car off the line? Not sure what's most definitive.
Didn't the whole saga of the "last 928" start with the person ordering the perlglanz GTS not taking delivery because it wasn't the "last" 928 ...only the last 928 sold (the last being the one in the museum)?
I think that is what was being said back in the early days of rennlist.
anyway would be nice to get this question answered once and for all....great data being generated in this thread for sure.
03-13-2022, 12:06 PM
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