The blue color is Bugatti blue (French racing color).

 

Seems Bruno is always around when there are 928 events at continent.

Euro 2002 in Stuttgart


2005 meeting in Netherlands

 

Glad to hear they are going to be producing parts to keep our cars on the road. Do you think they would be willing to make a few thousand pods and dash boards for all of us that need replacements!

 

Nicole, what a great ambassador you are. Not only am I sure you represented 'US' well, but your reports are magazine article quality. I'm really looking forward to your pictures, when you have the time to load them.
Thanks for your skill and generosity.

 

More fotos
http://tinyurl.com/34fjej

Marton

 

OK, It's picture time...

Let's start with Friday, when I met the French owner (I forget his name, but he's a very nice and funny guy and works for an American company). He brought his whole collection of 928 memorabilia, most in the orignal packages.

 

Next is our visit at the Ludwigsburg castle, including castle tour. You've already seen the views of the cars, so I won't add more of the same...

Joe from Minnesota seemed to enjoy his ride in Matthias' 95 GTS with red all leather interior. Note that this car has no sunroof!!!

Bad "ouch" on the way to the parking garage. The white Opel supposedly launched in the air on the side of the impact, and hit the 928 on the opposite lane in the process.

The castle tour guides were dressed in 18th century attire and spoke to us as if it was 1788, telling us about life at the castle. Believe me: unless you were at the very top of the food chain, there was nothing romantic about being there...

Some people get married in the castle chapel... Bring your money (lots of it), and you can do it, too!!!

Next was a choice of visiting the large castle gardens "Blühendes Barock", where humans made nature conform to their designs of the time.

Before we split, we had something to drink at the castle cafe. However, they were too overwhelmed with us that we did not get to order any food...

 

Michael and I went for the scenic cruise through the old towns around Ludwigsburg, with a stop at the Weissach Engineering Center.

I was very impressed by the smoothness of Michael's GTS. This car rides as smooth as a Mercedes, but with a lot better performance. I'm now considering to put my stock exhaust back on...

Once you enter Weissach, Porsche is hard to miss... My wonderful chauffer had no problem finding it.

1977 shark from Belgium on the Autobahn back to the hotel.


PS: Before you ask - that yellow GTS is not a factory color. It is a cheap respray with dirt and runs in it. I suspect it's a "rebuild" after a bad accident - there were some uneven panel gaps in the front. Probably good enough as a daily driver, but sure no collectible...

 

A few unusual cars, features, and interiors...

- Jurinek Convertible

- Front spoilers

- Carbon rear spoiler - has standard spoiler as core, then 8 coats of clear finish

- Pearl white interior

- Pink suede interior in excellent condition and quality

- Two 95 GTS all leather interiors

- SouthShark with black and yellow interior (same car that has the blue spoiler)

 

Saturday evening dinner buffett was very social. However, I spent a lot of time grilling Peter Reisinger, who used to be chief modeler at the Porsche design department in Weissach. He was eager to share stories, and answer questions. I will post about those separately.

Here is me and my friend who owns the Bugatti blue 928.

Me again, discussing club activities with two board members of the German 928 club (The Club President - Gunther Kussauer - is on the right).

The same board members with Peter Reisinger, ex-Porsche chief modeler.

 

Sunday morning was the club's annual meeting, before we all said "good-bye". Here a few final pictures:

That's our own Marton from Switzerland in the middle!!!

I'm not the only "Nicole" who loves and owns 928s. Here is "the other one" - she owns the one with the pink suede interior. She bought the car that way - the PO had the suede done through her Porsche dealer in Switzerland (who subcontracted the work to a high class upholstery shop). The car has about 100k kms on the odo, but the suee looks and feels like new. Nicole likes cars with lots of displacement and power, and has previously owned a 5-series BMW with an 8-cylinder engine.

 

For cross reference:

I reported on my conversation with Peter Reisinger here:

https://rennlist.com/forums/showpost...9&postcount=71

To view the full thread, use this link and go to post #71:

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-forum/323663-if-you-could-ask-the-designers-of-the-928-one-question.html

 

WOW!!

 

Thanks for all the info posts & pics Nicole, you made us feel like we were there too. As usual, you represented the 928 community very well.

Is it just me, or are there lots of unique & modified 928s overseas? Or maybe perhaps that those are the pics that were chosen to be posted? Either way, really great to see the different modifications to these great cars!

Hey, maybe you should hook your friend, the other Nicole, up with Veronique at Jager since she is still looking for her 1st customer for the light pink leather she has available, yes? Definately a ladies 928 indeed!

 

Thanks for the compliments!

As to the modified cars - they rarely have power modifications, as those would be hard to make legal on individual cars (it can be done, but is expensive). Most technical mods you see are upgraded emissions controls (metal cats, pre-cats) for lower emissions classification with lower registration tax. The metal cat option in connection with individual chip tuning also yields about 30 hp. The tax savings pay for the modification (Germany only).

Then you see different shock/spring/wheel combos. Those are sold in high enough quantities for the manufacturers to get an ABE - (Allgemeine Betriebserlaubnis, meaning a general permit to operate a modification on specific cars). To get an ABE, the manufacturers have to go through rigid tests with the TÜV and prove that the part is safe on this particular car. You can also do individual mods, but you need a TÜV engineer who is sympathetic to your mod - the more radical it is, the less likely you'll get it approved, particularly when it's outside of the general legal requirements for motor vehicles.

So, the easy thing is to just do visual mods that don't affect the safety (and with it the legality) of your car.

First, remember that luxury cars in Europe are not typically selected from a dealer lot - people custom order them and WAIT until their individual car has been built. At BMW, for example, the option lists are booklets about 20 pages long, and you can change your colors and optionis until 10 days before the build date.

The base models are pretty naked - even a 928 came without leather, sunroof, and many other things we take for granted here. Then people select their colors and equipment to match their own personality and style. That's why you see so many 928s that we in the US would consider non-standard. There really is no standard 928 in Europe - they are almost all different.

As the capabilities of Porsche are pretty comprehensive, they still have their limits. Wealthy people who want more individualization than Porsche Exclusive can offer go to third party vendors, while used car buyers are either handy enough to individualize things themselves, or have local shops to help them. In addition, they can use pieces from the professional aftermarket companies like Strosek, Gemballa, TechArt, etc.

Culturally, you have to understand that Europeans - particularly in the upper classes of society - place a rather high value on individual expression of taste and style. So, for many of these owners, visually customizing their 928 is like wearing clothes they have put together based on their taste, style, and sometimes fashion trends.

That is also why you hardly ever see ratty interiors like they are fairly common over here. People would be embarassed to drive around like this, just as they'd be embarassed to wear worn clothes with holes in them.

In summary: The emphasis of the modifications is more on style and condition than on performance. The performance of the 928 is generally considered more than adequate for street use.