Vilhuer

Some time ago I did Visual Basic code which went through all US model 928 VIN's and searched if Carfax website has records for them. Results are in this thread:
https://rennlist.com/forums/928-forum/311463-looking-up-all-the-928-by-vin.html#post4016599

Week or two ago infamous Danglerb mentioned at Pelican forum that he had checked some ROW VIN's from Carfax and it actually had data for them. Yes, I do read Pelican mainly to see if Herr-Kuhn has something interesting to say. Anyway, it was easy to change VB code and have it do similar check for all '81-95 ROW and Japanise VIN's too.

Code did run little over a week non stop and went through 37000 VIN's. As before it checked all the VIN's mentioned in Jörg Austen's book + 100 more and then some for few years. Results are fairly interesting. Who would have quessed there are 1300 non US models to which Carfax has records for and 10 of them are GTS meaning 6 previously unknown cases. As I do not have access to actual Carfax records I can't say how many of the cars are in US and how many in Canada. Though its fairly obvious 99% of Japanise models must be in Canada and ROW's mostly in US.

(1 Austen says 0001-0060 VIN's are reserved for prototypes and special cars. Based on this 0061 and 9561 are listed as first VIN for all years.

(2 Same as US '81 MY, there are several lower VIN's for both 4.5L and S models in Carfax than 0061. First listed US VIN is 0011. I think it's safe to presume ROW cars follow this same system and their VIN's start from 0011 also.

Its important to remember that ROW 4.5L and S have their own VIN sequences. This means there are triplicate VIN's with same last 4 digits up to highest ROW 4.5L VIN (0011-0657) and dublicate VIN's for highest ROW S VIN (0658-1418). Above last ROW S, only single US set exists (1419-1668).

(3 Carfax do not have any Japanise VIN's for '81-84 model years even though Austen lists them. This either means there simply aren't any in Canada (unlikely), Carfax don't have data for them even though they exist in NA, they use some unknown VIN sequences or are included in ROW sequence.

There doesn't seem to be any '89-95 Japanise cars either. This could be due to fact that most ROW markets got standard catalytic converter engine at that time. Making it unnecessary for Japanise cars to have US model engines like they had had in most previous years.

(4 Based on first 0011 US VIN for '81 I would expect lonely Japanise S to be 9511 in reality.

(5 As 0056 has records I think its safe to assume '82 MY ROW follow same formula as US model same way as '81 does. This meaning 0051 is first VIN for both 4.5 L and S models.

Its important to remember that ROW 4.5L and S have their own VIN sequences. This means there are triplicate VIN's with same last 4 digits up to highest ROW 4.5L VIN (0051-0497) and dublicate VIN's for highest ROW S VIN (0498-1502). Above last ROW S, only single US set exists (1503-2701).

(6 Austen lists two Japanise VIN's only. This matches combined total 2087 he gives for US and Japan. Carfax has VIN range of 2085 US models.

(7 Austen VIN ranges for '85 MY are exact same as in '84 MY. Since '85 MY data do not match what Austen says as total number of produced cars I think his '85 VIN's are wrong while '84 are right. Because of this listed range 0061-2228 is counted from Austen's number of produced cars.

(8 Same as in (7 applies here too. Japanise expected range is based on total US+Japanise number he gives with US number remove based on how many US cars have data in Carfax.

(9 Both (7 and (8 upper limits are nicely above highest ROW VIN's on Carfax giving extra validation that calculations can be correct.

(10 Austen doesn't give VIN sequence for '86 Japanise models but Carfax has several records for 4 separate VIN's. US '86 MY cars are not help in here as there are less actual VIN's in Carfax than what Austen says were made. I think its safe to say at least VIN's 9561-9643 exist. This meaning minimum of 82 Japanise models were made in '86 MY. If there are missing from total production numbers listed in few earlier threads its impossible to say with any certainty. It might be that total 928 production numbers are missing several 100 cars because of these (2, (5 and (10 early VIN's. Would need to do some calculations.

(11 Samuel's Club Sport site lists 2014 as VIN for ex Derek Bell CS prototype. Both Austen and Carfax say highest '87 VIN is smaller than that. This is interesting. Is Austen's upper limit 1914 wrong or did '87 CS protos use different VIN sequence than normal S4? 2011-2014 perhaps?

(12 None of the '88 Club Sports are in Carfax. While searching for them code also tried to find once again two US Club Sports but didn't turn up anything.

(13 Austen says ROW '89 S4/CS change to S4/GT happened in VIN's 1584-1585.

(14 Based on (13 there can be between 0 and 9 '89 GT's in NA depending on what 9 1585+ VIN's are, S4 or GT.

(15 Who has very late ROW in US or Canada? 0453 could be later car than famous green US model 0137 depending on when last ROW cars were made.

JEC_31

Fascinating research and results, Erkka!

You are THE professor of 928ology.

The first thing that jumped out at me from your latest find is the highest quantites - 1984 and 1985 show 270 and 315 ROW, the tasty LH Euros with their modestly under-reported power levels.

And then the next year, 1986, there were a mere 42 ROW as the grey market faded away under the 32-valve onslaught from American Porsche dealerships. I wonder if any of those had the 86.5's proto-S4 underpinings?

And at the end of the day however, how many VINs were typo errors at the title offices during the grey-market's often-shady "federalizing" process, how many were stolen and VIN-swapped with crashed cars, how many were never titled and now lay rotting in some far-away collector's palatial garage? That's where I would look for the GTS's...

PorKen

According to factory literature, all ROW '86 have '86.5 upgrades.

JEC_31

Thanks Porken. Now I have even more reason to endanger the poor bank account if I find one.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I seem to recall reading here long ago that in 1986, 16(?) ROW 928s were possibly fitted with US-spec 32-valve pipe-organ-intake motors. Can anyone verify?

Vilhuer

There needs to be multible typos to get ROW VIN out of US car. 13th digit is also different in them. I only tested real ROW VIN's and didn't look for US car VIN which is on top of fender and has ZZZ in it. Chuck has complete 1300 VIN list in his mailbox. Maybe he can verify what data Carfax has for these cars.

32 valve engine was option M298 and M299 (5sp and automatic) in some ROW markets where unleaded fuel was readily available. They were sold at least in Germany and Austria and were standard engine in Australia. These engines are exact same as '85-86 US model 32V in all other respects except pistons. Due to low octane rating of available unleaded fuel, compression was lowered to 9.3:1 by installing larger dished pistons. They have their own engine type numbers, M28/45 and M28/46. These are hot ticket for SC installation in '86 MY cars. There is at least one red one imported from Germany in Canada.

All 1911 made '86 MY ROW's, 16V and 32V, have S4 brakes, suspension and rear lift points in body.

SMTCapeCod

That's very cool! Based on my WAG on numbers from what I see in the market, I was expecting way more '83s, and way fewer '85s. Guess folks with the best one's are hanging on to 'em!

Imo000

From what I know, the 32V engine was an option everywhere but becasue it had less HP and had catalytics it wasn't a very popular option for buyers to get.

DANdeMAN

My 1984 VIN finish with 2068...do I have a ROW car!?

And what does that mean.....

Vilhuer

You can have either ROW or US model. You need to check 13th digit to tell which it is. 4=ROW and 6=US for '84 MY. These digits are different for different model years.

US model body on top of passenger side fender should be stamped with WP0ZZZ92ZES862068, small steel plate under window post and door sticker have WP0JB0924ES862068. US people are used to WP0JB0924ES862068 style VIN and this is what Carfax also gives. Since ROW's do not have it they are hard to handle in US.

Just for info to Pelican people. Its impossible to check '80 MY from Carfax as '80 MY cars have 10 chars long chassis number. 17 long VIN was taken into use at beginning of '81 MY in late summer 1980.

'81 and '82 MY ROW 4.5L and S are easy to tell apart with VIN as is '80 also by the way.

This is elementary school stuff for Porsche VIN's.

michael j wright

Mine is a My 82 #000056!! So according to what I 've read in the info, mine should be some sort of special production car?

Vilhuer

Based on these two Carfax searches it would seem in '82 MY normal nothing special production model VIN's started from 0051. There simply aren't any prototypes or special models in US according to Carfax.

largecar379

wish your info went back to 1980.......