928ntslow

I think unless there is a car running on dilithium crystals and has mind control functions (****...it may as well levitate too), there ain't a car in existence that will match the forward thinking and standards set in a point in time, to compare to. Remember the slogan, "Nothing will come close for the next 10 years."...or something like that? Which car can you pin that on these days?

I don't think such a car exists in today's world.

69gaugeman

Yes it does.............. a 928................

imfinlay

One of the key "GT" features of the 928 (for me) is the hatchback and foldable rear seats to give a decent load area. Having seen the luggage space in the Audi R8 it's no GT. No point in planning a drive to the French Riviera if you can't have clean clothes with you. I think the nearest to the 928 would be the Bentley Continental, but that's a bit big and heavy.

Maybe a well-optioned Cayman? Or Jag XK-R?

Ian

Niels Jørgensen

How is the Cayman a GT?

The DBS is nice, but front and sides are way too busy (reminds me of a Skyline, and that's no compliment)...

The Callaway cars are fugly - what happened? I thought his conversions used to look good?

Modern day 928? How about the 997 ...

Seriously, the 456GT would've gotten my vote a few years back: Pricey, overlooked, exclusive and a damned fine car, but it's not exactly modern anymore. The 612 may be a good contender, but it's so ugly I'd never know.

This leaves the M6, the Bentley and the Bugatti, but the M6 is too common, the Bugatti quite a bit more extreme than the 928, and the Bentley is too ... Well, too much S600...

I think we'll just have to wait for the Panamera

SwayBar

I totally disagree.

If the 928 was so ahead of it's time, then why did it not come with something as simple as a 6-speed overdrive tranny which cruised at 1500 RPM at 60 MPH? Now that would have been forward-thinking versus downsizing the engine like everyone else when the gas-crunch hit.

There was nothing 'revolutionary' about the 928 except it's price, and it's lack of sales refect that.

hacker-pschorr

Ok, who invited SwayBar to this thread?

Like the Muscle Car thread, you need to go back to the late 60's / early 70's for the 928 story.

100% aluminum engine without steele sleeves
Transaxle / torque tube arrangement
The pod movement, sure trivial but way ahead of it's time in 1972
Weissach rear end - I mean this alone is HUGE!!!
First Porsche production car without torsion bars
First Porsche production car not based on a VW

Name 5 things on the 997 that are new and exciting other than the body work.

SwayBar

Then let us wax poetic about the mighty Vega since it had alusil well before the 928.

As Jim Bailey pointed out in an earlier thread, about a million cars prior to the 928 had already implemented it.

hacker-pschorr

Ok, now you are reaching bringing up the Vega
Do some research on how well alusil worked in the Vega engines. If Porsche had the same reults, most 928's would have Chevy 350's.
Vega's eventually received steel liners to solve the problem.
All wheel drive pre-dates Quattro by almost 100 years. Doesn't change the fact that when you think of AWD, most people assocate it with Audi.

How many cars in the 928 class had a transaxle? I cannot think of one until the C5.

GM and Porsche both played with airbags years before Chrysler (GM in the 70's offered air bags on a few models). Yet Chrysler is assocated with starting the airbag craze.

It's one thing to test / attempt an idea. It's another to actually make it work.

Have you ever driven a Vega?

GeorgeM

I think the modern 928 is the 911... Except for where the motor is, the 997 feels more like my old 928 than my Carrera 3.2.

Alan

I think one often overlooked thing on the 928 is the integrated body colored polycarbonate bumpers. if you look at other late 70's cars they look very dated - all chrome bumpers bolted on... today all cars front & rear ends pretty much look like 928's did in 1977/78.

Considering how little the car changed in look though its whole life - I thiink Porsche pretty much got this bang on 'right first time'... I'm sure there were other pioneers before this - but did they integrate it so smoothly & cleanly and did their work stand the test of time so well...

To me its the sum of the parts not any one or few single thing...

So I think the true measure of a great car is not the few "great" things it has going for it (engine, brakes, seats, great angle etc etc) - rather - how few are the real shortcomings in looks, design, function, comfort, performance, reliability etc...

There were a number of spectacular supercars that for all practical purposes you would not want to drive daily or very far... Countach as a daily driver or all day cruiser - absurd right?

You'd just want to blast around a bit and be seen in it...

At least most exotics are now more practial than they were in the 70's & 80's (I'd still like a Lamborghini Miura though )

Alan

hacker-pschorr

Corvette started doing this in 1973



EDIT......AAAHHHH SwayBar has taken over my computer!!!!

Alan

...and at the back of a 73 Corvette you see what...

I'm sure there are other examples though - but many of those early examples just look like someone fiberglassed over the chrome bumper... or just went hog wild with a new material to play with...

Alan

hacker-pschorr

74 they switched the tail.

Kaz

As Neils mentioned the Ferrari 456 comes closest to fitting the bill but it's just not new anymore.

Mike Frye

I was just re-re-reading Project928 the other day and based on what's in there, I'd say there may NEVER be another 928.

You've got the perfect storm of small, race-centric manufacturer with an eye toward innovation, money to burn, and some of the most brilliant and creative minds in the industry all under one roof.

While there may be concept cars that can be brought to the road with the same sense of a single goal, I doubt there will ever be another production car conceived, designed, tested, engineered, re-engineered and brought to market with such a sense of purpose. It was designed in an age when wind tunnels were still used, but was one of the first with modern safety features like 'crumple zones' and later air bags. It was designed around the driver, not based on any market research or lowest common denominator. It didn't have to share platforms or parts with anything and wasn't going to be co-marketed with any other company for any other purpose than to build the best car they could build. Period.

Is everything in the 928 perfect? Hardly. But did they try to make it so? Yes.

It wasn't built to last 5 or 10 years. It was built to last indefinitely with proper maintenance.

The 'Modern 928' is still a 928!