fedorthebear

Hey, I am looking at getting into a porsche 928 as a new car. I had a 1998 Camaro Z28 which had the ls1 engine in it. I sold that car a few months back and it was decent for speed. I am in the boston mass area and there is a 1986 928s online for sale with an auto tranny and it has 83k miles for 4250 obo.,...good deal? how do these 928's compare to american sports cars which i may have driven in performance? any mods i can do for a few thousand to greatly improve speed? I am looking for somethign different in style and i love the older 928 porsche's .... thanks alot- Chris

Dannyfumi

Chris,

The 85-86 have the early 32v engine, apparently detuned at the factory! Awesome car, get an x-pipie and chips and you will be up there with the S4s! I have an 85 and a 87s4, with the x and chips my 85 is quicker than the 87!!

Dan

fedorthebear

thanks man....any price/1/4 mile times? like how much would i put into it to run like mid 13's? my old camaro was a mid 13 car....it was a 1998 z28 with borla catback on it....also? how is a 1986 928s for performance stock? thanks man.

unit

928's are not drag cars!!!
Its a GT!
I had an Ls1 engined holden(Your pontaic gto with 4 doors)
It felt quicker off the mark than my s4 but after 40km/hr the S4 is faster and
the 928 will handle allot better than your camaro.

Good luck im sure you will love it.

Sam

fedorthebear

wow...u think that at higher speeds the 928s is faster than an ls1???? if so im gonna buy that car tommorow haha.....thanks for the replies guys....i was unaware that these cars were that quick and nimble.

linderpat

the 928 excels at the high speeds. Not an off the line car at all (altho some on this board have been able to modify and get very respectable numbers, and I'm sure they'll post that here), but incredible power and torque over the whole range. It keeps pulling and pulling, and it stays smooth. I have an 86.5 MY, and it has some of the s4 suspension and brake upgrades. What are the last 4 vin numbers of the Boston 86? If 1000 or over, it is a very desirable 86.5 model. The only thing that concerns me about what you have posted is the price - if it's an 86 for 4250, that is very low and indicates potential problems. These cars are very expensive to bring back to life, and tricky even if you do the work yourself - not at all like American iron. I love both, but spend a bit more and get a well sorted car to modify, you'll be happier as you will have more for performance mods rather than spending everything on getting it to reliability in the first instance, IMHO.

Jack Riffle

A few thousand to go mid 13's no. Five or six K, yes and still have a top speed far beyond anything you would get that Camaro up to, if you had the ba**s. As Linderpat says though, that price is either a steal or a car that will need Several $K to bring back to life. Get a PPI!!!

WICruiser

Before you invest in you have the car checked out and either know the maintenance history from a reliable source or plan to spend some time and money up front.

Critical items to check are thurst bearing on the crank (automatics can have a problem if not checked/maintained that will eat up the engine) and timing belt (interference engine - so valves and pistons start mixing it up if the belt jumps).

Let us know what you decide.

85fortheDrive

Jack seems about right here. While a 928 has a massive engine, it is also a very heavy car. Way to much inertia to be fast off the line. It was built to handle curves and corners with remarkable agility and feel happiest past 80 mph. It is a grand touring car.

But if you are willing to sink some mo dolla into that 32V car and put a blower on it, it will be a monster.

Among the first questions to ask any seller is when the last timing belt and water pump job was done. This is an involved process which is either time consuming or costly.

Ron_H

You are asking if an '86 928 is a suitable drag car? Are you serious?? If so, you might want to invest some time doing homework and research to familiarize yourself with the definition of Grand Touring. Also try to imagine why the form of the car is as it is. One thing it is not is "styled". I recall one day at a Porsche dealer as a guy walked past a 908 in the showroom on display (not for sale). He said to his friend: " Wow! This is one serious motorcar." That was an understatement. Ask yourself what the history of Porsche has been, and then ask yourself why you want a 928 to DRAG RACE?? In a straight line for one quarter mile only and then on the brakes? Are you really serious? My 928 has a 2.2 final drive ratio. Why would anyone want to put such a high rear end in a car like that?

My '86.5 has approximately 195,000 miles on it. I bought it for $5600 when it had 120,000 miles on it. It will still pin you back in the seat through redline in all gears and will get you into realms I would fear to experience in your Chebbie. All day long. It burns zero oil. You may drive it for ten hours at "above 135 mph" and still want to keep going after stopping for dinner. I spent around $7000 after I bought it to bring it up to acceptable condition to accomplish the above safely. Bear in mind that this car was a $60,000 to $80,000 supercar when new and meant for high speed cross country driving loaded with luggage and company. It was not meant to cruise the boulevard trying to impress your friends at the drive in. Don't you think the buyers of these cars expected to spend a few dollars on keeping them maintained to higher standards of performance? Like multi-thousand dollars per year? Consider their purpose. Would you risk your life and those of others using this car as intended and expect to spend only $4000 to buy it and even less to maintain it? Get serious.

I have one more suggestion for those contemplating such a purchase, (unless you have already done it): invest some bucks in a driver training course. As you pass 80 mph in this car, you will begin to grin. That euphoric mood can get you in alot of trouble because your right foot has a long way to go past 80 and you won't even feel it as it settles down past 100. Yeah, watch out for euphoria. Be prepared.

fedorthebear

im aware that the car is not meant for 1/4 mile...reason i say this is that u can compare numbers this way......it can be solid numbers showing evidence of a cars speed.....i was just wondering on how the speed is compared to my 98 z28.....thats all....cuz my camaro could go over 160 mph and pulled 13's easy in the 1/4 mile

CaseyH

That seems pretty cheap for an '86. Is that the correct mileage? The odometers on these cars tend to stop working after a while. If the car has some known service history and the exterior is in good shape, I'd say go for it. At that price, it doesn't really matter if the interior isn't that great, which I'm assuming it isn't. You can spend an extra few thousand and get it looking sweet.

Nicole

That car sounds so cheap, I wonder what's wrong with it. Nobody sells a good 32Valve 928 for that money, unless they are desperate or the car needs a lot of work.

Under no circumstances should you buy this car without a pre-purchase inspection by a mechanic who is specifically familiar with the 928 - not just any Porsche!

You may find that this car needs a lot of work, and have to decide whether you can do this yourself or have to pay beaucoup bucks to a mechanic... in the latter case it may be more economic to buy a better example to start with.

If top performance is what you expect, I'm not sure the 928 is right for you - unless you think of performance as a blend of handling, ride comfort, fuel efficiency, and enough power to get you from A to B quickly.

Generally, don't expect the 928 to be as cheap to own as a Camaro. Expect repairs to be much more labor intensive, and parts at least twice as expensive. And expect to need more parts for a more complex car. Performance enhancements are more expensive, too!

But if you find the right one and make or keep it nice, it can be very rewarding.

Mike Frye

Hey Fedor,

Welcome! As you can see, there are mixed feelings about running these cars in the quarter mile. You had a '98 z28 that was fast. This car is in a different catagory entirely from the z28 so if you're trying to compare them, I wouldn't know where to start.

There are many purists here that feel it's blasphemy to run a 928 on a strip. There are others who have done it and continue to do it so it can be done. I often hear from a guy who has a supercharged 928 that runs in the high 13s to low 14s in the quarter. But if that's what you're after, the 928 isn't the 'ideal' platform.

If, as I suspect, you're trying to get a feel for what kind of power a well-sorted 928 can offer and your only means of getting that info is in quarter mile chunks, then I think you may be looking at the right car. As mentioned above, if you're looking for a car that will push you back in your seat HARD, you have found it. If you're looking for a car that can make you smile just by revving it up and hearing the V8 roar, then you have found your car. If you're looking for a car that you can be proud to park in any lot anywhere and even after a year, you can't help looking back as you walk away from it, you have found your car.

My advice: Don't buy the first one you look at though. No matter how cheap or nice looking, learn more about the car in general so you know exactly which one you want and then seek it out.

There are 16v models (pre-'85), early 32v models ('85-'86) and then the S4 and higher 32v models that get progressively more accessories and power until the GTS in '95 which sold for $100k+ when new here in the states. There are Euro models, US models and ROW (rest of the world) models. There are manuals and autos for each year that have their plusses and minuses.

As far as power adders, you can do exhaust mods, chip mods, super and turbo chargers as well as all kinds of ways to make them lighter and more trackable if that's the way you want to go. One of our sponsors recently ran a 928 in the Pike's Peak hill climb and did very well.

Do some research, get a Rennlist membership, then get a PPI before buying. Then you'll know exactly what you've got and what it needs to make it what you want.

The_Remora

Hey, another Boston guy.
(Yeah Fedor is a beast)
Just looking for basic performance numbers? Here's a start (you can find much better with a quick search I am sure).
http://www.carspecsdirectory.com/Porsche.htm

I'm assuming that youre asking about 1/4 mi times just as benchmark comparison because you don't have much else to go on or relate it to, not that you want it to bring down to New England Dragway every weekend right? An '86 Auto should be around a mid 14 second car stock, was rated at 310 crankshaft hp, and weighs about 3500 lbs. Also remember that these things are geared much higher than your average American pony car, they really were made for blasting down the Autobahn in total comfort not so much for American style traffic light to traffic light street racing or the 1/4 mile. Although a 32v 928 did set the FIM certified record for the flying mile time/speed. The 16v Euro's and 32v cars are pretty fast and will surprise a lot of people. Heck, even my non-Euro '83 surprised a lot of 'faster' cars in actual street racing. They are very solid and turn a lot more heads than most cars ever will. The technology in them (for older cars) is amazing and is part of the allure. If you like to tinker and work on cars yourself it can be a perfect car. If you don't then it can be difficult to own. Resources such as this forum and the innovative after market that has sprung up around them makes owning a 928 a lot more feasible.

Assuming the car you are looking at has no fundamental flaws/damage and is not a basket case (for that price you better check it out good), and you do all the basic nessesary servicing, then yes you could make it entertainingly fast for under a few grand. The early 32v cars supposedly respond very well to Autothority chips, and for an '86 you can do an X-Pipe (all '86 right, not just 86.5?) and RMB, you could even do headers, there are performance kits for the automatics that are supposed to wake up the shifting, and a host of other minor tweaks you can do. If you wanted to add some serious power, you could go with a supercharger or turbo kit, now that would surprise some people and should get you down into the 12's with an otherwise stock 928. BTW, did we mention that these things actually handle, stop like they have arrester hooks attached, and are probably the best highway car ever? See, thats what differentiates them and puts Porsches in a different category than the muscle cars, not just the HP numbers.

Here are a few other links that can show you the mods you can do if you want to go really fast: http://www.928motorsports.com/parts/32vstage1.php
https://www.928gt.com/default5.htm
http://www.928turbosports.com/

Obviously I'm a big fan of these cars, so I'm going to give a resounding 'hell yeah!', but they really are not for everyone. They are much more complex than most cars, can have all kinds of gremlins that are hard to fix w/o some time, patience and reasonable mechanical skill, and are not like a new car that you can just drive and forget about (although I did use my old one as a reliable daily driver for 5+ years), they do demand a lot more time and $$ than a lot of people are willing or able to dedicate to them. They are basically an undervalued high-maintenance supercar. Good luck with what ever you decide!