Mark Anderson

I was racing at Fontana Speedway this weekend when I met Howard Miester. Howard use to have a Porsche dealership in Garden Grove Ca and he also did a fair amount of racing. He told me that the whole time he owned the dealership he always drove a 928 and that he also drove the factory prepared 928 at Daytona in 1983 ? He said it was a joy to drive and surprised everyone. Porsche sent the car and support team here and told the US team they were not to touch it, just drive. If not for some contact that caused a lengthy pit stop he thought it would have finished in the top 5 overall.

Rob Edwards

Cool story! I can't help but think the funniest part of that is that there was ever a Porsche dealership in Garden Grove....

Black Sea RD

Hi Mark,

Cool that you met Howard Meister!

As I posted before, I had the pleasure of interviewing "Quick Vic" Elford and Bob Hagestad, two other drivers of four that drove that 1984 Daytona 24 Hour race in the Brumos ordered 928.

Some memorable comments from Elford was that on the high speed banking the 928 was unstable and the drivers wanted to put a wing on the car. Porsche overseers at Daytona said no, so the mechanics kept fiddling with the suspension until it was settled down.

This all came about due to a request by then Brumos head, Bob Snodgrass to Porsche to prepare a 928 for the 1984 Daytona 24 Hour race. Mr. Snodgrass, who I also interviewed, said it was an attempt to show off the 928 to the American market to boost sales that were not doing well here.

Mark, anyway to get back in contact with Howard Meister? Might as well interview him too.

Thank you,
Constantine

928worldwide

ok, both of you get this from me

Marine Blue

Very cool and thank you for sharing the history.

SeanR

Huh?

Black Sea RD

HI Mason,

Thank you! It was very cool uncovering the history of the first 928 raced in an International, high profile race! Mr Snodgrass, now deceased, was very proud of that fact.

I'm hopeful that a recent contact by a well known Porsche magazine might lead to a short story being published on another interesting fact I uncovered during this research in that 928s history. We'll see and hopefully soon!

Cheers,
Constantine

928worldwide

Sean,
I do love the car; and stories like this one, even though I look like 928 the reaper some days.

Mark Anderson

I met Bob Hagastad at a World Challege race. He saw my 928 and came over to introduce hiimself and tell me all about the 24 in a 928. A very nice gentelman.
I met Bob Snodgrass at a Sema show years ago and he told me that he tried to build a 928 for Super Production but Porsche told him not to. They did not want the 928 competing head to head with their beloved 911 turbo. I guess it wouldn't look good for their comfy GT to beat their all out sports car.
As for Howard I do not have his contact info but I may be able to get it for you.

heinrich

I believe this was wherePorsche's lack of vision lost them the opportunity to overthrow other marques as supercar king. Because, with a 1-2 finish in TWO supercar models totally different from Porsche, they would have ruled the racing and production world. Imagine a 928 and 911 burning up the tracks, alternating lead. In retrospect, we can now see that many supercar manufacturers have in fact sold a great many FEWC V8 cars, where Porsche never gave the 928 its deserved muscle car (think Holden Monaro) place.

atb

A little OT, but came across this pic in a book regarding Porsches.
The author was from the UK and compaigned a 928 CS back in the day.

Mark Anderson

I found this on another forum
"

Porsche built a 928S with an aluminum chassis/body and shipped it to Brumos Racing for the 1984 Daytona 24 Hours (also the 962's first race). Drivers were Richard Attwood and Vic Elford plus Americans Howard Meister and Bob Hagestad. They started 72nd overall, 30th in the GT Class. The 928S ran without a snag, but the 962 quit, so the factory mechanics switched to the 928. Needing nothing except a little engine oil now and then, the 928 finished 15th overall, 4th in GT. Today it’s in the Porsche museum in Stuttgart.

Like Howard Meister, Bob Hagestad was active in the Trans Am series in the 1970s; his Lakewood, Colorado, Porsche dealership (founded by his father, Vern) still exists under different ownership, and Bob now lives in the Dallas area. I was at his shop the day his first new '73 Carrera RS race car was delivered and have photos somewhere...

Frank "

http://forums.autosport.com/showthre...=&pagenumber=1

heinrich

THere was a photo of 2 guys holding the entire unibody of aluminium up between them.

Black Sea RD

I personally always questioned the fact this 928 Daytona racer has an aluminum chassis. Hopefully this question will be put to rest soon.

Cheers,
Constantine

Mark Anderson

I asked Howard and he thought it was but I wouldn't call it definitive.