"What's it like?"
The first journalist, who posed the question, expected a factual
answer from the second journalist, who had just returned from a
drive of several hours through southern France in a new Porsche
928. Instead, he heard a flat statement that he could not believe:
"It makes all other Porsches old-fashioned"
All other Porsches? How could that be? thought the first
journalist, who loved the lusty 911's and the velvet-gloved
mailed fist that was the Turbo. He had not driven the 928,
but he could hardly imagine that is might outclass the 911 in its
finest form. Later, he too drove the 928, and he too was asked,
"What is it like?"
He heard himself give an oblique answer:
It's as if all other Porsches have been just practice exercises
for the men who designed this car"
Such were the impressions the 928 made on some of the first
non-Porsche people to drive it at the end of February 1977. Fine
though the 911 was and still would be, the 928 clearly
represented a doorway through which Porsche would drive into a
new era. The car possessed an astonishing clarity of conception
and execution, from its superb engine to its ingenious suspension.
Invested in the 928 were all of Porsche's experiences with the road
and racing cars the company had designed and built since it was
established in 1930. And the Porsche engineers were able to put
that experience to work in the 928 for one surprising reason: the
928 was the first production car in Porsche's history that the
company had been able to design completely from scratch.