Podguy

I do not think Porsche had much consideration for fuel economy considering the 78 4.5 CIS engine got about 8 MPG and on the road maybe 14 MPG.

In 1977 the common thinking was the energy crisis was only temporary. No one thought oil would be in short supply for the next 30+ years.

danglerb

Porsche has a long history of bringing out a new model with the least amount of HP they think will sell, then slowly over many model years bump the Hp up to sell new cars.

MPG I think was a concern to all brands, the 928 got zapped with something like $3k of gas guzzler tax by 1995.

linderpat

The OP didn't ask whether the 928 was the first to use alusil liners and aluminum blocks. He asked if the engine was developed by Audi. Just because Porsche came up with a clean sheet engine design doesn't mean they invented all of its components. Of course they would have used material technologies available at the time, and maybe even come up with some new ones. The engine as a unit is, afaik, all Porsche.

123quattro

Did you read the book?

17prospective buyer

I think back in the initial ads for the 928 they commented that the 4.5L was "...the best compromise between fuel economy and power...".

LOL

dprantl

Yes, as an earlier poster has described, all 911 engines are derivatives of the VW beetle engine which were in fact stolen designs of the T97 by Ferdinand Porsche from Hans Ledwinka of Tatra. This fact was pretty easily squashed by Germany in World War 2 so not many people actually know about it. Here's a good quote from Ferdinand:

Porsche admitted "Well, sometimes I looked over his shoulder and sometimes he looked over mine" while designing the Volkswagen.

The T97 was released in 1936, the VW beetle in 1938, although the beetle seemed to be more of a copy of the V570 prototype that was completed by 1933.

The 928 V8 engine is one of the only engines that was built by Porsche from scratch, making it one of the "purest" Porsche engines. Whenever someone claims anything about Porsche models and their relative "purity", I just laugh.

Dan
'91 928GT S/C 475hp/460lb.ft

JET951

That sums it up Dan .

danglerb

By the 70's every brand in the world had picked over every other brands technology. What I thought was curious is how the Ford mod motor followed on some ideas of the 928 motor.

OTOH where would the 928 be without the technology from the 1963 Pontiac Tempest?

Podguy

Having bought my first 928 in 1979 I do not remember anything about fuel economy. The car was billed as a maintenance free car. The hydraulic lifers got around the 3000 mile adjustment and service with the 911 which was a real customer turn off for the 911. Oil changes were pushed out to 5000 miles. Tune ups were suppose to be 50k miles due to the electronic ignition.

Imagine the shock of new owners recieving this pitch to be hit with a $1200 bill for the first maintence.

The 78 and 79 cars never made any compromises to gas mileage. That occurred with the 80 US model when they went to the rabbit fuel injection and detuned the engine in an attempt to capture the lucritive dentist wife's market. The 78-79 cars did well to get 14 mpg on the road - of course that did not matter if you drove 55 or 85. The 80 bumped up mileage to over 20. Of course that was followed by an 85 MPH speedometer.

Daniel5691

I would be interested to read what knowledgeable folks have to say about comparing the 928 engine design to other common V-8 designs, for instance the ubiquitous small-block Chevy, and various other well-known V-8s....

Thanks.

Vilhuer

Everyone who think what 928 engine is and isn't should read Project 928 book and only comment after it.

The Deputy

Jim has a nice article by Road and Track archived on his site (928Classics) that touches on the American influences used while building the 4.5 engine. I'd post a link to Jim article...but I do not have his premission.

Somewhere, on the internet, I read another magazine article, where they'd mention Chrysler and GM quite often and their influences.

As far as l can remember...neither article I've read...mention anything about Audi.

EDIT: Here are a couple articles about the history of the 928. One is the Road and Track I mentioned earlier and the other is something I just ran across. The second link mentions Audi's engine design being "thought about"...but quickly dismissed by Porsche.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97...t?pref=2&pli=1

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_928

Brian.