The generation project
After lying in the museum's storage for 30 years, the Porsche 928 has now returned to the spotlights. Since January, former Porsche employees and young apprentices have been working together on the restoration.

When training supervisor Panagiotis Chatziioannis finally turned the ignition key and the engine roared into life, the eyes of the three former Porsche employees Hans Clausecker, Günther Steckkönig and Bernd Zackl lit up. For them the 928 is a very special Porsche and restoring it to its original state was a matter dear to their hearts. Since the beginning of the year, they therefore worked on the restoration together with the apprentices.

In 1983, Hans Clausecker and Günther Steckkönig started off for the first time in the Veedol long distance trophy on the Nürburgring. "Originally, the 928 was only planned as an experimental car," explained Clausecker who worked for Porsche from 1959 to 2005. Backed by Günther Steckkönig they campaigned to enter the car for races and won their case. The 928 was entered for the Nürburgring 4-hour race – and won a total of three overall wins. A minor sensation.

But then the 928 fell somewhat into oblivion. But not with Steckkönig and Clausecker. They were convinced the 928 had to be brought back into the open. That was also what Bernd Zackl thought, former head of the mobile workshop. He was also involved in the 928 project at that time. Thanks to a steady exchange of correspondence with the Porsche Museum the idea was born to put the veteran race car back into running order in an internal cross-generation Porsche project and involve the apprenticeship training centre in the project.

For them the renovation of an old car is a very special challenge. How can I retain as much as possible of the original state? And how can the necessary repair work be achieved at the level of the past using the resources available today? "When we tried in vain for hours to get the engine to start after fitting it in, we were just about to give up," reports 20 year old Thorsten Josenhans. The sense of achievement was all the greater when it finally did start. He and his colleague apprentice Kevin Huober have been with the project since it started and want to complete the restoration work by the end of the year.

The work that still has to be done by then is the anti-roll bar. In addition the car wheels must be aligned and the replica of the original decals must be applied. But a special highlight will be "the test drive at the end, of course," says Steckkönig and brings a smile to the faces of the entire crew.