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My first 928 found me in a copy of AutoTrader, a 1984 928S black on black 5 speed. I wasn't looking for it but she caught my attention. It was a local seller and after two test drives I brought her home. Within a few months I had the grand idea to custom make an interior for it and I remember one day in particular where I picked my pregnant wife up from the train station back in 2010. The car was completely gutted except for the 2 front seats with the cluster zip tied to the column. We pulled out of the station and caught the first red light. I had a habit of slapping my open palm on the shift **** while I waited for the green light and in doing so I popped the linkage off the front ball socket in the middle of the intersection during rush hour traffic. Luckily I had no interior and was able to barely engage second gear with every last bit of strength my right index finger could exert and managed to drive her home (her= the 928). Needless to say, my wife politely asked that I not pick her up in the Porsche (she preferred calling it the death trap) anymore…
OK, who's next?
Last edited by RennPartsDirect; 09-04-2015 at 10:29 PM.
There's a place called " Black Tie Classic Autos" near my work and they had this '83 928 Euro on their lot for about 5 years. I did a lot of 'Due Diligence" before I decided to jump in. A lot of research here on Rennlist and the Web before I made my move. Many thanks to the "PROs from DOVER" for helping me out and Suffering thru all my 'Dumb @ss Questions'. I was able to talk the dealer down from $5900 to $3500 thanks to the info I gained here. (It's nice taking a used car dealer to the cleaners instead of the other way around.) Now I've had my '83 EuroS 5 speed (Vin# WP0ZZZ92ZDS841138) for 3 years now and so far have put another $3k in parts into it. So I figure I'm 'only' into it $500 above the dealer's asking price. With the M28/11 engine in it, it's a real MONSTER!! The interior is in good shape, but the original paint is 'sunburned'. "All Original Matching Numbers"!! LOL!! I did the WP/TB etc., and found that the water pump was date stamped 1983!?!!. It has a lot of "nickle-dime" problems, (seeing as its a PORSCHE make that '$50-100' problems. HaHa). The rear wiper doesn't work, the sunroof doesn't work,(but at least it doesn't leak), some of my side marker lights don't work. The odometer doesn't work and shows 164K miles so I figure at least 180K miles. 2nd gear is kind of "notchy" but it IS a 33 year old car. I've found a pair of 16x7 manholes for it, now I just need 2 16x8s for the rear. As for the paint: I think I'll wrap the car for right now. 3M makes a wrap called Gloss Blue Raspberry-(3M 1080-0378) that is very close to the paint color. I've built R/C planes for years and always said If i could get MonoKote in a 6 foot width 20 feet long, I'd cover a car with it. If the 3M wrap handles like MonoKote, I see no problem doing it myself. I can get enough wrap to cover the car for about $400. Has anyone here ever wrapped a 928?? 'THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES"
Found mine in a consignment yard in one of Riyadh's car souqs in 2001. They had 2 white Euros, the other one with a completely shot interior, but my seats were pretty bad.First visit they couldnt start it, but after a couple more visits it started. Didnt run all that well, but I bought it anyway. GP white paint, full white leather interior, LSD, M474. Original owner a Prince, son of the now king, came with all the paperwork for purchase, shipping to UK by air, UK licence plates, NO records of ANY services, a Tyvek cover in its bag. Spent quite some time sorting out CIS issues, replacing shocks, 4 new injectors etc until it was running really well. Did a belt and water pump swap on my own , in a carport, with lots of help from here and landshark. A year later I shipped it back to Oz when my job in Saudi finished, helping to justify a container for all the furniture and 9 years accumulated junk. Since then I have had the seats recovered , the interior cleaned by a leather specialist, and finally a full repaint. Doesnt get a lot of use now, but it still starts and drives well from stone cold, no hot start issues. Its the early 3 speed auto, but it gives me all the satisfaction and charge that I need.
jp 83 Euro S AT 56k
Well, in the beginning...approximately thirty years ago...my mind was focused on owning a 928. This was long before the internet, so finding one turned out being impossible...and I settled for a 944. Great car and drove the living daylights out of it, then sold it about fifteen years ago. Kind of forgot about the 928 ownership dream...until I started thinking about retirement and what I was going to do with my extra time once retired.
So, after a brief search on the net...this 84 was found in Ohio and Nov. of 2014 my quest for a 928 was complete. So I thought anyway.
After a winter of mechanical and elbow grease polishing...the car was pretty much done. Drove nice and had none of the several issues that seemed to plague these cars. So, this kind of left me dumbfounded as to "what happened to my retirement project".
Well, since my retirement project had taken a turn for the worse, or better, whichever the case...I still needed something to work on in about five years. So, along came these two. Two 78's, one for parts (black car) and one for a restoration project (red car).
Needing to learn more about these cars, and what better way to do that...then tear one a part. The dismantling on the black car began.
That left these two, one to drive and one to restore.
Never picture myself owning a red 928, but after much studying...this car is really growing on me.
Looking forward to the restoration and being part of the 928 world for years to come.
My story is only 3 weeks old.Living in Christchurch New Zealand I have purchased a 1991 s4 originally from UK with 133K on the clock for $7000NZD. The interior is excellent apart from cracking on pod and the paint is tired and needs a respray.Was planning on larger wheels but I'm warming to the design 90 rims as the days go by .Already doing maintenance as window motor failed. Looking forward to loving this car and doing plenty of driving with big smile on my face.
I was given a 1962 MGA that my brother needed to get out of my older brothers garage. It was a basket case. Everything was there...just needed a lot of work to restore her. In the mean time, my brother in law had a rolling chassis that he wanted to get out of his garage. So in an instant I had essentially two free cars. Well after getting all of the parts off the second car that I needed I decided to sell it. I put an ad on Craigslist and after a few inquiries from some far off lands located in the middle of Africa I was contacted by a guy from Tacoma ,WA . He collected MGA's and was interested in buying the rolling chassis.In talking to him about my desire to find a 928 and that my goal was to sell the MGA and look for a car. It just so happened that a friend of his had a 1988 s4 stored in his shop that he wanted to get out of it. Long story short... I traded both MGA's for my S4 and I am very happy and lucky to have been in a position for all of that to work out. Basically two free cars gets me a free Porsche .
My wife of nearly 47 years died and I was quite depressed. I decided it might cheer me up to sell one of the 2 SUVs in my garage and go find a fun car. I was most interested in another 1967 Corvette, but open to a long list of cars that had induced lust in my youth.
I found myself more trying them on than test driving them. A lot of 60's muscle cars had little leg room.
Then I went to the 9/14 Mecum auction in Dallas. There was a 1981 928 there that was not in any of the advance advertising materials. It was not even on the xeroxed bidding sheet for the day. It looked showroom new and had two stickers on the windshield. "12,150 miles." "No reserve." A friend had owned one and liked it. I climbed in and was amazed at the legroom.
The bidding started at $17,000. It then went to $20,000. I raised my hand.... and was totally amazed when nobody else bid.
When I picked it up the next day, there was a 928 owner checking it out. He told me there was a great 928 mechanic living what turned out to be 10 miles from my home. Sean Ratts. Sean told me about Roger, 928sRus and the local club. I was quite new to TX at the time. It has been great to meet so many nice new folks!
Some of you may recall how this board's gurus came to the rescue and helped me get back to the DFW area in my 928 from Bakersfield last Christmas. Telling the story of that adventure at our dog park led to an attractive lady asking if I would like to have dinner with her and tell her more of my stories. That has led, in turn, to my meeting another lady who interests me a great deal. We're seriously dating, though she won't be at 3rd Coast this year. ( I will have a female with me on the Saturday drive, but she is just a friend I am trying to entertain for a day away from taking care of a mother with Alzheimer's.)
I kind of feel like my 928 has been a miracle. It fell out of the sky and into my lap. It has changed my life so much for the better. And I am not making this up!
I was a 914/911 guy, but always liked the 928. At the time (1996), my '74 911 was at 100k miles and the 2.7 needed a rebuild. I wasn't keen on spending the cash on it, so I started looking for a 928. I found an India Red over tan '86 5 spd in Pano located in MD. I checked it out and ended up buying it. It had 80k miles and was in decent shape. I didn't know that much about 928s then, nor was I as mechanically savvy as I am now. After 2 years, I got tired of the wallet drain and sold it. Shortly thereafter, I bought an '89 911 3.2, which I still have.
Fast forward to 2008, I'm wrapping up a year-long stint at MNF-I HQ in Baghdad. Due to the benefits of combat zone duty and not being home for a year spending money, I had a bit extra burning a hole in my pocket.
Always eyeing the market, I stumbled across a '91 Coral Red GT on RL and eBay. I watched the auction, but didn't make any moves. Shortly after the auction's end, the seller revealed on RL that the deal fell through and he offered it to any Rennlister at the closing bid. There were no takers, so he relisted it. I wasn't sure why no one was jumping on this car. Maybe it was the color? It was a bit of a premium, but with only 55k miles and good maint history, I figured it would be gone.
I immediately started researching the car... CARAFAX, any history on RL that I could find (it was a DFW, TX car, so plenty activity there), and I communicated with the guy who won the auction but didn't buy (due to a financial issue). Of course, I must mention that there were several conversations with my wife at this point... she was very accommodating about the whole thing.
By this time, my stint in Baghdad was coming to an end and I was on my way home via a week in Kuwait. After a few emails with the seller, I decided this was the one for me and we settled on the original closing price. I called him from Kuwait and he agreed to end the auction early with a deposit. So I Paypaled him some cash from the computer trailer in Kuwait and he ended the auction, with the understanding of a refund if the car wasn't as advertised.
I told him that I intended to fly out and drive the car home, but wouldn't be able to get there for a month or so. After all, I had to get settled and re-acquainted with my wife after a year away, and she was pretty adamant about not competing with a car for my attention so soon after my return home... fair enough.
So, about a month later, I wired the seller the remaining funds (sight unseen, but with the same understanding as with the deposit). My dad and I took a Southwest flight to Dallas and drove it back to VA. We even got snowed on along the way.
It has been a satisfying, albeit not cheap, 7.5 years of ownership and I'm pleased with the purchase. Oh... and the rare color has turned out to be quite a hit.
Was ordering liquor one afternoon for my part of a nightclub/restaurant group I was affiliated with back in the late 80's in Stamford, CT. An older gent walks in and starts to chat. Asked what he did and he told me he was semi-retired and sold wines part time for a small wine distributor. Started to purchase a lot of wines from him and got to know him better. He asked my wife and I over to his house for drinks, etc. Walking down the hall of his home, spotted old black & white pics of him & Paul Newman rebuilding flat sixes on a workbench in his old shop-cool ! Bruno Engl was a factory trained Porsche mechanic ! He left Porsche and opened up his own performance shop in Westport, CT and ran it for 30+ years. We spotted a car through the windows of his attached garage. Asked him what kind of car it was and he said while visiting his mom in Germany he purchased this car and shipped it back to the US. When he pulled the cover off, out came a 928 80 S euro with pascha interior in a PTS color, no sunroof-WOW !! This OB was in pristine condition, maintained by a factory mechanic, and had only 33,000 miles (53,108km). Wife saw the pascha interior and was on board. Bought the 80 on the spot. Would still have that beauty today if a someone did not pull out in front of us without looking which totaled the car. Sad day. Many styling cues, re: pascha, color, non sunroof, euro fog driving, & headlights, brake ducts, etc. from this 80 euro were used recreating a modern day version of that car we now call "Just Peachy". T
I bought my first 928 back in 1997, it was an ’81. Loved it, but wanted more power. I sold the ’81 and bought the ’89 GT around 2005. I was relocated to Europe so stored the GT in the US and purchased an S4 for the years we lived overseas. Now I’m back in the US and loving the GT. Just put it into storage for the long, long winter...
Was travelling Europe and Italy in the early 80s with a small music group during my summers in high school and remember stopping in one of the AutoStrada highway stops. In comes a brand new 928. It was really different than anything I saw before. I thought it was really neat. I was always somewhat into cars and always looked for 928s whenever I could. Got older, went to University and life came along.
Then when I sold one of my businesses, I had some spending money (not a huge amount) and was just surfing the web just after Y2K. I was looking at Ferraris, Lambos, Porsches, and their selling prices just for fun when I came across a 928. I remembered my fascination in my early teen years. I couldnt believe how cheap they were relative to other exotics.
I started reading more about the 928 and stumbled across they Yahoo forum (local at the time) and just lurked for a while.
I made myself a spread sheet of all of the items to look at when buying a 928. Then I started calling the ads in Autotrader. I must have contacted about 15 different owners and looked at 6-8 different cars. Lots of them were in need of lots of maintenance with some people not having a clue about the car they were selling.
I remember taking my first test drive in an 89 5 spd in the Toronto area. Half of me wanted to find an excuse as to why i didn't need a 928 and not buy it. When I first got in it, it felt kind of Heavy in the steering, not the most nimble of cars, liked the pop up headlights, but thought that it wasn't all that great to drive in traffic. We then went to the water front on a freshly paved road in an industrial area on a Friday afternoon. This was before all of the water front development happened. I asked the owner if I could open it up from a dead stop. He egged me on to do it.
I have to say that once the car it 3500 rpm and the engine started to howl and i shifted out of 1st at close to 60km/h then second then third, I hit 120km/h in no time at all. At that moment the hook was well set in my cheek. Although I didn't end up buying that car, I did buy an 89 auto through Ebay from Boston a few weeks later. Ebay was relatively new and people couldn't believe i bought a car via Ebay. People thought I was crazy to buy a car sight unseen other than pictures on the internet. I tooka very early train down to Boston on a Saturday morning from Buffalo. It was a long 12 hr trip on a bumpy train which wasnt the most comfortable ride, but O dod like the spaciousness of my seats. I had a $ USD certified cheque for the owner which I handed over once the car was everything as he described. I drove the car back that evening, stopped in Springfield Mass for the night, then continued on home Sunday morning. It was great time to get to know the car.
I have since purchased two 5 spd 89s and sold the original 89 Auto to my insurance broker who still drives it. I think i would never be without a 928 for a long time to come. I love working on it and tinkering. There is always something to fix. It is my relaxation time(although sometimes I get stressed about some of the repairs I could be working on.)
One of my favorite stories about growing up centered on the 928. After we got our licenses, my friends and I used to trawl local car dealerships' used car lots looking for anything interesting. On one outing we came across a garnet S3 at the BMW store, but I don't remember if it was an '85 or '86. Since they kept all the used cars unlocked, I pored over every inch of that car. And since we were 17, the sales guys didn't even bother coming out to try to sell the car.
My buddy Sam worked up the nerve to try to talk our way into a test drive. No dice, since we needed to be 18. But, if we brought back an adult they'd let us take it out. We asked my dad, a consummate gear head, and he just laughed at us. We figured it was a million to one shot to ask Sam's dad, very much an erudite, but somehow we convinced him.
So the three of us take the car out, and nobody from the dealership came with. On this drive, we manage to park the car, unknowingly arm the alarm with the otherwise broken hatch lock, panickedly try to restart the car while the alarm is going off, drain the battery in the process, and then find out that the battery is in the trunk that we couldn't open for the jump. (Not knowing about the post under the hood, of course). About 2 hours later we finally get the car back to the lot, shirk any talk of buying it, and get out of there.
Every day for the next 15 years I knew I wanted to get a 928. Sam tragically passed away last year, so in a combination of honoring his memory and a renewed zest for living in-the-now, it was time to make it happen. Popped onto RL classifieds, found my dream combo sitting right there, and here we are.
09-04-2015, 02:49 PM
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