polecat702

Received the October issue today. While thumbing thru the magazine, I noticed an advertisement for the Porsche Dealerships Classic Workshops, featuring a picture of a 928.

I seriously doubt that any dealership in America could come close to Doc Brown's Precision Motorwerks.

It was nice to see some attention to the 928 though.

Adk46

RKD in OKC

The head mechanic at the local Porsche Dealership has been working on the 928 since day one.

Crumpler

I saw the add as well​​​​​.
I was curious about the "Werks" feature, there was a pic of a late MY 928. It was in racing garb and a convertible.
Is that anybody we know?

And how was the event anyway? Was it a true homage to water coolers, or lip service only?

hacker-pschorr

Yes, there are very qualified 928 mechanics out there, just need to find them. My local Indy shop has been working on 928's since 1984 (I now own the first one he worked on) and has owned at least a dozen over the years (currently has 3).

If Porsche is serious about this (and I think they are, following the Mercedes & Ferrari Classic programs) they have all the training documents and information on file. Information that makes the WSM looks like an owners manual by comparison.

Will it be cheap? Absolutely not, but neither is any other qualified mechanic. The good news for us is, as they work on more and more 928's they will finally start to recognize what parts are NLA and get them back on the market.

Anyone close to a 928 classic center should bring in an S4 for a scheduled fuel line replacement and see what happens......

newcollector

I'd be interested to know how many 928s are still on the road. +/- 70%

Imo000

I would guess not more than half but even that might be an overestimate.

Tomkat80222

It says they have 8500 parts, but they fail to mention the 928 has over 850,000 parts. Does anyone know how many different parts are on a typical 928? Seems like 850,000.

dr bob

At a recent PCA dinner-meeting hosted by the local dealer here, several service guys came out to look at the car. "Cleanest one we've ever seen." Which leads me to think none were involved in the cars when they were in production. These guys were too young, in my visual estimation anyway. The dealership is also promoting the classics program, with some interesting mid-50's cars currently on display. Not sure if they did the work, but the cars are pretty nicely done. Chances of having a 356-era tech on staff is halfway between the tall skinny cowboy and the girl in the penguin suit. (Slim and nun).

Still they are machines, and there's good original documentation on how they were built including the fabrication drawings and specs for every part. For a long time Porsche was an engineering company that [also] built cars. I'd be shocked if design docs were ever thrown away.

soontobered84

You went there, did you? LMAO

Red Flash

Funny, I had a discussion about this two weeks ago with some friends completely unrelated to this add. According to one, the number 8.500 came up at a meeting at Porsche in Stuttgart at which time a P-representative said, "This was much more than the number of 911 parts they had on stock." They apparently didn't know that the 928 has many more parts than a same-era 911. So that statistic/comparison is essentially useless.

Also, recently I was at a kind of 928 owners club meeting in of all places Switzerland. Porsche actually took the time to send a "representative" to the meeting who was in charge of the "classic cars" in Switzerland. Nice fellow and nice gest. But, the resounding sentiment of the group was that they did not really see any reason to be an official Porsche club of any kind. As I tend to be, they were more 928 fans than of Porsche, and didn't feel that the current Porsche organization had much to do with their 928s. (Some of them nonetheless did have new Porsche's though...)

Indeed, if I had to take my car to a specialist it would not be anybody directly related to Porsche. I would send it to people like Stan, Dave C., Doc Brown, Sean, Earl, etc. I am quite sure they care. I don't get Porsche's sudden interest given what I know about their past actions towards the 928.

GregBBRD

I'd love to be the concours judge on the first one they do....

hacker-pschorr

At one time Ferrari didn't have a care in the world for their vintage cars, especially the retired race cars. There is a Jean Alesi (or Gerhard Berger) Ferrari F1 car that has been around the vintage circuit for many years with a Judd V10 installed. Rumor has it the factory told them to pound sand when they ran into issues with the Ferrari engine, so they installed something else.

Fast forward to today, Ferrari has an entire division dedicated to keeping these old cars, especially the racing ones, up and running.

Mercedes too, their classic division is setting the standard for vintage restoration. They have made it clear any part, any model, any year....you can order it. Now granted they might be making you one from old drawings and blueprints, and it will cost a fortune, you will get the proper part. Mechanics I know have seen first hand how much these parts are for Vintage Mercedes, but they were able to fix them properly.

A word of caution, Porsche is late to the party but they are coming, and if you think parts are expensive now....you ain't seen nothing yet.

GregBBRD

There has alwasy been a huge difference between Mercedes and Porsche.

Mercedes, even in the mid 70's, would make any part you needed.

I needed a crankshaft for a 190. Went to the dealer, it was not available, but they told me that didn't matter...they would make one. They took my order and I paid for it.

Six months later, a brand new crankshaft arrived.

Up to this point in time, when Porsche was out of an item, you were SOL. Porsche now does have an "advisory" board that considers what pieces need to be remade. I've been told that they will "consider" remaking anything that they get an order for 100 pieces. My math tells me that even for a "cheap" $100 part, you are going to have $10,000 dollars sitting on your shelf. If you want them to remake dashes....think $150,000 for each different color.

The point is, unless you are Singer, not many pieces are going to be made, unless the factory decides to finance the effort and stock them.

hacker-pschorr

Porsche appears to be finally coming around, and why not?

I'm not saying they will always do the best job, same as I know Motion Products in Neenah, Wisconsin will do a better job restoring a Ferrari than the factory. However, having them at least acknowledge the other models and claim to be making an attempt at supporting them is a good thing.