MJW

My dad's been offered one of these as a bit of a project car, and I wondered if anyone out there had experience of owning / running one. Also any web links would be appreciated, cheers.

Brendan Hughes

Spoon. And I think someone else here, trying to remember who...

Cars I regret never buying:
928 (now too old and expensive)
Caterham 7 (too dangerous where I am)
BMW MCoupe (getting a little old, VANOS and cracking chassis risks, and still v expensive)

sigh....

billythekid

Where do you live, Basra? I know people who drive 7s in Finland (all year round), Oz, China and Saudi all of which have their own risks but they get on just fine with the car?

HankScorpio

Can't help I'm afraid but sexiest rear quarterlight in the car world.

The first car I ever drooled over and still hanker after one today.

Spare 18 grand anyone...?

Spoon

As Brendan says, I've owned one but back when it was new in 1989. Fantastic car that loved rear tyres as part of it's staple diet, but then I drove it like a joey back then, when you could, without fear of speed cameras.

Is it the S4 your Father has been offered? S4 = 5.0 Auto.

The one pictured above was the later GTS and was a 5.4 litre, with minor other differences, like the wider rear arches, wheels, mirrors etc.

Mine never missed a beat and I clocked up 90,000 miles. It just became the family, even when I had other cars to use. I kept the Porsche for long racing weekends to places like Scotland or Devon where the miles were a joy.

Servicing, tyres, not cheap but easily a trade off for random naked breast shows that strangely occurred on a regular basis.

Any specific questions, just ask.

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

simon (gc8) should also be able to help as he used to buy and sell them.

hth

james

MJW

Yes its a 1988 928 S4, the 5.0 V8. Its a stolen & recovered, so not sure what the extent of the damage (if any) there is. I can imagine a set of rears not lasting very long with over 300bhp on the back wheels !!
Are there any model-specific problems to look for that you know of ? I heard the electrics could be a bit of a nightmare.

Spoon

Ah, the electrics scare. All I can say on that was I had nothing go wrong with my electrics at all, maybe as I used the car and it never really sat about much, who knows?

Out of all the cars I've ever owned I'd say it was closest to faultless.

ScoobyDoo555

Out of interest Spoon, have you still got it? If not, why did yo uget rid of it?

I saw one in Spain last year, and had a good look at getting one, but for various reasons, went Audi instead (928 ain't exactly designed as a family lugger!! )

Dan

Spoon

Haven't still got it as I had it back in 1989 for about 3 years and it did start to get used less and less as I had bought something else that suited my needs more at the time, and the wife, well, was uncomfortable with the attention it brought when she used it. I had followed her on occasions and witnessed guys intimidating her so I agreed it wasn't worth keeping as a ornament.

A Porsche dealer asked me one day if I'd sell it to a customer of theirs that was looking for one, and that was it.

Incidentally It still holds the record on my 'home hill' for maximum speed at a given point (top of the hill) and braking down to almost a standstill to negotiate a 120 degree turn into the driveway. Various cars over the years have beaten the top speed but failed to brake as succesfully for the drive. A 5 litre Griffith parked itself in my hedge when the engine cut out under braking and power steering was lost on turn-in.

A Grp A Cossie holds the top speed record but forgot to brake altogether due to the fact I was hanging on to it after it launched itself over a bump that wasn't there in any other car. I never really tried it again in that car as traction was always a problem, which also made it the most fun.

Other cars were spoilt by their girly ABS that didn't allow for do or die braking without feeling like you had a caravan on the back pushing you.

Then you get older.

GC8

The electrics arent any more of a problem than on any other similar size/status car and theyre better than many. The biggest issue is the engine: particularly the complicated/problematic cylinder heads. Even a spark plug change requires that the engine be lifted (or the vehicle dropped)..... Early S4s are available with a manual transaxle and theyre worth looking for.

Simon

blot

Had an S4 manual for 12 months about 6 years back. Had no problems with it at all, drove it abroad and cruised happily at 150+ (where legally permitted of course).

Made the mistake of buying new slicks for it once. The rears were through the metal after 3/4 of a day at Elvington, road tyres were not quite as bad!

Pretty sure there is a yahoo group which could be 928GB? which is full of scarily knowledgeable 928 folk.

Was a nice car to own and was deceptively fast, similar experience to spoon, it beat both my evo 5 & 6 on my 'home hill' test of the time and by quite a margin. 3rd gear just keeps going!

Is potential for some scary bills and there must be 50miles worth of electric cables in them!!!!!

Brendan Hughes

Portugal. Statistically the most suicidal drivers in the pre-enlarged EU, typical hairy-chested machismo of "the biggest car has the right of way", and a fair number of pickups about. I drove a Dutton Phaeton for 4 yrs in UK, rain shine or snow, so I'm not just a fairweather driver. But as my wife has already lost a couple of close family members due to separate MVCs, I am frankly forbidden from driving one here, and I'm not fighting after I pranged my jeep. 7s are extremely rare around Lisbon, but one day I saw one in a car park parked at right angles to a new Range Rover. RR bumper pointed at driver's head. Laws of statistics and physics take priority over my wishes.

For the other two, I wouldn't object but I don't know if there are any real independent garages that I'd trust to work on them. I had a friend who's big brother was a yuppie in the late 80s, had his choice of hot wheels for company cars. He went through a hell of a lot of them, but kept coming back to a 928, said he couldn't fault it.

Edit - BTW, there's the minor matter of I don't have a spare £15k lying about...

Jeff Wiltshire

There where a small number of 928 Club Sports which where lightened and had manual gearboxes....Given to works Porsche drivers at one time. Very quick cars but the 2 ECUs which are a common failure because of water damage (£1000 each) kinda put me off which is why I ended up with a 944 Turbo instead.

GCollier

It must be a thing with late 80's porsches! Back in the mid 90's when I owned a guards red 944, a young lady did just that to me. It's never happened since, even in a brand new 911.

Gary.