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Porsche in the early 1970s had what they thought was a great idea. With the trend of people’s tastes moving more towards luxury, why not replace the 911 with an all-new model?
Move away from the pure sports car experience, replace Porsche’s aging boxer-6 engine with an advanced water-cooled V8 at the front and balance the car with a rear-mounted transaxle. Make that car the best GT car in the world, offering performance and luxury on equal levels.
Finally, announce to the world that this car was the replacement for the iconic 911. What could go wrong?
That car was the Porsche 928.
The Pick of the Day is one of those cars, a stunning 1980 Porsche 928 finished in the rare color of Petrol Blue.
History has proven that even great companies have bad ideas, and as history has shown, the 911 is still here and the 928 is long gone. I reckon if Porsche had done everything except for announcing it as the replacement for the 911, we might still see a modern 928 at dealers today.
The 928 was a fantastic car. I first drove a 928 in 1982 while returning it to the owner from the Porsche shop where I worked. I was 16 years old and was simply blown away with the driving experience.
The car was so solid and handled so as to be otherworldly. I had at this point driven a number of Porsches of all types, and the 928 was just so much more car to me.
The solid feel of these cars is legend, virtually unbeatable during that era. The interior was simply stunning, offering lots of leather, extremely comfortable seats and an ingenious instrument binnacle that adjusted with the steering wheel. It was quite simply the best interior of any sporting car built during the time.
The Porsche 928 was not just a well-constructed and futuristic car, either; it has performance chops as well. When new, the 928 was often compared to the likes of the Aston Martin V8 Vantage.
Though large and heavy, the 928 is capable of 0-60 times as low as 6.5 seconds and had a top speed of 143 mph. If that seems slow, compare it to a 1980 Ferrari 308, which in US spec took more than 7 seconds to get to 60 and had a top speed of 140 mph.
The 4.5-liter SOHC aluminum V8 engine in the 928 is also a work of art. With the Porsche badge proudly displayed on the intake and P-o-r-s-c-h-e spelled out on the beautifully cast-aluminum cam covers, it’s as nice to look at as it performs.
The only issue with the 928 was that it was not a 911, and people showed their displeasure of this planned replacement by continuing to buy 911s and shunning the 928s.
According to the Delray beach, Florida, dealer advertising the Porsche on ClassicCars.com, this 928 is one of only 3,800 made in 1980. It is stated to be a one-owner car with 82,430 original miles from new. It is also a 5-speed manual gearbox car, which is a definite plus as a collector 928. It still has all 3 original keys, all original handbooks and its factory tool kit.
The seller calls this Porsche 928 “very clean inside and out and has always been garage kept from new.” The car is described as a true time capsule.
For years, the values of 928s were around $10,000, but in the past few years, these cars have increased substantially in value along with other Porsches, with the best low-mileage all-original examples of the earliest cars routinely changing hands for upwards of $40,000.
This 928 is priced at a very fair $22,500, and is a lot of ’80s Porsche GT for the money. If Porsche does not mean exclusively rear-engine power to you, and you would like your classic Porsche to be a bit more civilized, a 928 could be just the thing.
To view this vehicle on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.
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