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1979 Porsche 928
Power Play
JAN TEGLER
Published Date: 9/27/04
As the American horsepower wars of the muscle car era reached their peak in 1971, the spiral toward ever higher performance did not go unnoticed overseas. Porsche declared 1971 the year of the "power play," bringing the 916 and a more powerful 911 onto the stage while behind the scenes, a design study was under way. Conceived as a replacement for the air-cooled, rear-engined 911, Projekt 928 was to be a front-engined, water-cooled, 300-hp V8-powered GT supercar that would appeal to the American market and more easily adapt to stiffening emissions regulations.
Predating the 924, the 928 was midway through development when the first global energy crisis hit. Faced with new and radically different market conditions, Porsche chose to delay the car’s introduction and to scale back its performance. Nevertheless, the 928 made headlines with its 1977 Geneva debut. It had a distinct ovoid shape, featuring exposed pop-up headlamps (à la Lamborghini Miura), and aluminum doors, fenders and hood.
Under the car’s hood an aluminum 4.5-liter, 16-valve sohc fuel-injected V8, good for 219 hp in American trim, mated to a five-speed transaxle or optional three-speed automatic. The rear-mounted gearbox gave Porsche’s new line-topping sports car a near-perfect front/rear weight balance and aided its legendary stability.
"It runs along at high speed as long as you can stand it," says John Krawczyk of Crownsville, Maryland, owner of this 1979 928. Designed to cruise for hours at 140 mph on the autobahn, the "Shark" combined high-profile performance with high-profile luxury. Krawczyk’s car originally sold for more than $30,000 and was first owned by Pepsi-Cola Corp. of Denver, which used the Porsche in its corporate promotions.
Settling into the cork-colored interior, you immediately understand what a departure this is from the comparatively spartan 911s of the same era. Supple leather seats, a full instrument package, air conditioning and a factory four-speaker Blaupunkt stereo coddle the driver. Vestigial rear seats flank a carpeted glovebox and an ashtray. Twist the dash-mounted ignition and the 4.5 comes to life with a throaty V8 rumble.
The three-speed automatic in this Shark is typical of production 928s after 1980. The arrangement is consistent with Porsche’s relatively heavyweight (at 3200 pounds) GT mission. Indeed, on the highway one can easily imagine eating up miles at high velocity and in great comfort. But when the road snakes, the car proves it is a true Porsche.
The Shark’s innovative suspension combines coil-over springs and gas shocks with an upper-A-arm/lower-wishbone up front and the ingenious semi-trailing arm Weissach axle at the rear. Developed to eliminate oversteer, the Weissach axle acts as passive rear steering, dynamically changing rear-wheel toe-in under load during cornering. The result is a smooth ride and impressively neutral handling with none of the 911’s twitchiness. Push really hard and the 928’s weight induces understeer, but the meaty rubber on its 15-inch phone-dial-style alloy wheels sends clear signals through the car’s nicely weighted steering.
Eleven-inch discs provide good stopping power but require more muscle to actuate than most modern binders. Acceler-ation is brisk but not blinding. Road & Track reported an 8.1-second 0-to-60-mph time for 1979 with a 16.2-second quarter-mile. Lateral grip was listed at 0.82 gs. The numbers and the package were so impressive that in 1978, the 928 was named Car of the Year by the world’s automotive press, the only sports car to earn that honor.
Despite enthusiastic reaction from the press and the public, plus a list of celebrity buyers, the expensive 928 has always been considered somewhat excessive by rear-engined Porsche purists. Sales were strong early on with upward of 60,000 produced, but the purists kept buying 911s even as more powerful 928s, including the S, S4, GT and GTS, were developed. The Shark died in 1995, outlasted by the car it was to replace. Still, it was ahead of its time, a power play that continues to impress.
Note: Mine is an 83 928S. 0-60 is sub six seconds, and it runs the 1/4 mile in a best recorded time of 13.6 seconds at 103 mph.
"Molon labe".
Leonidas, King of Sparta,
Thermopylae, 480 B.C.
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