Modern cars = high risers

[Tempest 0]

Must be me, but somehow modern cars are more reminscent of high risers or block of flats, call them what you like, but they should come with a lift as standard equipment to get in: First floor, doors opening :lol:

 

Another beautiful day, this time it was time for a trip to the sound of a V8. Off to Bosworth Battlefield for a bit of culture, parked the landshark between 2 modern cars and observed my opening statement:

 

 

:lol:

 

Tempest

[Portent 0]

Totally agree. The first time I parked my Corrado in a high street I couldn't stop giggling at how high everything else looked on either side of it.

[ChrisL 17]

My daughter loves the Corrado because she is taller then it! Our daily is a MK5 GT TDI.....

[KADVR6 0]

Must be me, but somehow modern cars are more reminscent of high risers or block of flats, call them what you like, but they should come with a lift as standard equipment to get in: First floor, doors opening :lol:

 

Another beautiful day, this time it was time for a trip to the sound of a V8. Off to Bosworth Battlefield for a bit of culture, parked the landshark between 2 modern cars and observed my opening statement:

 

 

:lol:

 

Tempest

 

Mmmmmm 928 still in my eyes the best porsche in terms of looks ever.

[swiftkid 1]

Yea, I have noticed

 

[Yandards 0]

Ah, the effect of crash regulations on car design.

 

Just look how slab sided the front of most cars are now, pedestrian impact ratings are making some fuggly cars.

[Jim 1]

The difference being of course that I'd much rather crash in my Fiat 500 (or any modern car) than I would my Corrado...

 

---------- Post added at 8:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 8:52 AM ----------

 

Yea, I have noticed

 

 

Hah - the Corrado roof is almost level with the base of the windscreen on the X5!!

[Butterfly 0]

The difference being of course that I'd much rather crash in my Fiat 500 (or any modern car) than I would my Corrado...

 

Hah - the Corrado roof is almost level with the base of the windscreen on the X5!!

 

But I don't think being IN a Corrado is too much of a risk even with it's age of design. But I certainly wouldn't want to be a pedestrian hit by one.

 

And although it is really no excuse but the low height of a C could be seen as a reason why so many get rear ended... the driver behind is looking over the car!

 

Personally the car being so 'short' always gives me a second or two of panic in a car park when I can't see it. Then I remember it will be hiding amongst taller cars and start looking for the right shape bumper :)

[Wendy 0]

I am always doing that - not locating my car - in the car park due to being hidden by big ugly new things. !!!

 

And - so Jim - the love is back on then ?? (Noting your statement above !) ;-)

[Stonejag 10]

Hah - the Corrado roof is almost level with the base of the windscreen on the X5!!

...which is why adding a high-level brake light is a good idea ;)

 

Stone

[iR6 0]

'it was acceptable in the 80's!'

 

Love the 928, will be that or a 968 that I get as my next toy, once the raddo has done its time.

 

Tempest- What's th deal with 928 prices though, the range is huge, almost 10k. I know you get what you pay for like most things, but is there a certain year or engine to avoid?

[Tempest 0]

'it was acceptable in the 80's!'

 

Love the 928, will be that or a 968 that I get as my next toy, once the raddo has done its time.

 

Tempest- What's th deal with 928 prices though, the range is huge, almost 10k. I know you get what you pay for like most things, but is there a certain year or engine to avoid?

 

 

Still learning a lot about the 928 myself, and am tempted to try an intake manifold off job sometime in the future. Why? Because that´s where the ISV hides, and lots of potentially perished hoses.

 

Anyway back to your query:

 

Broadly speaking the early 928s (up to 1986) were 16V V8s, offering a more aggressive sound when driven at WOT. From 1987 onwards the 928s came with the 32V head, offering a much more refined sound, but with 20 PS extra to play with (320 PS total).

 

The GTs had 330 PS, the GTS (1992 till 1995) 350 PS (5.4 litre displacement), all using the 32V head.

 

I have an S4, 5 litre displacement, 32V head, 1990 model, which already had the digidash (1990 onwards).

 

GTS command the largest lumps of money, although early GTS (1992) are said to have problems with consuming too much oil (something with the cylinder walls / lining), which was rectified in later GTS. The S4 did not have this problem.

 

Prices won´t be any cheaper than now, methinks. Good GTSs will go for anywhere between 10 and 20K (depending on mileage). S4s are the most cautious bet IMHO, as there are still plenty about, even relatively low milers. Mine had 80K on the clock, but a surprising number of faults already, most of which I have rectified by now. Mine cost 5.5k, which is bottom to average price range for an S4 (mainly because it has crap paintwork, has had a respray in the past, but not a very good one).

 

The really early 928 (1978 till 1980) don´t really do it for me. They in their own right will find buyers, mainly those who want the Ur-928, which only had 240 PS! The V8 has from the concept been underpowered, offering lots of chance to get more power out of the engine. Porsche had to do just that sooner than later, because the press at the time of introduction commented on how lowly the power of 240 PS was for such a car. So, within 2 years, Porsche had upped the power to 300 PS by simply cutting meat away from the cylinder walls (increasing displacement).

 

Have a read up on wikipedia (excellent info there), then a mooch on http://www.928.org.uk/. The latter also has a very good mailing list (yes, an artifact from the 80s and 90s, but it is actually very useful with lots of useful techie stuff from people that know their 928s)

 

968 nice, too, essentially using half a 928 V8 block :)

 

Tempest

Edited March 26, 2012 by Tempest

[iR6 0]

That's some useful stuff there, thanks. One other thing, what's the availability of spare/2nd hand parts, and how are they to work on? (that's 2 things!!)

[Tempest 0]

As said, still learning myself. Find it another steep learning curve from my Rado (after I moved from my Mk1 Rocco to the Rado). The 928 was state of the art at the time, thus employing state of the art technology, meaning: A lot of unproven stuff For example on pretty much all S4 and onwards the LH controller (regulating fuel injection in response to signals from a MAF, which itself tends to come out of calibration over time, but that´s the case with all MAF-equipped cars) uses a hybrid chip (state of the art at the time) but is very sensitive to moisture (thus a car not being the best environment for this sort of technology, nevertheless Porsche convinced Bosch to make this LH controller), it can therefore fail, thus completely blocking the fuel injection system.

 

The S4s and onwards are stuffed to the notches with controllers and things (exception: GTs and Club Sport - continental EU only model). My seats each have a controller using a 68000 Microcontroller !! There are controllers for almost everything. The advantage of this is that when something fails, you would typically only have to replace the relevant controller (changed one seat controller, mirror controller, previous owner already disabled the tyre pressure controller - tends to fail anyway).

 

Ease of working: Lots more stuff, big V8 engine with lots of stuff attached, some of which I am still struggling to identify what it´s there for, but getting there. Just to swap the ISV, like I will have to do, is a major job.

 

Of course there are plenty of weak spots with 928s. Whilst engines generally are considered tough beasts, they do need a very specific oil and maintenance. Because 80% of all 928s were automatics, and whilst Porsche sourced the autobox from Merc just across the road n Stuttgart, the major cock-up lies in the transaxle technology for the autobox. To compensate for transaxle resizing with temperature Porsche fitted a flexplate to the flywheel. On paper a nice solution, when compared to Alpha Romeo´s attempt back in the late 60s, when AR also tried the transaxle technology, did so well before Porsche actually. In practice rubbish, even though Porsche will never admit that due to this transaxle temperature dependent resizing and despite the flexplate supposed to compensate, the main bearing inside of the engine fails if you don´t regularly (once a year) take the tension off the flexplate. The consensus amongst a large group of 928 owners is that although the torque tube (the main shaft of the transaxle technology) increases in length when warming up, it also due to torque on the tube itself moves a little out of a clamp by which it is attached to the flexplate, moving the flexplate towards the front of the engine. When the torque tube cools down again, the counter effect of this is not guaranteed. Thus on use the torque tube keeps on pushing the flexplate and hence the flywheel with attached main engine shaft further towards the front of the engine, till the middle bearing on the main shaft fails. See here: http://dwaynesgarage.norcal928.org/1...0Procedure.htm

 

Parts: Fairly easy to still get, a lot is easier than for our Rados. Porsche know that 80% of their cars out there on the roads are typically 20 years and older. It´s a different clientèle. I am usually also quite pleasantly surprised by parts pricing. Quite a few breakers up and down the country. Be prepared to go national straight away.

 

Paul Anderson, who advised JC from TG on what 928 to buy for their 1500 quid challenge, after he gave JC a reminder not to go out and break one (well, the rest is history: Paul used the engine to make the studio glass coffee table, and the seats in one series were the 928 tombstone seats, built by Paul) is generally a very good point of contact. He not only races 928s, he runs a repair garage for nothing but 928s and a scrap yard for nothing but 928s. Amongst 928 owners in the UK he is the guru. Came from an Audi/VW background, liked to talk with me about the Rado, remembers his Audi/VW days well, before he admitted to moving on to Porsche´s big beastie, the 928.

 

Tempest

Edited March 26, 2012 by Tempest

[Toad 0]

I am always doing that - not locating my car - in the car park due to being hidden by big ugly new things. !!!

 

And - so Jim - the love is back on then ?? (Noting your statement above !) ;-)

 

Nothing to do with the fact you can't see over a go kart?

 

Miss you!

[Wendy 0]

Nothing to do with the fact you can't see over a go kart?

 

Miss you!

 

 

Well of course the only reason I have a Corrado - is because its one of a few car that I can actually reach the top to clean !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Miss you too - NOT !!!!!!!!!!!

 

xx

[Toad 0]

Well of course the only reason I have a Corrado - is because its one of a few car that I can actually reach the top to clean !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Miss you too - NOT !!!!!!!!!!!

 

xx

 

Haha.

[iR6 0]

Thanks tempest, some real things to think about there, I have recently joined the Porsche forum, they have a 928 section, to find out as much as I can. But can't beat talking to real owners. Thought about the 944 as a start for Porsche ownership, but would always go back to looking at 928s.....ever since I first saw Risky Business aged 6 I think I developed a soft spot for them....and Rebecca de Mornay :)

[Tempest 0]

Try the 928.org.uk site (excellent buyer´s guide), much better than any other site I have visited, including the much hyped Rennlist over in the States.

 

Come to the AGM, should have the shark with me there. Rado remaining in wintersleep till Stanford Hall.

 

Tempest