For the naysayers of 928 racing capabilities.

[924CarreraGTP]

Follow the link and read about the private racing entries of the 928S in Brian Long's book. This is for the naysayers who will talk all day about the 928 being an unreliable car. If so, why did so many people enter them in 24 hour races that 928s no doubt finished and sometimes even won. Sometimes even against 911s and Lotus Espirit Turbos. I'm a 928 owner that spent years trying to break one. When I realized it wasn't possible, I bought another one to build a race car. If this link doesn't work, copy and paste it.

Porsche 928 - Brian Long - Google Books

[Danglerb]

Stock 928 is easy to break on a track.

Step 1, buy a good set of sticky wide tires.
Step 2, turn left.
Step 3, Do so above 5,000 rpm.

Boom.

[924CarreraGTP]

What breaks? Drop links? This is already an interesting post. I have an article in one of the Porsche Club UpFixin Der Porsche books about building a 928 race car. It would be interesting to hear what others have experienced though.

[Maleficio]

Oil starvation from oil sloshing away from pickup tube. Poor baffling.

[924CarreraGTP]

Yeah, I've heard of that one. I read about it in Excellence. I think the race cars had a different oil pan setup.

[Pete R]

I think the magor drawback of racing a 928 is lack of support. You end up having to figure out stuff on you own that has been already done on other models. There's a ton of diffenent coil over and suspention options for a 944 or 911 a 928 has like 3. Other components are similar.

[Danglerb]

As long as it doesn't get too far from stock, dot tires, etc. a gutted 928 seems like a fun track car. Racing is different, people want to win, and that means building a car to suit some racing class and its another world of more work.

Porsche didn't want the 928 upstaging the 911, so it got no or little factory support, but times have changed and a number of people have track 928 that are very competitive or wipe the floor with 928's depending on track and classification.

[Maleficio]

The 928 was intended to replace the 911. A grand slam that no one wanted.

[RKDinOKC]

I autocross a 94 928 GTS and do very well thank you. The suspension was upgraded by DEVEK long before I got the car. Hypercoils, DEVEK adj. front sway bar, stock rear bar with Steroid drop links, and externally adj. Koni reds. Only engine upgrades to date are Xpipe, race cats, and rear muffler bypass. The car is NOT stripped down and retains all the stock creature comforts.

Because I am lazy I run on street tires. Several years ago I did the race rubber swap thing on my 944 Turbo, but just got to be a hassle just to get FTD. The GTS is always the fastest car on street tires. In fact, I match times with and sometimes get FTD against those striped down racers running on sticky race compounds.

The only car I am currently having trouble getting closer than 1 second to is a Nissan GTR on Hoosiers. But I still have some adjustments I can do on rear brake bias and rear alignment that will bring my times down.

If you are doing above 5K rpm around a "left hand carousel", you are in too high a gear for corner exit acceleration anyway.

[924CarreraGTP]

Originally Posted by Danglerb

As long as it doesn't get too far from stock, dot tires, etc. a gutted 928 seems like a fun track car. Racing is different, people want to win, and that means building a car to suit some racing class and its another world of more work.

Porsche didn't want the 928 upstaging the 911, so it got no or little factory support, but times have changed and a number of people have track 928 that are very competitive or wipe the floor with 928's depending on track and classification.

The 928 S4 already upstaged the 911 Turbo at 164mph vs. 155mph for the Turbo. So many people don't realize that the 928 was the flagship at Porsche. The top of the line. It was the top of the line in the late 70's and early 80's as well because though the 911 Turbo was faster in those few years, it was also considered a special order. Both cars were built side by side at Zuffenhausen where as the 944 was built at the Audi plant in Neckarlsum. Only the 944 engine was built at Porsche.

[924CarreraGTP]

RKDinOKC, this is good stuff to know. I've been looking into the X-pipe conversion myself for my '83 4.7. I do plan to lighten my car. At the first of the year I'm going to pull out the A/C compressor, and all of it's components. I have an extra radiator and some parts that I pulled off of an '86 928S. I have enough to get me started on a race car. The only thing that sucks is that my car is not a stick shift. It also sucks that the two valve 928s didn't come with a good stick shift. I guess the thing to do would be to either race a later 928 or update the transaxle in a 4.7. I like the 4.7 as a platform because it won't bend the valves if the timing belt breaks. On the other hand I'm planning to race an auto because I have access to a couple more four speed transaxles. So if I break one, I can get another one pretty cheap. I for one feel the 4 speed Mercedes transmission is a pretty robust unit. I haven't come accross too many that didn't still work. Some of them don't shift right, but even the neglected and mistreated ones still move the cars. Plus I've learned how to hold the brake, rev the car up, let off the brake, and then once the car shifts to 3rd, engage the kickdown. I plan to do some Autocross when the next season starts.
Oh, and Devek knew their sh** too. I read about them getting an S4 to over 200mph. They are out of business now I believe. If not I cannot seem to find anything current about them. Also the 928 Motorsports pikes peak car can be seen on Youtube. The Mark Anderson S4 is way cool too.

[tmpusfugit]

DEVEK is long gone, and they created some real animosity on their way out...things like taking payment for several thousands of dollars of work yet to be done 2 days before they closed up....no refunds naturally...for some time they did some good work and offered good products from what is seen on the various bulletin boards...but in the end they did not go gracefully...

[Stoolie]

Doh! - looking at those pics, I thought that I might order the book - until I saw the cover and realised I already had it. Time to read it again!

[924CarreraGTP]

I don't have this book. It's strange because I have a hundred or so Porsche books including the new revised Excellence Was Expected. I have some good 1980's 928 books though. I wonder if this book is still available. I have a few of the Veloce Publishing books, but they are hard to find. I will buy it soon if I can find it.