Launched in 1977 and in production until 1995, the Porsche 928 was originally intended to replace the company’s iconic 911 as the new flagship.
Challenge yourself to think of the greatest Porsches of all time and, unlike Ferrari’s back catalog packed with front-engined masterpieces and a strange naming convention, your brain will likely serve up a lot of rear-engined 911s. Perhaps a mid-ship Carrera GT or Cayman GT4 RS, too. It’s time to disrupt this mindset and look at Porsche’s great but often overlooked front-engined sports car, the Porsche 928.
Launched in 1977 and in production until 1995, the Porsche 928 was originally intended to replace the company’s iconic 911 as the new flagship — but instead of being an air-cooled, rear-engined sports car, the 928 was a front-engined, water-cooled luxury grand tourer designed to soak up the miles at great speed.
Porsche says that a focus on lightweight construction «saw the extensive use of aluminum for the body panels rather than traditional sheet steel.» Aluminum was used in the doors, front fenders, and hood, saving a claimed 77 pounds, according to Stutt Cars, and it also appeared behind the integrated front bumpers, giving the car a cleaner, modern look while also protecting it from low-speed impacts.
Key to the 928’s look is its pop-up headlights. Instead of flipping upward on a mechanism that rotates backward like those of a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 or early Mazda Miata, the Porsche’s rotate forward like those of a Lamborghini Miura. This means the lamps themselves are always on display, then sit up when illuminated and in use. This lamp design remained throughout the car’s lifetime, including the second-generation 928 S (model years 1980 to 1986) and 928 S4 (model years 1987 to 1991), until production ended in 1995.
