Absolutely do the restomod of an electric powered 928..I think it’s a fantastic idea mate. I can only see an upside apart from the cost. A beautifully styled 928 with modern underpinnings that can have a whole new life into the next decades to come. Go for it!
Thank you for the support Mathew! To review you for your enthusiasm, here is a brand new video to continue the story - and start the EV restomod discussion! th-cam.com/video/L37brOdcpN0/w-d-xo.html
Yes. Rescuing an S4 that has a shot drivetrain would be great. Something that I will say though is that my ‘90 GT was quite a sporty drive. The manual transmission was great.
Why the big secret around the numbers? I bought an 89 S4 for $23k a couple of years back. Spent $17k on it so far and expect to spend another $30k over 5 years to get it 100%. By then I expect it to be worth $35k (i.e. half of what it owes me). It's a project that I'm doing for love obviously but I also want to hand a great car over when I eventually decide to sell. I will be very picky about the next owner so expect it to take a while to sell even at a reasonable value. I think it's very valuable to educate people about actual numbers so they know what to expect. FYI these are all NZ numbers. Thanks for vid. Very enjoyable. 😊👍
Bought my poorly looked after '87 928 in 2007 for $17k, a Hong Kong import. Mechanically pretty good, electrics, HVAC and vacuum a mess. Did the belt and water pump straight away, another $3.6k and then drove about twice a month until 2019 with not much spent on it, but then the trans cooler in the radiator ruptured mixing the water and trans oil. $11k later rebuilt tranny, new custom radiator with deleted oil coolers, external engine oil cooler, rear Koni shocks. Continued fixing lots of other little issues so I'm probably in for what I originally paid for it. Next is front Koni's, fix the in dash HVAC, try for the cruise control, do top end engine refresh and if the world has not ended, get some airconditioning.
Great idea, particularly to something destine for the scrap yard. Just finished a 1600klm trip in my 83 928S Manual sunroof delete model through the Victorian high country, these cars a just fantastic it performed so well. As you say bit heavy on the fuel best was 10.2l/100 worst 12l/100 hammering it through the mountains.
Judd I don't know how you managed to get such good economy. Well done. My best was 12.5 l/100km cruising on freeway, but typically 15 to 17 around town, but that was a 84 928S auto. I'm guessing the manual gearbox plays a big part in that. Awesome.
@@trackschooltv9243 Hi I think the Auto is the issue I have the same Auto in My Mercedes W124 tough gearbox but power robbing, i consistently can achieve that figure, I do live in a rural area near Bathurst so no traffic and ideal for good economy. I do need to do a bit more tuning on the WUR however i am think of replacing this with a unit from a US based company which apparently works much better that the old vacuum bi metal strip currently fitted.
Stu, have looked at electrfying my Kombi with an EV West kit (so little to no fabrication required). With Tesla batteies it was looking at 40-50k. Not sure there is a kit for a 928 so with custom fabrucation you would be looking north of that! Personally you would save money just keeping this car and buying a Model 3 performance as a 2nd car.
Your numbers are correct Steve. Indeed it would be cheaper to buy a 2nd hand Model 3 Perf and have unbeatable get up and go, but that's not the point really - it'll still be a commodity car, not a restomod classic with better than new performance.
I bought a S4 as the 4.7s lack torque. It's quite a big difference in drivability. Those autos are sluggish, apparently they have a high stall speed, and hard to fix as the 928 has an unusual torque converter. After rebuilding my gearbox they found a fault with the rebuilt torque converter. The replacement was way better, really livened it up, so probably the auto and torque converter needs a rebuild too.... Some uprated springs will also modernise it, 600lb fronts is great, I run 1000lb fronts which are awesome but lack travel. A must is to re-valve the Konis to suit or its worse than std. if you ever come to Melbourne....🙂
Wow just found this your channel. Ask Bruce about a red 928 1989 s4, bout 25 years ago. He would remember because we know how Bruce loves a chat, but he is the landshark book of knowledge.I was the only 928 in the Porsche club back then that used to do the track days. Bruce was horrified by how I use to drive it, that was very hard......I was doing 1:28 lap times round Oran park in the day, if I remember correctly 🤔 You should have gone with this model they are a great reliable car and a lot quicker than those earlier models. Yes A/C goes on all of them, get rid of the air switches, wheel alignments are pricks on these also, get a switch in gearbox to hold first gear and get rid of rear muffers, but im talking the 89 plus model,there's heaps of different short cut modes you can do. Funny just saw your rx8, I also had one of those as a track car a while ago, also great cars. Say hello to Bruce for me, im sure he would remember my car, I also used to regularly top it out on freeway to Central coast old road in early hours of morning on empty road at 285 kys plus keep up with bikes going up old road from Brooklyn to Cowan, mmm...the good old days 🤣 just come back to edit because now im going through your channel there's heaps more on the 928 and Bruce, his son was a apprentice when I was last there, think at the time him and his dad we're building a 944 turbo track car, that's how long ago it was. Been in far north Queensland for years so not Porsche territory up here in the heat.
@@inCARnationAustraliaexactly if you are looking for a fast 928. Instead of spending $100,000 converting it into a Porsche Golf Cart. You could just dump that money and sell one of the 3 928’s you have and buy a 928 GTS. Something really fast. That will escalate in price year over year and prove a good investment within the next decade you have it. It’s rare too. An electric 928 S with say 400,000 miles on the clock that you spent $100,000 on it still is a modified 928 with everything else worn on it and still won’t be worth anything near what you spent on the project. If you want electric Porsche GT just go buy a Tycan. Or a Hybrid Panamera. Imagine if someone got a 911 from the 60’s or 70’s or a 356 and did that to it when they were not worth much ? You’d laugh at them now for doing that.
Well back in the day when I bought my 928S4 (2011 and 130,000km driven since and still going strong) when people asked what a 928 cost, we would say that it was a $50k car......just depends on where you want to start. LOL. Enjoy the car. Not so sure about the EV conversion. Part and parcel of the character of these cars us the V8 engine. Cheers
I certainly agree that the V8 sound is integral to the character of the car. Having an active exhaust that sounds just like the original is an essential part of my EV restomod idea. Without it it'd be just another EV.
Great video Stu! Agree totally with the auto box to electric motor parallel. The heavier 928 4 speed auto would suit an electric swap especially with the Weissach ‘lift off’ self toe in rear axle that would handle the battery weight well. Later 5 speed cars would not suit conversion as they drive like a sports car not a GT, ironic given the GT namesake only came in a 5 speed… Bring on a S2-4 conversion project!
I have a S4 that I am getting torque tube done now. It’s done over 340,000 km and once engine goes, I love to convert it to electric. I am watching with great interest to see the current level of expertise and cost to do the conversion on a 928. I’ll keep my 90 GT stock for the original sin!
Just a thought Stu, it’d be really interesting to rescue a drive unit from a crashed Taycan for this project. That way no one could complain that it wasn’t Porsche powered 😂
Indeed. But I'd also like a repeatable exercise in case the result turned out well. There's a plentiful supply of Tesla LDU and SDU drive units, and a whole industry in packaging them and ancillary management modules for people's EV projects. So I'll try to stick to a Tesla unit. And doing the whole project without structural mods, so it's (in theory) reversible. Not that I could see a reason ever to do that. The only cutting would be removal of existing battery box and space-saver well.
It is what it is, a car which had features ahead of it’s time. The engine is as strong as an ox and will easily last for 300,000 kilometres or more. The motor is not the problem, it’s the gearbox. A more interesting solution would be to replace it with a ZF 8 speed auto or something similar not put a turd in a champagne glass by converting it to a milk float. If you’re are determined to wreck the car just replace the engine, torque tube and gearbox with a Chebby Corvette conversion. I agree with you, my GTS just doesn’t feel very sporty or Porsche like. It was designed for roads and speeds which we will never see in this God forsaken country .
Some hard to forget imagery in that one Eddie. But I'm getting mixed messages there. You suggest it's OK to put some American iron in a German thoroughbred, but not OK for some American aluminium? And I imagine a ZF conversion would be very tricky, with the current gearbox integrated to the diff. Fitting a front mounted gearbox where there wasn't one previously would be very tricky. Alternately, one could drop the diff ratio a lot (numerical increase) which would achieve the same result, given that we only need a car geared for relatively slow speeds. (let's say 160km/h not 260km/h). It'd still only be revving 2400rpm @ 110km/h in top. But no, that's missing the point. I want a resto-mod 928 that sounds and goes like a 928, but doesn't use petrol.
And for the record, my current 928 that isn't going to be the donor DOES already have over 300,000km, and the engine is strong. I know 2 x 928GT with over 500,000km and they are both in good shape.
I’m not having a go at you, more a vent at this stupid idea that electric vehicles will save the planet. The charging infrastructure, lack of power to the grid because of reliance on wind and solar(“fossil fuels are bad”), materials and battery recycling problems all have to be addressed and maybe insurmountable in the long run. Range is another factor especially in this country where we have large distances between major cities. Towing a caravan will cut the range of an EV by up to half. How is the trucking industry going to fare if electric trucks are introduced? Bigger batteries and less payload? None of it makes sense yet the idiots that run this s/show continue on with this stupidity. Enough ranting, love the channel, keep the 928 original and enjoy it.
Actually that's the future for converting cars to electric. An EV shop in San Diego California does Vw, 928, 944, and 911 EV conversion and another In Las Vegas called Renegade does Corvettes engine swap on 928s. I used to own a 1984 automatic 928s which was extremely slow compared to my 86 32 valve 5speed. A professional race driver once mentioned 300hp is all you need for a daily driver car nothing more or less.
![30 ชั่วโมงคนเดียว บนรถไฟชั้น 3 โซเวียต [Around The World Ep. 2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MlE9boAVqDA/mqdefault.jpg)
Absolutely do the restomod of an electric powered 928..I think it’s a fantastic idea mate.
I can only see an upside apart from the cost. A beautifully styled 928 with modern underpinnings that can have a whole new life into the next decades to come. Go for it!
Thank you for the support Mathew! To review you for your enthusiasm, here is a brand new video to continue the story - and start the EV restomod discussion! th-cam.com/video/L37brOdcpN0/w-d-xo.html
If you adjust the transmission, it’s very fast around town. Look into it, the transformation is incredible.
Yes. Rescuing an S4 that has a shot drivetrain would be great.
Something that I will say though is that my ‘90 GT was quite a sporty drive. The manual transmission was great.
Why the big secret around the numbers? I bought an 89 S4 for $23k a couple of years back. Spent $17k on it so far and expect to spend another $30k over 5 years to get it 100%. By then I expect it to be worth $35k (i.e. half of what it owes me). It's a project that I'm doing for love obviously but I also want to hand a great car over when I eventually decide to sell. I will be very picky about the next owner so expect it to take a while to sell even at a reasonable value. I think it's very valuable to educate people about actual numbers so they know what to expect. FYI these are all NZ numbers. Thanks for vid. Very enjoyable. 😊👍
I love my 928 fantastic car
To be honest, the 928 is for me already electrifying😊
Bought my poorly looked after '87 928 in 2007 for $17k, a Hong Kong import. Mechanically pretty good, electrics, HVAC and vacuum a mess. Did the belt and water pump straight away, another $3.6k and then drove about twice a month until 2019 with not much spent on it, but then the trans cooler in the radiator ruptured mixing the water and trans oil. $11k later rebuilt tranny, new custom radiator with deleted oil coolers, external engine oil cooler, rear Koni shocks. Continued fixing lots of other little issues so I'm probably in for what I originally paid for it. Next is front Koni's, fix the in dash HVAC, try for the cruise control, do top end engine refresh and if the world has not ended, get some airconditioning.
Great idea, particularly to something destine for the scrap yard. Just finished a 1600klm trip in my 83 928S Manual sunroof delete model through the Victorian high country, these cars a just fantastic it performed so well. As you say bit heavy on the fuel best was 10.2l/100 worst 12l/100 hammering it through the mountains.
Judd I don't know how you managed to get such good economy. Well done. My best was 12.5 l/100km cruising on freeway, but typically 15 to 17 around town, but that was a 84 928S auto. I'm guessing the manual gearbox plays a big part in that. Awesome.
@@trackschooltv9243 Hi I think the Auto is the issue I have the same Auto in My Mercedes W124 tough gearbox but power robbing, i consistently can achieve that figure, I do live in a rural area near Bathurst so no traffic and ideal for good economy. I do need to do a bit more tuning on the WUR however i am think of replacing this with a unit from a US based company which apparently works much better that the old vacuum bi metal strip currently fitted.
Stu, have looked at electrfying my Kombi with an EV West kit (so little to no fabrication required). With Tesla batteies it was looking at 40-50k. Not sure there is a kit for a 928 so with custom fabrucation you would be looking north of that! Personally you would save money just keeping this car and buying a Model 3 performance as a 2nd car.
Your numbers are correct Steve. Indeed it would be cheaper to buy a 2nd hand Model 3 Perf and have unbeatable get up and go, but that's not the point really - it'll still be a commodity car, not a restomod classic with better than new performance.
Thank you for the update Stu and the commentary during the drive. I have to admit all the talk about the EV conversion gave me a lot of anxiety.
Don't stress. Let's wait until we get a result. The ICE cars will only get more desirable and collectible.
I bought a S4 as the 4.7s lack torque. It's quite a big difference in drivability. Those autos are sluggish, apparently they have a high stall speed, and hard to fix as the 928 has an unusual torque converter. After rebuilding my gearbox they found a fault with the rebuilt torque converter. The replacement was way better, really livened it up, so probably the auto and torque converter needs a rebuild too....
Some uprated springs will also modernise it, 600lb fronts is great, I run 1000lb fronts which are awesome but lack travel. A must is to re-valve the Konis to suit or its worse than std.
if you ever come to Melbourne....🙂
Wow just found this your channel. Ask Bruce about a red 928 1989 s4, bout 25 years ago. He would remember because we know how Bruce loves a chat, but he is the landshark book of knowledge.I was the only 928 in the Porsche club back then that used to do the track days. Bruce was horrified by how I use to drive it, that was very hard......I was doing 1:28 lap times round Oran park in the day, if I remember correctly 🤔 You should have gone with this model they are a great reliable car and a lot quicker than those earlier models. Yes A/C goes on all of them, get rid of the air switches, wheel alignments are pricks on these also, get a switch in gearbox to hold first gear and get rid of rear muffers, but im talking the 89 plus model,there's heaps of different short cut modes you can do. Funny just saw your rx8, I also had one of those as a track car a while ago, also great cars. Say hello to Bruce for me, im sure he would remember my car, I also used to regularly top it out on freeway to Central coast old road in early hours of morning on empty road at 285 kys plus keep up with bikes going up old road from Brooklyn to Cowan, mmm...the good old days 🤣 just come back to edit because now im going through your channel there's heaps more on the 928 and Bruce, his son was a apprentice when I was last there, think at the time him and his dad we're building a 944 turbo track car, that's how long ago it was. Been in far north Queensland for years so not Porsche territory up here in the heat.
Sure, I'll pass it on to Bruce.
@@inCARnationAustralia there's a nice GTS on cars sales, looks tempting 🤔🤣
@@inCARnationAustraliaexactly if you are looking for a fast 928. Instead of spending $100,000 converting it into a Porsche Golf Cart. You could just dump that money and sell one of the 3 928’s you have and buy a 928 GTS. Something really fast. That will escalate in price year over year and prove a good investment within the next decade you have it. It’s rare too. An electric 928 S with say 400,000 miles on the clock that you spent $100,000 on it still is a modified 928 with everything else worn on it and still won’t be worth anything near what you spent on the project. If you want electric Porsche GT just go buy a Tycan. Or a Hybrid Panamera.
Imagine if someone got a 911 from the 60’s or 70’s or a 356 and did that to it when they were not worth much ? You’d laugh at them now for doing that.
Well back in the day when I bought my 928S4 (2011 and 130,000km driven since and still going strong) when people asked what a 928 cost, we would say that it was a $50k car......just depends on where you want to start. LOL. Enjoy the car. Not so sure about the EV conversion. Part and parcel of the character of these cars us the V8 engine. Cheers
I certainly agree that the V8 sound is integral to the character of the car. Having an active exhaust that sounds just like the original is an essential part of my EV restomod idea. Without it it'd be just another EV.
Great video Stu! Agree totally with the auto box to electric motor parallel. The heavier 928 4 speed auto would suit an electric swap especially with the Weissach ‘lift off’ self toe in rear axle that would handle the battery weight well. Later 5 speed cars would not suit conversion as they drive like a sports car not a GT, ironic given the GT namesake only came in a 5 speed… Bring on a S2-4 conversion project!
The whole transaxle would go and just be replaced with a Tesla drivetrain. No need for the transmission at all.
I have a S4 that I am getting torque tube done now. It’s done over 340,000 km and once engine goes, I love to convert it to electric. I am watching with great interest to see the current level of expertise and cost to do the conversion on a 928. I’ll keep my 90 GT stock for the original sin!
What a great video, love your views on the 928, EVing of non restoreable one included
Just a thought Stu, it’d be really interesting to rescue a drive unit from a crashed Taycan for this project. That way no one could complain that it wasn’t Porsche powered 😂
Indeed. But I'd also like a repeatable exercise in case the result turned out well. There's a plentiful supply of Tesla LDU and SDU drive units, and a whole industry in packaging them and ancillary management modules for people's EV projects. So I'll try to stick to a Tesla unit. And doing the whole project without structural mods, so it's (in theory) reversible. Not that I could see a reason ever to do that. The only cutting would be removal of existing battery box and space-saver well.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
It is what it is, a car which had features ahead of it’s time. The engine is as strong as an ox and will easily last for 300,000 kilometres or more. The motor is not the problem, it’s the gearbox. A more interesting solution would be to replace it with a ZF 8 speed auto or something similar not put a turd in a champagne glass by converting it to a milk float. If you’re are determined to wreck the car just replace the engine, torque tube and gearbox with a Chebby Corvette conversion. I agree with you, my GTS just doesn’t feel very sporty or Porsche like. It was designed for roads and speeds which we will never see in this God forsaken country .
Some hard to forget imagery in that one Eddie. But I'm getting mixed messages there. You suggest it's OK to put some American iron in a German thoroughbred, but not OK for some American aluminium? And I imagine a ZF conversion would be very tricky, with the current gearbox integrated to the diff. Fitting a front mounted gearbox where there wasn't one previously would be very tricky. Alternately, one could drop the diff ratio a lot (numerical increase) which would achieve the same result, given that we only need a car geared for relatively slow speeds. (let's say 160km/h not 260km/h). It'd still only be revving 2400rpm @ 110km/h in top. But no, that's missing the point. I want a resto-mod 928 that sounds and goes like a 928, but doesn't use petrol.
And for the record, my current 928 that isn't going to be the donor DOES already have over 300,000km, and the engine is strong. I know 2 x 928GT with over 500,000km and they are both in good shape.
I’m not having a go at you, more a vent at this stupid idea that electric vehicles will save the planet. The charging infrastructure, lack of power to the grid because of reliance on wind and solar(“fossil fuels are bad”), materials and battery recycling problems all have to be addressed and maybe insurmountable in the long run. Range is another factor especially in this country where we have large distances between major cities. Towing a caravan will cut the range of an EV by up to half. How is the trucking industry going to fare if electric trucks are introduced? Bigger batteries and less payload? None of it makes sense yet the idiots that run this s/show continue on with this stupidity. Enough ranting, love the channel, keep the 928 original and enjoy it.
EV 928s are already been done in the US of A.
I found one - Jeff McCabe's car. But if you know of more, or kits, please share.
Actually that's the future for converting cars to electric. An EV shop in San Diego California does Vw, 928, 944, and 911 EV conversion and another In Las Vegas called Renegade does Corvettes engine swap on 928s. I used to own a 1984 automatic 928s which was extremely slow compared to my 86 32 valve 5speed. A professional race driver once mentioned 300hp is all you need for a daily driver car nothing more or less.