Porsche 928 vs Porsche 914, The good, the bad, and the ugly Options

[ninefourteener]

As many of you know, my roots are in early 70's and 80's GM muscle cars. Before the two 914s I've owned, I had a 34,000 original mile 1977 Pontiac Trans Am-400, 4spd. Before that, was a 1980 Chevy Elcamino, with a 396 BB stuffed under the hood. Before that was a 1981 Chevy Z-28.... and the list goes on.

I'm sure you can understand........ Although I love the 914, the open air roadster feel, etc........ I miss the horsepower.

With that............. I can't help myself from browsing through Ebay motors at the Porsche 928s. The "S"...... the "S4"...... some of them reaching well over the 300hp range. Many appear to be in really nice condition as well.

Someone wanna tell me why they are so cheap?

Wanna tell me why I shouldn't get one??

Keep in mind, I've never even driven one, and know nothing about them. I have no intention of racing my cars, only "cruising" in the Summertime.... but I like "distinctive" cars that you don't see too often...... and the 928 definately has my attention.

Comments? Suggestions??

[-JR-]

QUOTE (scott thacher @ Feb 28 2005, 07:25 AM)

every thing takes twice as long on a 928, due to cramped engine bay. and i have heard stories of people crunching a fender, no other damge just the fender, and the repair price was higher than they bought the car for

HEH If I didn't know any better I'd say he was talking about a 914. My 928 is a dream to work on compaired to my 914, but still the 928 still has a few BEAR jobs like the clutch master, motor mounts, exhaust bolts at the heads.

But otherwise everything is really well designed and very accessable. I could do a clutch on a 928 in half the time then on a 914. I changed mine in about 35min once.

I bought my 928 first and now I have a 914 as well.

928's, as someone noted, are a GT car and do everything GT well. Like high speed highway crusing and long range driving. Not bad at all on handling, braking and "kicky pop" too. However due to the weight of such a car it means that to make it preform you have to either have to make it lighter (not easy at all) or you have to pay a premium for all those preformance parts that have to work twice as hard because of the weight.

So now I am experimenting with a 914. Which for all reasons is the opposite of a 928 in Porsche circles, unless we are counting the Cyanne. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/icon8.gif) The 914 is so light that to make it preform, those preformance parts don't need to be as aggressive and will be more efficient becuse of the weight.

Now not having any 914 seat time yet it's a little hard for me to compair exactly, but the 928 is almost unsurpassed on the highway and not bad around town. If you have an auto 928 it would be great in town as well, if we aren't counting how often we stop at gas stations! But by the same token a 914 should be great in town, get's great fuel economy but isn't so hot at high speeds. Now I am refering to stock cars here before anyone beats me up on that. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/smile.gif)

I've autoX my 928 for the last 7 years and I could beat all the stock 914's with my 928, but now even with all the preformance upgrades (suspension, brakes, exhaust) on my 928 I can't catch the 914's that have the similar upgrades. So this is one of my big reasons to get into a 914.

That's my 2c!