**SpongeBob's Dead**

"Meow." "And we gotta use his body to clean this (indistinct) 28." (upbeat music)

**Porsche 928: A High-Tech Car of the 70s**

Porsche knew the risk that they were taking with this car, but they were too far along to just pull the plug. Six years of research and development led to this moment. Would people accept the 928 as a replacement for the 911 or would it completely tank the company? Find out right now.

The 928 debuted at the 1977 Geneva Motor Show, exactly 41 years before I (the author) debuted at the Geneva Motor Show. People took notice of me strolling around in my fancy turtleneck. A similar thing could be said for the 928. Crowds flocked to the Porsche exhibit to gawk at the new front-engine V8 Porsche.

**Interior Features**

Car enthusiasts marveled at the sleek design. The shark-like bumpers, the plush yet wild interior. BMW and Mercedes could only look on as Porsche was winning over all of their customers. They are marveling at it. "I mean, can you blame them? It's marvelous." Yeah, one beer sounds good.

Speaking of interior, the 928 had its fair share of what Doug DeMuro would call... "This. This (beeps) is (beeps) brazy dog." First off, the interior gauge cluster and the steering wheel moved as a single unit when the wheel was adjusted to make sure that all of the gauges could be read, despite where it was adjusted.

And because it was the 1970s, the seats came in a variety of groovy swatches, including the mesmerizing Checkerboard Pasha, tartan, even pinstripes and paisleys. But one of the weirdest things in the 928 has to be its rear sun visors. They're like no sun visor that you've ever seen.

**Center Console Design**

The center console design was actually the most super high tech for the time. Don't take it from me. "Now there's that center console that I was talking about." There's nothing like that in a Porsche that came before, but you look at that, every Porsche today seems to have a similar inspired center console.

Like Magnus said, this was the first time that Porsche had an integrated center console. The move made sense for a grand tour and it was a hit. I mean, your arm's gotta go somewhere.

**European Car of the Year**

Technology overall people loved the 928 when it debuted. It even won the European Car of the Year, not sports car of the year, car of the year in 1978. That's the first year that a sports car won that title, beating out the BMW seven series and the Ford Granada.

**Handling and Performance**

One of the things that made the 928 so good was that 50-50 weight distribution that I mentioned earlier. Porsche developed this car to compete with BMW and Mercedes but the 928 actually handled better than anything in their own lineup.

In terms where the 911 would've been hard to control, the 928 stayed super planted. The powerful V8 could blast through apexes no problem, without getting fishy. (car engine roaring)

The only thing that was really holding this car back was the price tag at $26,000, which is about $103,000 today, it wasn't cheap. Its base price was higher than the top end 911 but it was half the price of the car it was competing against, the Mercedes S-Class, which sold for an insane $50,000 by the end of the 70s.

That's $200,000 now, which is like depressing and just proves that money is stupid and fake. The 928 didn't quite sell as well as Porsche had wanted but the hype alone surrounding this car was enough for them to keep producing it and Porsche had a little help from a little town called Hollywood.

By the early 80s, Porsche was selling small numbers of the 928, mostly to rich playboys, rich athletes, and other rich celebrities. So it was pretty natural when the 928 started showing up in TV shows and movies like...

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(calm music)♪ Porsche. ♪- Oh, yeah man, I love classic Porsches.♪ Porsche. ♪Those liquid cooled V8sin the front, automatictransmissions, rear sun visors.♪ Rear sun visors ♪♪ What ♪All 219 hrsprs.♪ That's a lot of hrsprs. ♪You know, classic Porsche stuff.When you think of Porsche'syou probably think of this,the legendary 911.For 57 years, this epic automobilehas not only defined the Porsche brandbut what a sports car is and should be.So, it might surprise youto learn that in the 70s,they almost stopped making the 911because they thought it wasas good as it was gonna get.- You make me wanna be a better man.- And you might be even more surprisedto learn that the car that theyplanned on replacing it withwas this front-engine cruiser,more at home on the highways of Americathan the corners of the Nürburgring.Well, today we're gonna tellthe story of the absurd Porschethat almost tanked the entire company.The reason behind its developmentand how, although it wasinitially a sales flop,Germany's Corvette went onto define an entire decadeand influence Porsche's future forever.We're also gonna talk to a guywho owns a few Porsches of his own.- This is everything you need to knowto get up to speed on the Porsche 928.(upbeat music)- A big thanks to carparts.comfor sponsoring today's video.I am so excited to finallybe back at a NASCAR race.Now my cousin, Clumsy Carl,really wanted to come,but he couldn't make it becausehis car is always brokenbecause he never takes my advice.- Come on, come on, please start.Michael's counting on me.- And boy is he gonna be double bummedwhen he learns that his favoritedriver, Michael McDowell,is in this ad with me.- Sorry to hear aboutyour car, Clumsy Carl.(dramatic music)- I've gotta make it,no matter what it takes.- Carparts.com is your one-stop shopfor all collision,maintenance and repair parts.Now, who said you haveto sacrifice qualityfor reasonable prices?- They provide a quick andsmart way to find what you want,whenever you want, nomatter what you drive.- Even bumpers.- Yeah, even bumpers.(both laugh)Bumpers.- Bumpers.So, whether you neednew brakes, headlightsor even a new bumper,carparts.com will getyour vehicle looking goodand running like new, nomatter what you drive.- Well.- Okay, technically notthe car that you drive.- Right.- So, head on overto carparts.com todayor just click the link in the descriptionand now, off to the races.- What do you think, you thinkClumsy Carl will make it?- Oh no, I do not, not at all.- I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna make it,I'm going to make it, I'm going to make,I'm gonna make it.- By the early 70s, Porschehad secured their placeas producers of some ofthe finest sports coupesever to grace this fat green earth.Starting with the 356 andcontinuing with the carthat single-handedly definedthe brand for decades to come,the 911.Throughout the 60s, thisrear-engine, rear-wheel-drive coupebecame the benchmark forsporty European drivers cars.The air-cooled pancake sixproduced between 130 and 109 buff horses,which, for car that weighedjust a bit over 2000 pounds,meant that it was fun to hawk aroundbut also really, really scary at times.The combination of short wheelbaseand ample power centeredover the rear-wheelsmeant that the 911 tooka lot of skill to driveat the limit.I'm talking about a littlething called oversteer.- So, a lot of people get into a 911,first-time drivers, thefront is really, really lightand the rear tends to always sort of move.So, at a certain speed, you know,the cars do become twitchy.And you know, a lot of thesecars sort of, you know,run off the road backwards.- Now, despite all of its pitfalls,the 911 was iconic and became inseparablefrom its badge daddy.With this car, Porscheetched out a deep groovein the market and founda really loyal fan basethat just gobbled up any911 that they threw at 'em.But sometimes, no matter how good you areat YouTube or whatever, yourparents don't notice, dad.By the time the discodecade rolled around,911 sales were drying up quickerthan my wenises in the winterwith only minor changes doneto the size of the engineand a few other upgrades,managing director of Porsche,AG Ernst Fuhrmann, who is an awesome guy.We found so many sick quotes by this dude.Ernst Fuhrmann was worriedthat the car was about asgood as it was gonna get,which is insane to think about.- I mean, that's the crazything, you said it right there.At the time engineers thought the 911had reached its pinnaclewithin let's call it,you know, 12 years of production.But as we know, 57 yearslater of continued production,the 911 is faster thanit's ever, ever been.- In Fuhrmann's mind that911 was dying a slow death.It was expensive andlabor-intensive to build.With sales drying up, theonly means for survivalfor the company was to find a replacementand to find one quickly.Porsche specifically wanted tosell more cars than the U.S.Their new 914 would cover the entry-levelfour-cylinder sector butPorsche still needed a halo carto showcase the cream of whatthe good stallion could offer.You know, that luscious,silky thick horse cream.(James imitates music)Pumphrey's horse cream, onlyavailable at donutmedia.com.Ferdinand Porsche Junior,Ferry, if you're nasty,was looking to incorporatea luxury grand touring carinto the lineup to compete with brandslike Mercedes and BMW.They already had a leg up on Porschewith cars like the first gen five seriesand the W116.They were both outsellingPorsche in the states,which like I said beforewas Porsche's target market.So, the company decidedthat for them to survivein the 80s and beyond,they needed to designa luxury grand touring carwith a front-engine layoutthat allowed them enough roomto fit a catalytic converter,for any other luxury carmanufacturer at the timethis would not be a big deal.Front-engine rear-wheel-drive, oh yeah,I think we can do that. (laughs)You mean doing what we always do?Oh yeah, I think we can do that.(both laugh)Oh yeah, one beer sounds nice.But for a company that gained notorietyby producing smallrear-engine baby rocket boys,this was risky business.(piano music)Despite the inherent risk ofdoing something off-brand,Ferry Porsche ordered the designof this new luxury grand tour in 1971and with its debut, Porschefinally planned to say goodbyeto the outdated 911.Not only would this car be different,it would be the first Porsche madethat would be designed from the ground up.Every other car that they had done so farwas derived from analready existing model.The 356 came from the Volkswagen Beetle.The 911 came from the 356,the 914 was designedwith VW as a replacementfor Karmann Ghia.So, literally when people saythat 911s are just six-cylinder Beetlesor call them like Uber Beetles,they're not just being a troll,that's literally how the car started.Now with nothing holding 'em back,they could do whatever they wantedas far as powertrain choices,design and new technology,without having to worry about fitting into any existing framework and the choicesthat they ended up makingfor the 928 were interesting.Some were brilliant and somewere just like, (drum roll)what?There was a lot ofinternal debate at Porscheas what should power this new GT car.The engineers went out inthe end as they always do.Jeremiah gets the front seat every time.And so, they decided to use their choice,an aluminum five-liter V8,making 302 sweet, creamy hrsprs.This new you liquid cooled V8dubbed the M28 was differentfrom the air-cooled flatsixes Porsche was known for.So, a lot of time wasspent making it reliable.Engineers decided tomake the bore spacing,aka the space between thecylinders extra thick.- Extra thick.- This extra space betweencylinders on the M28prevented the engineblock from overheatingbut it did decrease thedisplacement from five litersto 4.5, not a huge deal inthe grand scheme of thingsbut it did reduce overallhorsepower from 302 to 240 .Sounds like my bench max.Which I wanna point outis still pretty goodfor like the gas crisis era.Now a traditional mid-mounted transmissionwould've thrown offthe balance of the 928.So, engineers opted for atransactional on the rearto help it achieve a perfect50-50 weight distribution.Most 911s were manual, aside from a fewsportomanic equipped models.So, Porsche chose athree-speed Mercedes-sourcedautomatic transmission for the 928,which would later getupgraded to a four-speed.It did come with the option ofa five-speed dog-leg manual,but more than 80% of all 928sever sold were automatic.As we said before, one of thebiggest problems Porsche facedwith the 911 was oversteer.So, Porsche was like, (chuckles),we'll have no more that.They lengthened the wheelbasefrom 87 to 98 inches,put independent suspensionon all four cornersand develop what theycalled the Weissach Axle,named after the smalltown outside of Stuttgartthat Porsche R and D calls home.Now all this Weissach Axle stuffis a little above my paygrade, if I'm being honest.So, I'm gonna let Jeremiah explain it.(upbeat music)- Thank you James.Basically, with a set up like the 911,when the car decelerates,the rear trailing armpivots towards the rearrelative to the chassisand that results in thewheels going toe-out.Now, this can destabilize the rear-endand send it spinning out,which is what 911s of that erawere known for.The Weissach Axle has a metal linkage.When the car decelerates,the link forces the wheelsto go toe-in instead of toe-out,which takes care of ourlittle oversteer problem.It's what's considered apassive steering systemand it really helps thecar maintain stabilitythrough the most intense part of a turnby giving it a super highlevel of lateral gripand improved stability.- Thanks Jer, now back to me.(upbeat music)Thanks me.Now that it's bones andheart we're taken care of,it was finally time tofocus on beautiful skin.The body of the 928 wasdesigned by Wolfgang Mobius,which sounds like asymphony under the tutelageof Anatole Tony Lapine,who also designed the Corvette Stingrayin the 1960s.If you look at thesetwo cars side by side,it's no wonder why the928 got the nickname,Germany's Corvette.Now it took some time for the design teamto convince the board at Porscheto go with this body design,the board thought thatthey were going gorillas.It was wildly different thananything they'd ever done.But the designers insistedthat this look was provocativeand it'll get people goingand eventually they convincedeveryone in the roomthat it was a very good idea.The era of the wedge car was in full swingby the mid-seventies and thedesign of the 928 fit perfectlywith the trend.The aluminum over steel body construction,which was novel for thetime, allowed for these long,swoopy lines.The polyurethane bumperswere integrated into the bodyto achieve a sleek aerodynamic look.Nowadays, tons of carshave this style bumper,but back when it cameout, it was super unique,it was so futuristic at the timethat it doesn't even look dated even todaybut the pièce de résistanceof the Porsche 928and probably my favorite part of this carwere the pop-up up and down headlights.♪ Pop, pop, pop ♪When they're down, the lightsare visible, pointing up,which helps the 928 maintainthat classic Porsche front end,also looks like you're fricking sharp,which is the third coolest animal.And when they pop up, oh boy,suddenly the 928 is transformedinto the sickest snailyou've ever seen.Sorry, Gary, SpongeBob's dead.- Meow.- And we gotta use his bodyto clean this (indistinct) 28.(upbeat music)Porsche knew the risk thatthey were taking with this car,but they were too far alongto just pull the plug.Six years of research anddevelopment led to this moment.Would people accept the 928as a replacement for the 911or would it completely tank the company?Find out right now.The 928 debuted at the1977 Geneva Motor Show,exactly 41 years before Idebuted at the Geneva Motor Show.People took notice of me strolling aroundin my fancy turtleneck.A similar thing could be said for the 928.Crowds flocked to the Porsche exhibitto gawk at the newfront engine V8 Porsche.Car enthusiasts marveledat the sleek design.The shark-like bumpers, theplush yet wild interior.BMW and Mercedes could onlylook on as Porsche was winningover all of their customers.They are marveling at it.(sighs) I mean, can you blame them?It's marvelous.Yeah, one beer sounds good.Speaking of interior, the928 had its fair shareof what Doug DeMuro would call.- This.- This (beeps) is (beeps) brazy dog.First off, the interior gaugecluster and the steering wheelmoved as a single unitwhen the wheel was adjustedto make sure that all ofthe gauges could be read,despite where it was adjusted.And because it was the seventies,the seats came in avariety of groovy swatches,including the mesmerizingCheckerboard Pasha, tartan,even pinstripes and paisleys.But one of the weirdest things in the 928has to be it's rear sun visors.They're like no sun visorthat you've ever seen.- The rear sun visors are nuts.If you manage to squeeze inthe back, like I was saying,this is a lot of glass,a lot of greenhouse.So, these rear sunrises, you know,I guess they come in handy.It's a real quirky design to it.This is almost right in yourface when you look at it.- But for all the new stuffin the 928's interior,it was the new center console designthat was actually the mostsuper high tech for the time.Don't take it from me.- Now there's that centerconsole that I was talking about.There's nothing like that ina Porsche that came beforebut you look at that, every Porsche todayseems to have a similar inspiredcenter console transmission tunnel.The center console that's in the 928,you know it's integrated,that is in every 911 today.Everything from the Panamera to the Macanto obviously, you know, the Cayenne,it has that same center console.- Like Magnus said,this was the first timethat Porsche had anintegrated center console.The move made sense for agrand tour and it was a hit.I mean, your arm's gotta go somewhere/Technology.Overall people lovedthe 928 when it debuted.It even won the European Car of the Year,not sports car of the year,car of the year in 1978.That's the first year thata sports car won that title,beating out the BMW sevenseries and the Ford Granada.♪ Ford Granada ♪One of the things thatmade the 928 so goodwas that 50-50 weight distributionthat I mentioned earlier.Porsche developed this car tocompete with BMW and Mercedesbut the 928 actually handled betterthan anything in their own lineup.In terms where the 911would've been hard to control,the 928 stayed super planted.The powerful V8 could blastthrough apexes no problem,without getting fishy.(car engine roaring)The only thing that wasreally holding this car backwas the price tag at $26,000,which is about $103,000 today,it wasn't cheap.Its base price was higherthan the top end 911but it was half the price of the carit was competing against,the Mercedes S-Class,which sold for an insane$50,000 by the end of the 70s.That's $200,000 now,which is like depressingand just proves thatmoney is stupid and fake.The 928 didn't quite sell aswell as Porsche had wantedbut the hype alone surroundingthis car was enough for themto keep producing it andPorsche had a little helpfrom a little town called Hollywood.By the early 80s, Porschewas selling small numbersof the 928, mostly to richplayboys, rich athletesand other rich celebrities.So it was pretty natural,when the 928 started showingup in TV shows and movieslike "Scarface" and "Weird Science".Also, Bruce Wayne drives onein Frank Miller's Batman:Year One comic book.The one movie where thiscar was basically the starwas the 1983, Tom cruiseclassic, "Risky Business".(upbeat music)Now this movie centers around a teenagerwho escorts prostitutes aroundin his parents' gold Porsche 928,culminating in the car rollingoff a dock into the water.Oh come on, spoiler alert.The movie's 37 years old.Oh, so about like half as old as you.What?Spoiler alert.What? (chuckles)Speaking of spoilers, the look of the 928continued to evolve overthe course of its lifeand even though this carwas essentially designedfor the U.S. market,Europe obviously got allthe cool versions firstwhile we were just sitting heretwiddling our red, white and blue thumbs.One of the first updates to the 928was a front and rear spoileras well as wider tiresfor the 1980 model.The little black ducktailbroke up the bulbous rear-endand gave the car a sportier look.The 928 S, as it was called,got a bigger 4.7-liter V8,which now made 300 hrsprs.The 928 S finally made itsway across the Atlanticto America in 1984, witha bunch of cool upgradeslike Bosch anti-lock brakes,an extra gear for theautomatic, a shorter shifterand a new five-liter 32 valve V8albeit with power reducedto 228 horsepower.But the new engine wasdefinitely an upgradeand paired with the new transmission,the 928 now had a top speedof over 155 miles per hour.Do Germans make meatballs?Because if they do, thisis a spicy German meatball.Also in 1984, Porschemade a special one-offto celebrate the 75thbirthday of Ferry Porsche,called the 942.It had a longer wheelbase and a different roof.There was actually a second one madefor the president of theAmerican Sunroof Corporationwho helped make the 944 cabriolets.That's a nice gift, theymust've been homies.1987 saw the arrival of the 928 S4.Americans finally got this hot versionwith new choice upgrades,like a sick-ass spoiler,new bumpers, beefierinternals, including new cam,new heads, which upped thepower all the way to 316,finally!Finally, 316 hrsprs.Enthusiasts still had themanual option with GT package.Now a year before this S4made it's debut in the states,a group of engineers fromPorsche took one of 'emto the Bonneville Salt Flats.The director of PorscheMotorsport North Americaand IMSA champion, Al Holbertwould be behind the wheelas they attempted to break the recordfor fastest land speedin a stock naturallyaspirated production car.After only a few attempts,they did just that.The five-speed 928 S4 madeit to 171.9 miles per hourwith ease.The car is very stable, Ishould've turned the radio onbecause it's so quiet, there's no noise.Pretty nifty.- Later the S4 would clock anunofficial 180 miles per hourfor a car that had beenout for a full decade,it's clear that this thingwas only getting betteras time went on, like a finethree-liter of aged Faygo.But the success of the 928was not a good barometerfor how badly thingswere going at Porsche,despite all the amazing carsthey produced during this time,the early 80s were not kind to the companyand they continued to struggleto keep their head above water.(water bubbling)In 1981, Porsche posted aprofit of $4.5 million total.Which is around $15 million today.For a car company that's really bad.Like that's barely enoughto keep the lights on.Like literally, their light billis probably like $15 million.That same year, Peter Schutzreplaced Ernst Fuhrmannand decided that the 928 and911 should exist side-by-sideand that Porsche shouldcontinue to manufacture the 911instead of killing off, probablya very, very good decision.The 928 and the 911 weretwo totally differentclasses of cars and we all knowhow well the 911 has evolvedsince the 80s.Imagine a world wherePorsche didn't make the 911.(people screaming)(thunder rumbling)As the 928 kept chugging intoits third decade of existence,it hadn't even reached its final form.The 928 GTS debuted in 1993with a bored out 5.4-liter 32 valve V8making an impressive 345 hrsprs.They sent just over 400of these to the states,which makes them one ofthe most sought after 928sout there and just twoyears later in 1995,they exed the car altogetherending an impressive 18year one generation run.The reason, well, it could'vebeen because the 928 GTScosts over $100,000,three times the price ofa Corvette at the timebut more likely is thatit was just too expensiveto keep producing such an old model.Plus Porsche needed tofocus all their energyon the newest generation 911, the 993and they were alreadydeveloping the Boxster.The 928 was definitely the black sheepof the Porsche family for a while.It wasn't conventional in any senseand it seemed to defyeverything the company stood forbut it proved that Porscheengineering wasn't confinedto any one engine layout,any one drivetrain,any one body type.We won't see a new 928 anytime soonbut it's DNA obviouslylives on in every Porschebuilt since then.The Weissach Axle, whichcan be found in the GT 3RSand basically every modern Porsche.I mean, look at a Panamera,it's a fricking fourth over 928and of course that center consolewhich can be found inevery Porsche, nowadays.It's easy to write thiscar off as a failurebut over the course of its production run,Porsche sold over 60,000 of 'em,which is a lot for a boutique car company.And that means that this is one Porscheyou can still find for pretty cheapbut the price has been going up recentlybecause people are making videos about 'emand Magnus Walker bought some.And speaking of Magnus, Iwanna extend a huge thank youfrom me and the rest ofthe team, without his helpthis video wouldn't beanywhere near what it was.A super nice guy, amazing,amazing enthusiastic.If you wanna see hisamazing Porsche collection,check out his Instagram @magnuswalker.Follow me on Instagram andTwitter @jamespumphrey,follow donut on everything @donutmedia.If you wanna buy a shirtor some horse cream,go to donutmedia.com.Horse cream isn't a real product yet,but if you guys want usto make some horse cream,while we were just shooting this,I came up with some ideasof what that could be.So, hit us up in the comments.That's how buff horses happened.Just let us know you want horsecream, you want horse cream,we want horse cream.We want horse cream, #wewanthorsecream.(James laughs)#wewanthorsecreamand we will make horse cream.All right, thank you.It's good to be back, I love you.(dramatic orchestral music)