Car Of The Day: March 1, 2011

Today's car of the day is Zylmex's 1983 Porsche 928S.

The Porsche 928 was a sports-GT car sold by Porsche AG of Germany from 1978 to 1995. Originally intended to replace the company's iconic 911, the 928 attempted to combine the power, poise, and handling of a sports car with the refinement, comfort, and equipment of a luxury sedan to create what some Porsche executives thought would be a vehicle with wider appeal than the compact, quirky and sometimes difficult 911.

Since its inception in 1949, Porsche has manufactured only six front-engined models, four of which were coupes, including the 928. The car has the distinction of being the company's only coupe powered by a front-mounted V8 engine, and the company's first mass-produced V8 powered model.
During 1983 the 928S was the fastest car sold in North America, with a top speed of 146 mph (235 km/h).

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Porsche 928S

The Porsche 928 was made by a wide variety of diecast manufacturers in 1/64: the Zylmex shown here is kept company by examples from Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Yat Ming, Siku, Tomica, Playart, Guisval, Road Champs, Kyosho, Tootsietoy, Metchy, Majorette, and another model by Zylmex (with opening doors), among others.  This car was big news when it came out, hence why all of the diecast manufacturers pounced on it like a Velociraptor on a Jurassic Park tourist.  Later variants are harder to find in small scale, since most of the aforementioned models were done right when the car came out.  Very few bothered to make models of the later variants of the 928 as most already had the original '78 model in their lineups.  Sadly, the real car never really caught on.  Styling probably had a lot to do with it (believe it or not, the 928 was inspired by the AMC Pacer- look at the rear end of both cars and its readily apparent).  This one came from Pegers (thanks Dan!).

Porsche introduced a refreshed 928 S into the European market in 1979 model year, although it was summer of 1982 and MY 1983 before the model reached North America. Externally, the S wore new front and rear spoilers and sported wider wheels and tires than the older variant, but the main change for the 928 S was under the hood, where a revised 4.7 L engine was used. European versions debuted with 300 PS (221 kW/297 hp), and were upgraded to 310 PS (228 kW/306 hp) for 1984 model year, though it is rumored [and proven on chassis dynamometers] that they typically made around 330 hp. From 1984 to 1986, the ROW (Rest of World) S model was called S2 in UK. These cars used Bosch LH-Jetronic fuel injection and purely electronic Bosch ignition, the same systems used on the later 32 valve cars, though without the pollution controls. North American-spec 1983 and 1984 S models used, among other differences, smaller valves, milder camshafts, narrower intake manifolds, and additional pollution equipment in order to meet emissions regulations, and were limited to 234 hp (174 kW/230 PS) as a result.