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I was on the lookout for a new promotional car to use for the business, and as usual, the only real
requirements were that it had to be a little different, and that it had to be a real crowd puller - especially as it was replacing our eye catching ISH F355. When I arrived at the Newark car show and saw this Porsche (Visiting the UK on German Plates), I just had to buy it !!
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Our Porker
You can tell from the pictures, that this not your usual run of the mill 928! Although loosley based on a Porsche 928S from 1981, the aluminium and fibreglass bodyshell sports some very serious modifications. As far as we can tell, this car was professionally built in Germany and only came into the UK in 2002. The first thing we had to do was register it with some UK plates.
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The Interior
Coming from Germany, the car is naturally a Left Hand Drive, but to make up for that, it also has a five speed Manual gearbox! and believe me, that makes it great fun to drive!
The interior has been lovingly retrimmed in top quality hide, and I do not mean just the four seats (Yes it`s a full four seater!) but also the dash, door cards and even the roof lining have all been recovered in black leather.
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The Engine
The engine is a very large 4.4 litre V8 and has the sexiest burbling sound you will ever hear on a car. If you have to ask about fuel economy around town, you can`t afford it! but once you get it up to speed, say 70mph or so, it will cruise there very happily on tickover, at around 22-25mpg which is not that bad.
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Graphics
Having a good look at the exterior, it was difficult to see what we could do to the car to change it`s
appearance and make it more appealing as a promotional car. The 20 year old paintwork needed a bit of attention and TLC here and there, so we thought that we would throw a set of graphics at it, and see how it looked. The beauty of Vinyl is that it can be easily peeled off if required.
To this day, I`m still not sure about the graphics, as the car is simply stunning in its own right!
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Seven Feet Wide !
The 928 was a big car anyway, but with those wide arches, it takes the car out to exactly seven feet wide! ( Certainly Not for the feint hearted! ) Those wheel arches are fully filled with rubber though, the fronts are 275/35/17 and are specially manufactured for this car at £240 each. The rears are 335/35/17 and would cost you around £350 each to replace.
You would be forgiven in thinking that the ride is quite hard, far from it, In fact it has an unbelieveably smooth (and quiet!) cabin, and sticks to the road fantastically !
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We have a Major Problem !!
I took the car to a few shows, as we always do with our project cars, to gain public reaction and acceptance of ideas before we start modifications. This is a classic example of where it went drastically wrong for us!
Everybody loved the car, and I have had so many comments about the rarity of the car, how good it looked, and the general concensus was that I should leave it 'as is', and not to devalue it with any further modifications. There have also been various stories that have emerged over the origins of the car, from former German Formula One pace car to a coachbuilt special. As far as we can tell after extensive research it is a very early Strosek, and possibly unique! And this presents me with a major problem.
I bought the Porsche for use as a promotional car for my buisness with the intentions of ripping it to pieces and performing some serious modifications, but it looks like it could actually be a very genuine and very rare car indeed. To destroy such a piece of potential history would be pure sacrilige, and would go totally against the grain, especially as I am such a car enthusiast.
A promotional car, that could not earn its keep, unfortunately had to be sold.
Sincere Thanks to the following :
Alternative Car Show 2002 - Jun 15/16
County Showground, Newark.
Southern Mini Show 2003
Hop Farm, Kent.
Barnardos Classic Car Show 2003
Bristol.
Classic Car Show 2003
Shuttleworth, Beds.
Restored to its former glory
Of all the cars I have owned, I think that this has been one of my all time favourites. Not because its a seven feet wide supercar, but purely for the amount of pleasure I had from driving it. So I decided that before I would sell it, that I should give it a major once over and restore it back to its former glory, and I`m so glad I did. The car was sold late 2004, to a guy who enjoyed nothing more than polishing cars, I know, because I bought another car from him !!!
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