Junkyard Find: 1985 Porsche 928, Weird Movie Car Edition
Southern California really is the Promised Land of cool Junkyard Finds, and sometimes you’ll find a car that was used in a film or TV shoot before getting scrapped. Such appears to be the case with this puzzling camo-and-Boeing-emblems-wrapped 928.
The engine is gone, the interior is stripped, and it has a hole in the hood that suggests that the car once had a goofy intake setup.
Just 125,180 miles on the clock.
Perhaps this car participated in the Silver State Classic Challenge. Or maybe it just has the sticker.
OK, bonus points for anyone who can unearth some history of this car on the internetz (but only if you’re doing your research on The Man’s clock).
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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The 928 is such an underrated car because the 911 is essentially a gold standard of sports cars. A mid-90's 928 was still faster than a 911 until the early 2000s and after a quick search they're fairly affordable though at this point I imagine 10-20K in repairs is almost guaranteed if the car hasn't been refreshed in that period. Still, they look good, seem to fit in a decent size group and while this car is well past spent the wrap isn't horrendous, it's a bit kitschy but for something that is largely unloved and will never command the top dollar like 356/911s do why not do something you love with it?
It's been 15 years since Porsche made one of these things and 35 years since they started. One thing will never change - the 928 seems to be the ultimate love it or hate it car. I have one and while the locals in the Porsche Club were always friendly enough there was no real interest in the 928 among most members. And PCA-ers generally look on the 928 as a dead end, based on articles etc in Panorama. I will say that while mine is more of a pain than I ever could have imagined, it's a real treat when running well, which it is now. The maintenance never ends, the parts are incredibly expensive (and increasingly hard to even find) and service can be spotty when you need a pro. DIY is a challenge for me, as I really have to know when to stop trying to fix the thing, before I ruin it. I think whoever did this may not have been 100% in love with the 928, maybe not even 0%!