Your Owner's Manual contains a host of useful information. Please read this manual before you drive your new Porsche. Acquaint yourself with your car's features and know how to operate your Porsche more safely. The better you know your Porsche, the more pleasure you will experience driving your new car. The Warranty & Maintenance booklet also contains detailed information about the warranties covering your porsche.
Concerning This Book
Very little is ever published about the development of a new automobile, apart from the well-known fact that design and testing take years. Of course "erlking" pictures are often found in magazines, usually showing camouflaged prototypes. And we know that the development of new models can consume enormous sums- forty million dollars or more. However, the full length of the path a new automobile must follow from first drawing to production maturity is usually hidden from the public.
Such projects are very confidential matters, always bearing a "top secret" stamp. Design studios, experimental workshops and test facilities at any auto firm are hermetically sealed off from the outside world and workers in them bound to strict secrecy. This is understandable. Such levels of knowledge and experience are a firm's capital and few are likely to release that.
Our book is an attempt to lift this veil of secrecy, even a little, to give the reader an insight into those years of work behind closed doors. During virtually the entire development phase of the 928 project there was no area "off limits" to the photographer, He had free access to design studios and workshops alike. His camera recorded decisive tests on the brake, experimental drives and internal presentations. He perspired with the test team under an African sun and shivered with them through winter testing at the Arctic Circle. Your writer, on the other hand, had full access to items of little use to a photographer; to project books, minutes of engineering meetings and test reports. There was only one condition attached to such deep insight into the development work; our material could only be published after 928 production began.
Why did we follow Porsche 928 developments for our readers? Well, this 928 is one of the outstanding new creations of our era- at least for all friends of technically demanding, high performance automobiles. In addition, this vehicle, first introduced to the public at the international Geneva Auto Salon in 1977, also offered an especially interesting development tale.
Because Porsche's 928 is one of the very few all-new creations in recent years, fresh from first bolt to last. Every part was designed from scratch - engine, gearbox, transaxle, drive line type, chassis with its Weissach axle, and the body. Thus design and testing were naturally extensive.
Furthermore the 928 is an automobile which we are very likely to be seeing on our roads for some time, just as the 356 was produced for fifteen years and its successor, the 911, still enjoys the favor of its fans after approximately the same length of time. Therefore the development story of this new Porsche seemed particularly relevant.
And finally, a further circumstance made this 928 project exceptionally interesting. Exactly halfway through its development run, when important investments had to be committed, the energy crisis and auto industry recession made the entire project questionable. The alternate solutions, debated in 1974, and the considerations which led Porsche to stand by its original 928 project, form a considerable part of our story.
Project 928 must be viewed primarily as a picture book, as a photographic eyewitness report. With good reason. The dence. trust and open-minded approach. 0ur thanks go development of any automobile is a creation of function- too to all those workers in the development branch who ality from shapes and colors, a very gratifying playground always found sympathy for our problems and gave so for the passionate photographer. Our text is designed to freely of their time supplement, to establish contact points, making historic divisions clear and furnishing background information.