Porsche 928 S4 Manual

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It is hard to believe now that by the late ‘60s Porsche were thinking that the 911 might have come to the end of its development potential. The future, they thought, was going to be in a large front-engined V8 with rear wheel drive, moving considerably up-market in the process.

The wondrous 928 arrived in 1978, complete with black and white chequered Op Art upholstery, and whilst it had the world talking, its eye-watering price led to rather disappointing sales. By 1986, the engine had increased from 4.5 litres to 5.0 litres and was pumping out 316bhp, enough to give the larger-than-life bahn-stormer a top speed of 162mph and a 0–60 time of just 6.2 seconds – and that was for the automatic!

The manual version of the 32-valve S4 model was not a common choice, making this 1987 S4 manual relatively rare. Featuring the typical Porsche ‘dog-leg’ first gear, it was purchased new through Roger Clark Cars in Leicester, registered E928 EAY and stayed with its first owner until 1990 when it passed into the hands of the vendor’s late husband. At this time it is thought to have covered around 30,000 miles.

The document file includes its original handbook pack with service book which has two stamps early on in its history. Since then, it has been used regularly, a run of 11 old MOTs showing that by 2001 it had covered just under 150,000 miles. Numerous invoices detail maintenance over the period by AS Bone Ltd and John Garett Autos, significant bills showing new camchains, tensioners and 32 cam followers in 2001 and more recently new front calipers and rear discs in 2012 by which time the mileage had increased to just over 200,000 miles.

Laid up in a dry garage in 2014, the odometer now registers 208,000 miles and although the car had not run for several years, some fresh petrol and a new battery had the car up and running in a matter of seconds. No doubt requiring some recommissioning before use, a short test drive revealed that it starts, stops and steers, the engine running commendably smoothly.

Despite its high mileage, this low owner, manual S4 is still a highly desirable car, especially so since the number MJ 777 is included in the sale. Surely these fabulous 928s will never be better value than they are today…