WEBVTT - The Porsche 928: Why Better Isn’t Always Best 0:00:15.316 --> 0:00:22.956 Pushkin. Hey Eddie here, before we get started, I wanted 0:00:22.996 --> 0:00:24.876 you to know that you can listen to Car Show 0:00:24.956 --> 0:00:29.276 ad free by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. You'll also 0:00:29.316 --> 0:00:32.796 get access to detours, bonus episodes of Car Show, where 0:00:32.836 --> 0:00:37.676 we go for extended drives, play outtakes, and more fine 0:00:37.716 --> 0:00:40.636 Pushkin Plus on the Car Show page in Apple Podcasts, 0:00:41.156 --> 0:00:47.916 or at pushkin dot Fm. Risky Business nineteen eighty three. 0:00:48.796 --> 0:00:52.636 Tom Cruise is Joel Goodson. His dad has a Porsche 0:00:52.956 --> 0:01:02.116 nine eight. A couple of boys in daddy's car. Joel's 0:01:02.116 --> 0:01:04.156 just backed the silver coop out of the garage and 0:01:04.356 --> 0:01:08.356 is rolling through town doing high school senior things. He's 0:01:08.396 --> 0:01:11.396 the model kid. He's hoping to get into Princeton in 0:01:11.436 --> 0:01:15.076 the fall. He has no idea how sideways it's all 0:01:15.116 --> 0:01:20.716 about to go. Fast forward to the movie's second act. 0:01:21.636 --> 0:01:24.396 Joel is sitting with his girlfriend Lana played by Rebecca 0:01:24.476 --> 0:01:27.716 de Morney, on the hood of the Porsche overlooking the lake. 0:01:29.476 --> 0:01:32.476 I'm okay. They are soon to start their own little 0:01:32.516 --> 0:01:36.596 prostitution business. At the beginning of the scene, as Lana 0:01:36.636 --> 0:01:38.596 grabs her purse out of the nine twenty eight, she 0:01:38.716 --> 0:01:42.196 knocks the shift lever into neutral. When she gets up 0:01:42.236 --> 0:01:44.476 from the hood of the car to leave Joel, he 0:01:44.516 --> 0:01:48.396 takes off after her. Was something I said. The Porsche 0:01:48.436 --> 0:01:57.996 starts rolling down the dock toward the lake got side. 0:02:00.036 --> 0:02:04.316 Ye never has a car so perfectly embody the Hollywood storyline. 0:02:05.596 --> 0:02:09.596 Forget the gradual, forget the fast, and the furious. Risky 0:02:09.596 --> 0:02:12.756 business director Paul Brickman could have picked a better signifier 0:02:12.836 --> 0:02:15.796 for Joe's predicament. This is a car that's all about 0:02:15.876 --> 0:02:18.516 going in way too deep, getting a way out over 0:02:18.556 --> 0:02:22.836 your skis. This is the story of the Portion nine 0:02:22.956 --> 0:02:25.996 twenty eight, an elite car with tons of promise, but 0:02:26.076 --> 0:02:34.236 one that, metaphorically speaking, fell right into the lake. I'm 0:02:34.356 --> 0:02:39.476 Eddie Alterman, and this is Car Show. In this episode 0:02:39.636 --> 0:02:42.556 will examine how the nine twenty eight, this raging tour 0:02:42.596 --> 0:02:46.716 to force of styling, engineering and performance, failed to speak 0:02:46.756 --> 0:02:49.196 to the exact audience that should have loved it. But 0:02:49.356 --> 0:02:55.116 Portion soon to ask why we put so much performance 0:02:55.156 --> 0:03:00.556 in a luxury car, and lothers ask why we put 0:03:00.556 --> 0:03:05.316 so much luxury in a performance car. You'd think that 0:03:05.396 --> 0:03:08.356 in the eighties, a great and powerful continent cross for 0:03:08.476 --> 0:03:10.996 like the nine eight would have been an easy cell 0:03:11.236 --> 0:03:15.836 to Porsche's polo Cologne wearing sports car clientele. It was 0:03:15.916 --> 0:03:22.036 not excellence is expected, So how did this perfect Porsche 0:03:22.556 --> 0:03:40.036 become Porsche's pariah. The biggest issue with the nine twenty 0:03:40.036 --> 0:03:42.036 eight may have been the pre existence of the Portione 0:03:42.116 --> 0:03:47.516 nine to eleven. Porsche names its projects in running order. 0:03:48.156 --> 0:03:50.596 You can tell which came first because of the model numbers. 0:03:51.276 --> 0:03:53.516 The core model coupe started as the nine oh one, 0:03:53.716 --> 0:03:56.636 but became the nine to eleven after complaints from Pouchet 0:03:57.316 --> 0:03:59.476 the French. He said that Porsche can use the same 0:03:59.836 --> 0:04:03.156 number zero number naming convention. The point is that the 0:04:03.276 --> 0:04:05.436 nine twenty eight is a good dozen steps away from 0:04:05.436 --> 0:04:08.556 the nine to eleven, a world away. It turns out, 0:04:09.196 --> 0:04:11.236 while the nine to eleven has been scaling new heights 0:04:11.236 --> 0:04:14.996 of performance and desirability over the past forty years, nine 0:04:15.116 --> 0:04:19.076 twenty eight remained somewhat forgotten. People make fun of it. 0:04:19.836 --> 0:04:24.116 It's been labeled an eighties car, a cocaine cowboy, not 0:04:24.196 --> 0:04:27.636 the kind of Porsche Porsche people care about. But it 0:04:27.676 --> 0:04:31.196 was a car Porsche itself had lavished extraordinary care on. 0:04:32.076 --> 0:04:34.596 At the time, it wasn't veiled. It was the only Porsche, 0:04:34.716 --> 0:04:38.436 not somehow based on a Volkswagen product. It was all new, 0:04:39.236 --> 0:04:45.036 new VI eight engine, new suspension, new layout, Hence the problem. 0:04:45.116 --> 0:04:46.716 Most people didn't really know what to make of the 0:04:46.796 --> 0:04:48.396 nine twenty eighth when it came out in the late 0:04:48.436 --> 0:04:52.036 seventies or for a long time after that. That confusion 0:04:52.076 --> 0:04:54.996 curled into dismissal and eventually set for a while at 0:04:55.076 --> 0:05:01.556 least an antipathy why the car was groundbreaking, It was beautiful, 0:05:02.916 --> 0:05:10.236 and man was it fast? On it a nine twenty 0:05:10.236 --> 0:05:13.716 eight because it's weird mostly and it's like kind of 0:05:13.756 --> 0:05:16.636 like does doesn't he doesn't even like necessarily suit me 0:05:16.756 --> 0:05:20.716 or my personality, but just like like a weird a 0:05:20.796 --> 0:05:24.956 really weird car, really weird version of a portion of 0:05:25.276 --> 0:05:32.076 you know. This is Derek Burke. He's a Detroit musician 0:05:32.116 --> 0:05:34.956 and works in the film business. He co owns a 0:05:35.036 --> 0:05:38.036 nine twenty eight with his brother. It's his car will 0:05:38.076 --> 0:05:41.116 be abusing for this episode, and even he is conflicted 0:05:41.156 --> 0:05:43.756 about it. It's like I always pictured like a Miami 0:05:43.836 --> 0:05:46.156 Vice type person in one of these cars, you know, 0:05:46.276 --> 0:05:49.756 like like a really eighties kind of like you know, 0:05:50.516 --> 0:05:54.956 the person that that I'm not, but you hope to 0:05:54.996 --> 0:05:58.196 be one. Yeah. Yeah, I struggle with my personality while 0:05:58.236 --> 0:06:00.436 I'm driving it, you know, like you know, you get 0:06:00.436 --> 0:06:02.636 out at the gas pump, like, you know, like you 0:06:02.756 --> 0:06:05.436 have like identity problems. I feel like at least I do. 0:06:05.676 --> 0:06:11.876 I'm like, I like, like am I like a yeah, yeah, 0:06:11.876 --> 0:06:16.276 thank you? Yeah? Right? Like what what does it mean? Now? 0:06:16.556 --> 0:06:19.316 Does me? Now that I'm driving just a car? You 0:06:19.476 --> 0:06:22.436 kind of like it is an ostentatious German cud You 0:06:22.476 --> 0:06:28.716 can you can pull it off? Yeah. Derek Burks nine 0:06:28.796 --> 0:06:31.396 twenty eight is an original first year car from nineteen 0:06:31.436 --> 0:06:34.876 seventy eight. Let's examine the thing that confronted customers as 0:06:34.876 --> 0:06:37.956 they walked into Porsche's showrooms. So this is the nineteen 0:06:38.076 --> 0:06:43.796 seventy eight first MABI year. So this is as pure 0:06:45.756 --> 0:06:49.196 a reflection of the concept as you're gonna get the 0:06:49.276 --> 0:06:52.796 first year as it came from the factory. And it's 0:06:52.796 --> 0:06:57.516 an amazing shape. It's really really beautiful. Yeah, it's a 0:06:57.716 --> 0:07:02.156 it's original point original paint. Yeah. Really from this angle, 0:07:02.556 --> 0:07:06.596 it is so evocative of the nine to eleven um 0:07:07.116 --> 0:07:10.676 just the roundness of it, the the placement of the 0:07:10.756 --> 0:07:14.236 lights is sort of updated nine to eleven rear end. 0:07:14.556 --> 0:07:17.316 You know, just kind of cat cast a couple decades 0:07:17.356 --> 0:07:20.596 into the future. Um, you know, it's amazing to me 0:07:21.236 --> 0:07:27.596 that it was so rejected by the Porsche cognischend It 0:07:27.716 --> 0:07:33.356 kind of still is right because what they were going 0:07:33.396 --> 0:07:36.196 for was really an evolution of the nine to eleven look. 0:07:36.916 --> 0:07:40.436 You know, it didn't have a front grill, and the 0:07:40.516 --> 0:07:43.036 idea was like, let's make it look like a Porsche. 0:07:43.436 --> 0:07:46.436 Roundhead lights pop up in this case, so like an 0:07:46.436 --> 0:07:50.916 evolution of the nine to eleven look, but smooth streamline hood, 0:07:51.716 --> 0:07:55.836 a rounded back. You know, from what I understand, and 0:07:55.916 --> 0:08:01.076 this might be apocryphal, Fairy Porsche, the guy in charge 0:08:01.076 --> 0:08:06.876 at the time loved the AMC Pacer. That's the the 0:08:07.316 --> 0:08:11.716 um the inspiration for the rear windows in the rear 0:08:11.756 --> 0:08:15.316 hats from the Pacer. I heard that exactly. The Pacer, 0:08:15.396 --> 0:08:18.196 if you don't remember, it was the car in Wayne's world. 0:08:19.236 --> 0:08:22.676 It was also the car Serial Killers drove. Make of 0:08:22.756 --> 0:08:26.156 that what you will. So you have one kind of 0:08:26.276 --> 0:08:28.716 main glass panel in the back of the back light, 0:08:28.796 --> 0:08:32.316 and then these two side windows on the side, and 0:08:32.676 --> 0:08:35.636 that's like a kind of a laid down version of 0:08:35.676 --> 0:08:39.636 the Pacer. Super super cool looking. And this was so 0:08:39.796 --> 0:08:42.476 avant garde. This is so ahead of its time. I mean, 0:08:42.476 --> 0:08:46.436 it still looks futuristic, looks futuristic. That's what's interesting about it. 0:08:46.436 --> 0:08:49.996 It looks like nothing else, you know, And that's just 0:08:50.076 --> 0:08:53.236 the exterior. The interior of the car. It looks like 0:08:53.236 --> 0:08:55.756 it came straight out of the day of a system 0:08:55.916 --> 0:08:58.836 the designers really swung for the outer reaches of the galaxy. 0:08:59.636 --> 0:09:02.436 They put a radio fader nod by the driver's doorsill 0:09:02.996 --> 0:09:06.716 and installed sun visors in the rear seat positions. And 0:09:06.796 --> 0:09:09.796 there are a couple really interesting seat options in this car. 0:09:10.476 --> 0:09:13.916 As I recall, there was the Pasha seed inserts, which 0:09:13.916 --> 0:09:17.076 were a fabric kind of a lure insert but in 0:09:17.116 --> 0:09:20.236 an op art pattern, so it looked like a rejected 0:09:20.516 --> 0:09:25.276 Pink Floyd album cover kind of thing. Yeah, and super trippy, yeah, 0:09:25.356 --> 0:09:29.116 but not not like um even you know, like really weird, yeah, 0:09:29.196 --> 0:09:32.556 kind of stroving in and out. Yeah, Like it reminds 0:09:32.596 --> 0:09:34.956 me of the pattern you see when you rub your eyes, 0:09:35.556 --> 0:09:41.236 you know, right, it's real, real psychedelic. And it lent 0:09:41.316 --> 0:09:43.676 to this sense that this car was like kind of 0:09:43.676 --> 0:09:47.116 reverse engineered from alien spacecraft. You know, it was like 0:09:47.196 --> 0:09:54.156 totally new and just landed like a meteor. When Porscha 0:09:54.196 --> 0:09:56.676 created the nine twenty eight, they thought they were making 0:09:56.716 --> 0:09:58.996 something akin to an evolution of the nine to eleven. 0:09:59.996 --> 0:10:02.076 They thought they were bringing the ideas, an essence of 0:10:02.116 --> 0:10:06.476 the company forward into the modern era. Porsche didn't realize 0:10:06.516 --> 0:10:09.196 it was betraying the people who loved it most. It 0:10:09.196 --> 0:10:12.596 wasn't the nine twenty eighth styling or interior that irked them. 0:10:12.636 --> 0:10:15.436 It was the stuff under the skin that got so 0:10:15.676 --> 0:10:24.236 well under their skin. Let's start at the beginning. Porscha 0:10:24.276 --> 0:10:26.916 looms large in the hearts and minds of car enthusiasts, 0:10:27.396 --> 0:10:31.596 but it's really the ultimate father and son operation. The father, 0:10:32.076 --> 0:10:37.076 Ferdinand Porsche, designed the Volkswagen Beetle for Adolph Hitler. His 0:10:37.236 --> 0:10:41.436 son Fairy, turned that Beetle into a sports car. This 0:10:41.516 --> 0:10:45.276 became the first Porsche, the bathtub shaped three fifty six. 0:10:46.316 --> 0:10:48.996 The three fifty six begat the nine to eleven. The 0:10:49.076 --> 0:10:51.956 latter a bit bigger, a bit more solid, a bit 0:10:51.996 --> 0:10:55.196 more refined than the three fifty six, but the fundamentals 0:10:55.196 --> 0:10:59.316 were the same. Engine hung way out back behind the rearacle. 0:11:00.116 --> 0:11:08.036 Really fun to drive, really hard to drive. Well. There's 0:11:08.036 --> 0:11:11.036 a driving style in Porsche Land called shushing, where you 0:11:11.036 --> 0:11:14.476 slide the car through a corner, ass out foot, heart 0:11:14.516 --> 0:11:18.156 on the gas, a plume of tire smoke trailing behind you. 0:11:18.276 --> 0:11:20.156 Essentially use the rear of the car to steer you 0:11:20.196 --> 0:11:24.756 through a turn rather than the front. It's fun, it 0:11:24.796 --> 0:11:28.836 looks crazy. It takes skill and nerve and an understanding 0:11:28.876 --> 0:11:32.156 of physics, and it is the essence of driving a 0:11:32.236 --> 0:11:40.876 rear engine portion. There's a glorious, like you know, animalistic 0:11:41.276 --> 0:11:44.116 element to this thing. Here I am at the wheel 0:11:44.116 --> 0:11:47.476 of a signal Red nineteen eighty five nine to eleven convertible. 0:11:47.796 --> 0:11:51.676 It's counterintuitive. In a normal car, like a front engine, 0:11:51.836 --> 0:11:55.236 front wheel drive car, a car starts to slide, you 0:11:55.316 --> 0:11:57.556 take your feet off the gas, and everything kind of 0:11:57.556 --> 0:12:01.796 corrects itself. In this car, you take your foot off 0:12:01.796 --> 0:12:05.676 the gas, it'll spin, go into a corner way too hot, 0:12:05.956 --> 0:12:08.276 lift off the throttle, and then all of a sudden, 0:12:08.356 --> 0:12:11.876 no traction the back because instead of keeping the loads 0:12:11.916 --> 0:12:14.916 on the rear wheels so they could have traction, you 0:12:15.076 --> 0:12:19.356 unload the rear wheels. No traction anymore, and the thing spins. 0:12:19.636 --> 0:12:23.636 So you know, it really did take balls of steel 0:12:23.716 --> 0:12:28.956 to keep your foot in it. So to speak. I 0:12:29.036 --> 0:12:31.756 own one of the early nine elevens, a nineteen seventy 0:12:31.756 --> 0:12:35.396 one Coop. It's one of the lightest, most sensitive road 0:12:35.396 --> 0:12:39.636 cars I've ever driven, and it rewards Driverley's skill. I 0:12:39.716 --> 0:12:43.036 can't shush it every time in every corner. When I 0:12:43.076 --> 0:12:45.996 get it right, it's like the heavens part and Jacob's 0:12:46.076 --> 0:12:54.876 ladder descends. Oh my god, it's just a tear sports car. 0:12:56.596 --> 0:13:04.316 They're cooled, making all kinds of weird noises. So unrefined 0:13:04.396 --> 0:13:10.396 but super refined at the same time, sportscar drivers and 0:13:10.476 --> 0:13:14.276 racers embraced the nine to eleven. When driven properly, it 0:13:14.356 --> 0:13:17.516 was just incredibly fast and effective relative to its par 0:13:17.676 --> 0:13:21.516 level and complexity. It hauled ass out of corners. Because 0:13:21.516 --> 0:13:24.396 it carried a majority of its mass over its rear wheels, 0:13:24.876 --> 0:13:27.716 it gave it a lot of traction under power. It 0:13:27.796 --> 0:13:30.316 was light and always seemed to punch above its weight, 0:13:31.516 --> 0:13:33.996 and so it kept evolving on the street and winning 0:13:33.996 --> 0:13:37.396 on the track. This little odd ball was cementing itself 0:13:37.476 --> 0:13:41.396 as the quintessential sporting machine with wins on grueling international 0:13:41.516 --> 0:13:45.276 rallies like Monte Carlo. The nine eleven Turbo or nine 0:13:45.396 --> 0:13:50.236 thirty came to the States in nineteen seventy six. It 0:13:50.276 --> 0:13:53.276 was the nine to eleven in a superhero costume, a 0:13:53.356 --> 0:13:56.956 fearsome and combustible mega coup with fat fenders and a 0:13:57.036 --> 0:14:00.636 huge fluke for a tail. The turbo was even harder 0:14:00.636 --> 0:14:03.516 to drive than the standard nine to eleven. Power delivery 0:14:03.636 --> 0:14:06.596 was all or nothing, and it gained a reputation as 0:14:06.596 --> 0:14:08.876 a dentist killer for the way it would spin off 0:14:08.876 --> 0:14:12.236 the road at the slightest provocation, like when it's unexpecting 0:14:12.316 --> 0:14:15.676 driver lifted off the throttle in a fast corner. It 0:14:15.756 --> 0:14:19.796 earned the nickname the widow Maker. The nine eleven was 0:14:19.836 --> 0:14:25.436 a car to respect. So if the nine O one 0:14:25.516 --> 0:14:27.996 was the nine to eleven and the nine thirty was 0:14:27.996 --> 0:14:31.276 the nine eleven Turbo, where does the nine twenty eight 0:14:31.276 --> 0:14:34.436 fit in? The nine twenty eight had actually been on 0:14:34.476 --> 0:14:37.836 Porsche's drawing board since nineteen seventy one, a mere seven 0:14:37.916 --> 0:14:40.076 years after the launch of the nine to eleven and 0:14:40.236 --> 0:14:43.716 before the nine thirty. Then the US was hit with 0:14:43.756 --> 0:14:47.876 an oil embargo in nineteen seventy three. This is NBC 0:14:48.076 --> 0:14:52.236 Nightly to use Wednesday, October seventeenth, Good Evening. The Middle 0:14:52.276 --> 0:14:55.876 East War produced developments all over the world today, the 0:14:55.916 --> 0:14:59.276 oil producing countries of the Arab world decided to use 0:14:59.316 --> 0:15:02.636 their oil as a political weapon. They will reduce oil 0:15:02.676 --> 0:15:05.956 production by the American automobile. For so long, the symbol 0:15:05.956 --> 0:15:09.956 of America's wealth and extravagance is dying. New cars and 0:15:10.116 --> 0:15:13.676 used cars stand like shining tombstones in the showrooms and 0:15:13.716 --> 0:15:19.036 parking lots of the nation's car dealers, unloved, unwanted, and unsold. 0:15:20.236 --> 0:15:22.436 All of a sudden, it did not seem prudent about 0:15:22.476 --> 0:15:24.916 the future of the small family owned company on a 0:15:24.996 --> 0:15:27.276 V eight powered sports car like the nine twenty eight, 0:15:28.036 --> 0:15:31.796 it would have to wait. Maybe if there were no 0:15:31.916 --> 0:15:34.156 gas crises and the nine twenty eight came out in 0:15:34.276 --> 0:15:37.516 seventy four or seventy five, the nine to eleven wouldn't 0:15:37.556 --> 0:15:40.716 have had the time to endear itself so completely to 0:15:40.756 --> 0:15:44.316 the driving enthusiast. But by the nineteen seventy eight model year, 0:15:44.396 --> 0:15:47.756 the nine twenty eighth first drivers had clasped the nine 0:15:47.756 --> 0:15:50.836 to eleven tightly to their breasts. So why do the 0:15:50.916 --> 0:15:53.596 nine twenty eight at all? Well, it was a poorly 0:15:53.636 --> 0:15:56.916 kept secret that within the company itself, the nine eleven 0:15:56.956 --> 0:16:00.036 had been marked for death for a couple of reasons. 0:16:00.716 --> 0:16:04.836 The first was ambition. Doctor Ernst Furman was the successor 0:16:04.876 --> 0:16:08.276 to Ferry Porsche as company chairman. He was an engineer 0:16:08.316 --> 0:16:11.276 and an engine's signer. He thought the nine to eleven 0:16:11.356 --> 0:16:13.916 was on its last legs. But there was also certainly 0:16:13.916 --> 0:16:18.676 a part of him that had Mercedes envy. He wanted 0:16:18.676 --> 0:16:21.076 to build a car to compete with the absolute pinnacle 0:16:21.116 --> 0:16:25.036 of automaking, the guys who invented it all, Mercedes Benz 0:16:26.156 --> 0:16:28.676 back in nineteen seventy one. He wanted to show the 0:16:28.676 --> 0:16:34.076 world what a modern Porsche could be. Elegant, comfortable, sophisticated, 0:16:34.756 --> 0:16:38.276 real competition for the big BMW and Mercedes Benz coops. 0:16:42.156 --> 0:16:45.436 So that was one motivating factor. The other reason had 0:16:45.516 --> 0:16:55.996 to do with this here that it's the signature worrying 0:16:56.036 --> 0:16:59.596 and churing of the air cooled nine to eleven. Isn't 0:16:59.636 --> 0:17:04.076 that a great sound? I mean, it is unmistakable. Nothing 0:17:04.076 --> 0:17:19.916 else sounds like this, man, that is a wild animal sound, 0:17:20.236 --> 0:17:24.116 or some day it sounds like nothing else, like it's 0:17:24.116 --> 0:17:27.716 straining against itself on the verge of imploding, sort of 0:17:27.716 --> 0:17:29.916 like how the rolling stones always sound like they're about 0:17:29.956 --> 0:17:32.876 to fall apart, but never do it's part of what 0:17:32.956 --> 0:17:37.036 keeps you engaged. You don't want to have the radio on. 0:17:37.356 --> 0:17:40.476 You need to be able to listen to that engine. 0:17:45.676 --> 0:17:49.316 But it's also not exactly modern sounding. The company fear 0:17:49.396 --> 0:17:52.596 that it's noise would get regulated out of existence. In 0:17:52.636 --> 0:17:55.436 the nine to eleven, all the noisemakers were in the back. 0:17:56.196 --> 0:17:59.956 The intake manifold the chortling air cooled flat six engine 0:18:00.356 --> 0:18:03.556 the flatulent exhaust system, So when the nine to eleven 0:18:03.636 --> 0:18:07.436 drove by the automotive noise regulators microphones, it created a 0:18:07.476 --> 0:18:11.396 big decibel spike at the of the car. Conventional cars, 0:18:11.516 --> 0:18:13.796 with their engines up front and exhaust in the back, 0:18:14.356 --> 0:18:16.596 spread that noise out across the length of the car 0:18:17.196 --> 0:18:20.676 for less of a sonic whack. But noise wasn't the 0:18:20.756 --> 0:18:23.196 only hurdle the nine to eleven was seen as ill 0:18:23.196 --> 0:18:27.796 equipped to clear. There were also safety and emissions concerns. 0:18:28.796 --> 0:18:31.316 Porsche figured that any replacement for the nine to eleven 0:18:31.676 --> 0:18:34.196 would have to be future proofed against all this change, 0:18:34.796 --> 0:18:37.116 and then a more conventional layout would be a better 0:18:37.116 --> 0:18:42.236 basis for development. There were safety in numbers, A quiet, 0:18:42.316 --> 0:18:45.036 liquid cooled engine in front like a more traditional sports 0:18:45.036 --> 0:18:48.156 car with room for more mufflers and catalysts in the back, 0:18:48.996 --> 0:18:51.756 better weight distribution front to rear thanks to a rear 0:18:51.756 --> 0:18:57.036 mounted transmission, a thoroughly modern sports car, a showcase of 0:18:57.116 --> 0:19:04.156 Porsche's engineering prowess. Perhaps most important both to the engineering 0:19:04.196 --> 0:19:07.556 aspirations of Porsche and to nine twenty eighth rejection by 0:19:07.596 --> 0:19:12.476 traditional Porsia owners was the newly designed rear axle. Seems 0:19:12.476 --> 0:19:15.116 like a small change, but it had huge implications for 0:19:15.156 --> 0:19:17.996 the car and for the argument I'm trying to make here. 0:19:19.116 --> 0:19:22.756 It was known as the weissok axel. It stabilized the 0:19:22.756 --> 0:19:24.996 rear of the car by towing in the rear wheels 0:19:25.156 --> 0:19:27.916 like a pigeon, and within nine twenty eighth there was 0:19:27.956 --> 0:19:31.356 far more balanced mass wise front to rear. That meant 0:19:31.436 --> 0:19:35.316 no more easy shushing. Porsche engineers thought this was a 0:19:35.436 --> 0:19:38.476 gigantic step forward, making the car far more stable in 0:19:38.516 --> 0:19:41.356 all conditions and thus more drivable for a wider group 0:19:41.356 --> 0:19:44.516 of people. But to the Porsche faithful it was a 0:19:44.556 --> 0:19:48.036 fun killer. Our friend Derek Burke is not one of 0:19:48.036 --> 0:19:52.196 the faithful, apparently. Yeah, people don't want to change what 0:19:52.236 --> 0:19:54.276 they love. Yeah, because there is like they had built 0:19:54.316 --> 0:19:56.996 up this skill and this proficiency in driving the nine 0:19:57.036 --> 0:19:58.836 to eleven, and this thing was so easy to drive. 0:19:58.956 --> 0:20:02.196 They're like, what's the point, right, the car doesn't push back? 0:20:04.916 --> 0:20:08.196 You know the designer Raymond Loewy. Right, if you've seen 0:20:08.236 --> 0:20:11.716 air Force one, the aircraft, not the Harrison Forn movie, 0:20:12.196 --> 0:20:16.236 you know his work. Lowie was America's foremost industrial designer 0:20:16.476 --> 0:20:18.836 and an age when design was just starting to matter. 0:20:19.876 --> 0:20:22.996 He redesigned the coke bottle, He did the Lucky Strike 0:20:23.076 --> 0:20:28.316 cigarette pack. He even designed studebakers. Lowie expressed his core 0:20:28.396 --> 0:20:33.596 designed philosophy as the acronym MAYA m A y a 0:20:34.636 --> 0:20:38.396 most advanced yet acceptable. The idea was that for a 0:20:38.396 --> 0:20:41.556 new design to succeed, there needed to be something familiar 0:20:41.556 --> 0:20:44.676 about it, something that linked it to the past. The 0:20:44.756 --> 0:20:47.516 logo he drew for x On, for example, was built 0:20:47.556 --> 0:20:50.076 off the cross. It looks like the cross of the 0:20:50.116 --> 0:20:53.036 Knights Templar. Look at the two xes in it. Some 0:20:53.156 --> 0:20:56.876 time we could do a whole episode on Raymond Loewie, 0:20:57.196 --> 0:20:59.636 but I bring him up here briefly because in the 0:20:59.676 --> 0:21:03.036 case of the nine twenty eight, his otherwise successful MAYA 0:21:03.076 --> 0:21:09.756 philosophy didn't quite apply. You have to understand Porsche's value 0:21:09.796 --> 0:21:14.516 is experimentation. Because it is so closely associated with one car, 0:21:14.676 --> 0:21:17.196 the nine to eleven, many people think that it's a 0:21:17.276 --> 0:21:21.116 risk averse operation. One visit to the company's museum in 0:21:21.156 --> 0:21:25.316 the Zuffenhausen district of Stuttgart, Germany will dispel that notion. 0:21:28.236 --> 0:21:30.396 They are arrayed on the floors and pinned to the 0:21:30.436 --> 0:21:35.436 walls like exotic butterflies. Is Porsche's riot of ideas. Four 0:21:35.476 --> 0:21:38.996 door nine elevens, the nine seventeen racing cars with their 0:21:39.036 --> 0:21:43.796 pressurized two frames and mechanical guts hanging out. Crazy concepts 0:21:43.796 --> 0:21:47.316 such as the froggy and toy like Panamericana, green and 0:21:47.356 --> 0:21:51.756 White German police nine elevens, the wild and the wacky abound. 0:21:52.876 --> 0:21:56.076 In this context, the nine twenty eight seems gently progressive, 0:21:56.636 --> 0:21:59.556 and to Porsche it was, even though it was the 0:21:59.596 --> 0:22:03.596 first Porsche designed entirely from scratch, with aluminum bodywork and 0:22:03.676 --> 0:22:06.556 an all NUVI eight. The company intended for it to 0:22:06.596 --> 0:22:12.796 be Maya in the extreme, most advanced yet acceptable but 0:22:12.956 --> 0:22:16.116 loyal Porsche buyers, the very targets for the nine twenty 0:22:16.196 --> 0:22:19.836 eight saw a betrayal under the car's curves. It's just different. 0:22:20.236 --> 0:22:24.236 It's smoother, it's so much more refined sounding. It doesn't 0:22:24.276 --> 0:22:28.996 have that weird mechanical kind of coarseness that the nine 0:22:29.036 --> 0:22:30.756 to eleven has. But you kind of love about the 0:22:30.836 --> 0:22:35.036 nine to eleven. This is just yeah, it's like the 0:22:35.036 --> 0:22:38.276 best German corvette that's ever been right. Yeah, it's like 0:22:38.316 --> 0:22:43.076 a weird German muscle car. Yeah, totally. It feels like 0:22:43.076 --> 0:22:44.916 it wants to go in a straight line really fast 0:22:45.316 --> 0:22:48.476 and not really turn with the kind of precision like 0:22:48.796 --> 0:22:51.796 when you're coming out of a corner here. It doesn't 0:22:51.836 --> 0:22:54.836 have that kind of snapback, added Tode that the nine 0:22:54.836 --> 0:22:57.156 to eleven is where a nine to eleven you come 0:22:57.156 --> 0:23:00.356 out of a corner and it's like a great smallow skier. 0:23:00.836 --> 0:23:04.276 The transitional behavior is like the thing writes itself immediately 0:23:04.276 --> 0:23:06.996 and sets you up for the next turn. This car 0:23:07.116 --> 0:23:09.916 is a lot lazier feeling. It's like, yeah, I'll get 0:23:09.956 --> 0:23:12.716 to it when I get to it, right. I feel 0:23:12.716 --> 0:23:14.676 like I could drive across the country in it, like 0:23:14.756 --> 0:23:17.076 on the highway though that that like, I think that's 0:23:17.116 --> 0:23:20.156 what it was for. Very different than the nine to eleven. 0:23:20.636 --> 0:23:25.876 Everything is has like that that little layer of insulation. 0:23:27.556 --> 0:23:29.916 It's much more of a luxury car, much more of 0:23:29.916 --> 0:23:33.876 a GT. It feels much heavier in the hand. As 0:23:33.916 --> 0:23:37.316 they say, it's a vastly different driving experience than the 0:23:37.396 --> 0:23:39.716 nine to eleven. The nine to eleven is real, kind 0:23:39.756 --> 0:23:46.756 of direct and percussive and like always on, whereas this thing, 0:23:46.796 --> 0:23:48.996 it's like you can kind of drive it with a pinky, 0:23:49.956 --> 0:23:51.996 you know, you know what the front wheels are always doing, 0:23:52.116 --> 0:23:53.916 you know what the chassis's doing. It gives you a 0:23:53.996 --> 0:23:57.036 lot of information. But it does have that kind of 0:23:57.076 --> 0:24:02.076 creaminess that the nine to eleven doesn't have. But this 0:24:02.156 --> 0:24:07.876 is more stable. This has killed fewer dentists. Well, the 0:24:07.956 --> 0:24:12.276 dentists always come. I don't know, I don't know, but 0:24:12.436 --> 0:24:15.756 there's something about the kind of people who are attracted 0:24:15.796 --> 0:24:19.676 to nine to elevens technically minded, who work with their 0:24:19.676 --> 0:24:23.276 hands at a very high level, you know, like a dentist, 0:24:23.396 --> 0:24:27.076 like an architect. Tom Wolfe talks about that in From 0:24:27.116 --> 0:24:29.916 bau House to Our House, that architects always wanted to 0:24:29.956 --> 0:24:33.996 have the nine to eleven. The nine to eleven embodies 0:24:34.196 --> 0:24:37.196 like a real philosophy of how to build a car, 0:24:37.236 --> 0:24:40.356 and it's totally different than anything else. And I think 0:24:40.436 --> 0:24:45.876 one of the reasons This wasn't as embraced is because 0:24:46.596 --> 0:24:50.316 it was a more commodified vision. You know, it was 0:24:50.396 --> 0:24:56.156 one that was built to conform to regulations and built 0:24:56.156 --> 0:24:58.316 to conform to you know, the kind of style of 0:24:58.316 --> 0:25:02.036 other cars. It seemed like a threat to a belief 0:25:02.036 --> 0:25:04.876 system in a way. The faithful didn't want to see 0:25:04.916 --> 0:25:10.076 Porsche turn into just another car company. They to understand 0:25:10.236 --> 0:25:13.996 kind of the the weirdness of the American customer. The 0:25:14.276 --> 0:25:19.956 American Porsche guy was buying that car out of a 0:25:20.036 --> 0:25:24.076 kind of iconoclasm because he didn't want to be lumped 0:25:24.076 --> 0:25:28.196 in with the Corvette guys or the Triumph guys of 0:25:28.316 --> 0:25:33.196 the MG guys. The Porsche was different, and it said 0:25:33.236 --> 0:25:36.476 something different about you. It said that you were maybe 0:25:36.476 --> 0:25:39.316 a more skilled driver, or that you had some connection 0:25:39.796 --> 0:25:43.396 to the racing heritage of the brand, and that you 0:25:43.436 --> 0:25:47.756 were one of those hairy armed heroes of motorsport. But 0:25:47.956 --> 0:25:55.876 just you know, your day job was a dentist. Nine 0:25:55.916 --> 0:25:58.676 twenty job was to supplant the nine to eleven to 0:25:58.796 --> 0:26:02.396 be so captivating and cool as to wipe it from memory. 0:26:02.516 --> 0:26:06.236 It did not do that. It couldn't. The nine eleven 0:26:06.276 --> 0:26:09.836 had a kind of destiny to persist after the break, 0:26:10.076 --> 0:26:12.636 we'll hear about the governor's pardon that extended the nine 0:26:12.676 --> 0:26:16.796 to eleven's life. I'm Eddie Alterman, and this is Car Show. 0:26:26.076 --> 0:26:28.516 In nineteen eighty one, the nine to eleven got a 0:26:28.556 --> 0:26:33.556 miraculous green mile reprieve. Porsche brought in a new CEO, 0:26:33.916 --> 0:26:37.156 a German American named Peter Schutz, whose parents fled the 0:26:37.156 --> 0:26:41.356 Third Rife and settled in Chicago. Schutz was an engineer 0:26:41.396 --> 0:26:45.316 and an industrialist. He had stints at Caterpillar and Cummins 0:26:45.356 --> 0:26:48.236 Diesel under his belt. When he got to Porsche, the 0:26:48.316 --> 0:26:50.916 nine eleven was just getting strapped into the electric chair. 0:26:51.556 --> 0:26:54.876