It was a once in a lifetime opportunity: the 25^th anniversary of the 1978 European Car of the Year (introduced in 1977 and the only sports car to ever receive this honor). The Porsche-Club-928 of Germany was sponsoring the Euro928 2002 meeting to honor the anniversary and we just had to go. What better way than to rent a Porsche and drive the Autobahn ? After a bit of searching it seemed to me that Avis Special Vehicles was the way to go. Frankfurt am Main airport pickup and drop-off. They rent in Deutschland (Boxster and 911) and you can take Der Porsche into Austria and the Czech Republic, no farther. Two major credit cards (one must be American Express) are required. You must call in advance and the location will confirm or deny your request in a week.

It was an auspicious beginning. The British Airways flights from Boston to London-Heathrow and on to Frankfurt were nothing to write home about but uneventful. The shock came when I stopped at the Avis desk to pick up the car. The reservation was for September 10^th (the day we left Boston) but the flight arrived in Frankfurt on September 11^th ! ! ! Fortunately the reserved car was still available although it took a 45 minute wait to get it prepped and delivered.

When we first set eyes on the car in the garage I was all smiles. It was a loaded Basalt Black Metallic 2002 Porsche Carrera 2 Targa with black leather/brushed aluminum highlights interior and 18" rims with 285/30 rear tires (new ~ US$ 90K). Then the fun began. I always do my homework so the route from Frankfurt to Ludwigsburg was planned. I started slow as we exited the airport, familiarizing myself with the vehicle. But when the A5 cleared it was time to check out the performance. I gradually moved out into the fastest lanes keeping pace with the traffic. After 30 km, except for speed zones, 200 km/hr (124 mph) was the norm, albeit in heavy traffic and construction that occasionally slowed things to 100 km/hr. The blast to explore the envelope reached 250 km/hr (155 mph; the car is rated at 285 km/hr and there just was not enough room).

My impressions on the Targa: fine vehicle ! ! ! If I didn’t have a son in college to pay for, I would go out and buy one. My criticisms are few. Compared to my 18 year old 928S the dead pedal was moved inward as was the accelerator and this constricted foot space. Consequently, not as comfortable as my old 928S on long trips. After two hours (although it was > 100 mph most of the way) I was feeling about as fatigued as the 9 hours to the 928 Frenzy V in my 928S (maybe some of this is jet lag and lack of sleep). The AC was adequate, not outstanding, but strangely commensurate with the R134 conversion on my 928S. The premium sound system (Bose) is much improved over past 911 systems but still not up to aftermarket. Other than that, ZOWIE ! ! ! Great acceleration, could pass anything we encountered on the Autobahn. The car does 0-60 mph in 5.2 sec, 0-100 in 11.4 sec, top speed 285 km/hr (177 mph). Porsche rules the fast lane. The cabbies in their Turbo Diesel Mercs try to keep up but eventually they pull over. The big Mercs, BMWs, and more expensive Porsche are all that can maintain the top speed. With all the glass in the Targa, visibility to the surroundings was excellent. The ride was firm (remember the 18" wheels) and like my 928S with Koni/Eibach: stable with great road feel. The seat comfort was superior. Although cool to play with the Navigation System with GPS position is something I would not opt for. Never did figure out the instructions (all manuals were in German) but it was fun watching the icon navigate the German maps, It was blue when stationary and purple when moving. IMHO, the Targa is the best of the 911 series for luggage. The glass hatchback allows easy access to the storage area with the rear seats folded down. How can you get to this storage space in the coupe ?

The excellent adventure continued as we pulled into Hotel Nestor in Ludwigsburg and parked. It is a beautiful hotel in a restored garrison for the palace (more about this later). We finished the day with some browsing in the mittestadt and dinner at the Ratskellar: two people, beers, salads, main courses, tip for 44 euros. Wish I could find excellent meals like that in the states at the same price ! ! !

The next day began with a visit to the Porsche museum for a Zuffenhausen factory tour. The tour can only be arranged if you plan and make reservations in advance. It is limited to twice a day, 15 people, all adults. No photographs as German law requires personal approval by all citizens in photographs, clearly an impossibility. It was very interesting as we arrived. Porsche says there is no available factory parking in the area and you must use the public lots. Well, I parked the Targa next to the gate to ask for directions. At first the guard was giving me the usual story. As he came around the corner he noticed the 2002 Porsche Carrera 2 Targa idling away at the curb. He immediately said, "for customers, we have a parking lot. Go 100 meters to the left and they will let you in". There were only ten spaces in this lot. Life is good when you drive a new Porsche ! ! !

The tour is awesome and not to be missed. Being a small manufacturer Porsche can not afford to do everything themselves. They rely on just in time and planned in time manufacturing. In many cases they build upon the supply chains of other manufacturers in the area. The bodies are pressed in the BMW factory. The automatic glass insertion machine comes from Daimler. Over 85% of the parts come from suppliers in Germany. The Zuffenhausen site is surrounded by residential or industrial areas and some of the Porsche buildings are protected as national landmarks. No room to expand and the factory is already a multi-story building. Hence the Valmet factory in Finland: assembly of kits into Boxsters for the export markert. The new Leipzig facility is for the Cayenne and the Carrera GT. In Zuffenhausen they build 145 cars a day with a 2 shift (paint is 3 shift) workweek. The models are all 911 variants (90%) with Boxster (10%) for the EU market as the rest. The assembly line is a marvel of efficiency. Movement of part kits with autonomous machines, a mix of customized models in the assembly line, each one with a committed customer, everything bar coded. We were constantly jumping out of the way of the autonomous parts trams which followed the black lines and the fork lift operators which did not. We were forewarned: don’t stop the parts/assembly line (hence the limited tours). The engine assembly line is even more amazing. All the motorheads (myself included) were drooling at this part of the tour. All engines are assembled in Zuffenhausen. Separate lines exist for 996, 986, Turbo/GT2, Cayenne. The Cayenne was especially interesting (pronounced like anne with an e) to this V8 power addict. The block, crank, saddle, cylinder head, look remarkably like a 928S4 and cam drive is now chain versus belt with separate gears on intake and exhaust cams. The intake system finally has a big bore throttle with what looks like a plastic or composite intake manifold. The turbo version looks awesome and except for mounting point problems it looks to me like it will fit in a 928 engine bay. Every engine is dyno’d and guaranteed to meet the minimum specified power output. BMW and Mercedes use sample testing. All of our group were sad when the tour ended. I had to buy a 911 Targa model as a remembrance in the gift shop (albeit Silver not Basalt Black Metallic).

We then drove back to the hotel and the Sharks started to arrive at Hotel Nestor in the Baroque town of Ludwigsburg for Euro928 2002. The Hotel is situated in the brick former garrison bakery, which has been completely restored, and is now protected as a monument, located within walking distance of the residential castle of Ludwigsburg.

Eventually 96 Sharks and 201 attendees showed up at the event. Many fine models, from the beginning in 1978 to the GTS in 1995, and the rare, including the S2, SE, and Club Sport. There were people from 15 countries. Two attended from Finland (the longest drive), four from Sweden, two from Norway, and four from Spain. The Amacale group was well represented with more than 75 members attending from France, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Germany had 82 attendees. I don't want to forget my English friends (especially Kathy and Andrew Le Blanc Smith), with five coming across the channel. Holland had a strong showing with eight attendees, Belgium not far behind with five. There were more, two from Austria and one Rennlister even came from Aruba! With only seven yanks, yet more of the other nationalities attending, we did our best to keep the flow of drinks going. Especially Jay Kempf, John Eiffert, Thilo Corts, Graham (glad to meet him), Bruno (the infamous), Jon Holdsworth, and others are noteworthy.

The evening meal on Thursday in the hotel restaurant was soup, sirloin steak with onion in a red wine sauce, potato dumplings, and fried applerings in a vanilla sauce. Of course this was accompanied by lots of beer (in fact, the entire trip, there was lots of excellent beer consumed). At the evening meal we got to meet some of the SoCal contingent (Rich & Beth Andrade, Dan Bise). We were looking, but Jay Kempf and John Eiffert didn’t arrive for dinner. Found out later that they stopped at Thilo Corts. What a guy ! ! ! He let them drive his 928S4 to the event the next day. I was glad to meet Thilo when he did show up.

The following two days were constant activity from 6:30 am to past midnight. Each day began with the opulent breakfast buffet served in the hotel restaurant. Excellent selection of cereal, bread, fruit, dairy products, sausages, bacon, eggs, potatoes, juice, coffee, . . . and excellent company from the contingent of international 928’ers. Friday began with a drive in convoy to the Porsche Weissach Research & Development Center. There we had a short stay and a chance to meet Helmut Flegl. Helmut was in charge of the 928 project for prototype and testing. He was driving a Porsche 911 Carrera 2 Coupe that he parked in the lot with the rest of us. I thought something was strange when I saw that his brake calipers were yellow. Wow, ceramic brakes. A $10,000 option for the turbo, and it wasn't even a turbo. He had just retired (though he still gets another year’s pay) and worked on the ceramic brake program, so they installed those on his 996. He explained to us about the Weissach facility and apologized that with 200 people, that was just too many to bring into the facility. We had coffee, juice, and cookies in the parking lot across the highway from the R&D center where in the distance we could see a Cayenne circling the test track.

That evening the club arranged a bus ride from Ludwigsburg to Grossbottwar to visit a Bottwartalkellerei (wine cellar). After a tour we tasted several local wines in accompaniment with an excellent German buffet. There we had a chance to meet Johnny Billquist and his wife Josefine who had driven their 1992 928 GTS from Sweden (of course with a ferry stint) which had taken 18 hours. After dinner we met Jorg Austen who was in charge of transmission and transaxle development. He is retired and writing books. He spent an hour with us off to the side in a conference room. He drove the 928 on the Nurburgring and beat out 911s, and he was quite proud of that. He developed synchro technology and patented it. He sees no reason why the US synchros go out, unless we don't know how to drive manuals. He laughed and said that Porsche didn't ship one 928 5-speed manual to Japan, they were all automatic transmissions. His favorite time at Porsche was with the racing program, where he supported the 917s in four of the 24 hour Le Mans races.

After breakfast, Saturday began with a convoy to Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. We had a private parking area across from the Porsche Zentrum where we were welcomed by the Porsche Club Coordinator. This was followed by a tour of the Porsche Workshop which includes restoration work as well as collectable Porsche models. They had tailored some of the tour to our interests with one of the last 1995 928 GTS 5-speed manual transmission manufactured (with only 300 km on the odometer), three vintage crate engines (a 4.5 L old bugger, a 4.7 L Euro S2, and a 5.4 L GTS), and other assorted bits and pieces. My favorite was the 6 (yes, count ‘em, 6) Porsche 959 present there. Although it was not part of the tour, there was a 928 GTS that crashed at 240 kph on the lot that drew a lot of our attention. It was a total but the interior was intact. At the parts managers office we were assured that the factory does not intend to discontinue 928 parts. But they requested feedback as to what parts are most necessary and unavailable. Obviously they can not afford to replicate a dash in an unusual color, but more commonplace parts they are willing to source. Apparently this is more of an issue for Europe than the USA where we have the "Big 3" (928 International, 928 Specialists, Devek). A lot of the discussion centered around how to get the info about what parts were desired back to the factory. The consensus was the best way was through the clubs and the clubs coordinator.

We also visited Porsche Exclusive which provides customization at the factory. My favorite was the white Carrera 4S with GT2 seats, roll cage, racing harness, with interior highlights finished in white on black. A special experience was the lunch in the Porsche Casino (Cafeteria) which without exaggeration puts many a restaurant to shame. A table each of salads, hor’douvers, breads, main course, and dessert (Tiramisu ! ! !). Of course some of the beverage choices were red and white wine or beer (Warsteiner). After this opulent lunch we visited the rather small Porsche Museum. Amongst the one of a kinds there were such fine examples as a 1970 908 Spyder, 1982 956 Coupe, 1986 959 Paris-Dakar, 1973 917/30 Can Am Spyder, and 1998 GT1 Coupe. The Porsche Zentrum was next on the agenda. This is the only factory owned Porsche dealership. It is intended as a showpiece for worldwide dealers to show how Porsche intends the cars to be presented. In fact the new Nashua, NH dealership cues a lot of its architecture from the Porsche Zentrum.

All of the Euro clubs are really interested in the USA activities. We have about 50% of the 56,000 928s manufactured. They tend to be of the restoration view while we in the USA tend to be "hot rod". This year may be a good year to communicate with our brothers and sisters over there and try to keep them up to date on our activities and vice versa.

The evening ended with a banquet dinner at the hotel. The presentation included rare photos, videos, and several "Porsche personalities" knowledgeable in matters relating to the 928. During dinner in the hotel banquet hall there was much exchange of opinion and information about the real history of the 928. We met most of the surviving key 928 development team members. Project 928 book by Julius Weitmann and Rico Steinemann details it (out of print with used copies > $185, I am keeping mine ! ! !). But it was great to hear the real story from the people who developed the 928. Wolfhelm Gorrisen was the overall 928 project manager until 1975 when Helmet Flegl and Peter Falk took over. He set the stage and then other personalities were introduced and told their stories. Interesting points: the idea for the 928 was about 1970 at its inception. The prevailing view was that a successor to the 911 had to be engineered because of the USA market (then and still the dominant force in Porsche model decisions). The view was that a water cooled front engine vehicle was the only thing that could meet the standards. After a front engine rear transaxle V8 with 5 L was configured the gas crisis struck. Wolfgang Mobius who had to implement Lapine’s plans was forced to re-evaluate engine choices. There were some who wanted to put a 3.6 L V6 in the engine bay with a decidedly unsportinglike response. Both Lapine and Mobius showed us this with hand drawn viewgraphs at the dinner. Eventually the 4.5 L V8 won. But at the last minute, management dictated a 3" width reduction (I guess this is why it is hard to remove the engine heads while the engine is in the car). They told the interesting story, having to reduce the width when they found that it was too wide to fit the German car wash (Wasche Strasse). A very interesting point is that in those days engineering at Porsche was ad hoc. Somebody had an idea, they tried to implement it. Now it is done with market surveys and bean counters. Case in point, the Euro 928S. Some of the engineers just decided to work the engine to get more HP. At a test track they told the management, don’t ask, just try it. Guess what happened ? A 928 variant.

Sunday began with breakfast and then a walk to the Baroque style residential palace in Ludwigsburg, which between 1704 and 1733 was the seat of Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Württemberg. The style of the castle is influenced by Austro-bohemian architecture. A tour through the richly decorated rooms had us appreciating the Duke’s military background as well as his support for the arts. In the castle is the site of manufacture of Ludwigsburg Porcelain founded by Duke Carl Eugen of Württemberg in 1758. This "Swabian Versailles" is surrounded by the permanent garden show Bluhendes Barock, covering 75 acres. We toured only 65 of the 452 rooms and yet it took two hours. Finally we continued with a tour through the Belvedere-Schloss Favorite hunting palace which lies north of the residential castle.

At mid-day, we said goodbye to old and new friends. The return drive to Frankfurt was fast and fun. There, we checked into the Arabella Sheraton in Offenbach. After settling in, we had an interesting dinner at a Spanish Tapas bar.

The next day, to get oriented, we took a guided tour of Frankfurt am Main. The area north of the river was completely destroyed in World War II. It is now exceedingly modern in appearance. Locals even joke of it as "Bankfurt" (it is the financial capital of Germany) or "Mainhattan" (this section of the city is a lot like downtown in the "Big Apple"). It is a cosmopolitan city, rich in the arts (no Frankfurter will let you forget that Goethe was born here). The essence of the city is found in the old town section Romerberg Square where reconstructed half timber, half masonry architecture and a medieval fountain lend an atmosphere of what the city would have been like in older times. It was here that I had to try a stein of the legendary Ebbelwoi. Essentially, this is an apple wine with a rather dry aftertaste. We toured the "Imperial Cathedral" Kaiserdom which was the only building left standing north of the river after WWII due to its massive red sandstone walls that are greater than 10 feet thick. Near the cathedral is an archeological garden where artifacts of construction were unearthed as the city was being rebuilt. The oldest is two Roman bath houses dating from 75-110 AD. The others are part of a Carolinian imperial palace (820-850 AD) and a late medieval vaulted cellar (14^th century). We completed the afternoon walking the extensive shopping district. For drinks and dinner we headed to Sachsenhausen. This is the old original area of the city south of the river. Here are bars and restaurants that don’t open until about 5 or 6 pm but stay open all night. We had an excellent authentic German dinner (I had Sauerbraten mit Kartoffeln und Bier). Unfortunately after this we had to head back to the hotel and pack for the next morning departure.

The trip came to an end all too soon (even though we had a week in Germany), but there was some excitement (?) on the way home. We were hijacked by British Airways ! ! ! After a 20 minute delay at the gate the pilot announced we were going to Amsterdam. Apparently the plane from Amsterdam to Heathrow had mechanical problems and the people on that flight were stranded. Our flight was the only way they could get to Heathrow that day. After landing at Amsterdam we had a further delay to remove the baggage of two Amsterdam passengers that never got on the plane. Needless to say our leisurely 2 hour connection at Heathrow became 30 minutes. British Airways had an agent with a van rush the four of us bound for Boston (and a fifth they didn’t know about) across the tarmac, avoiding the usual lengthly route from terminal 1 to 4. We made it, our baggage didn’t, arriving at 2 am the next evening.

What an experience ! ! ! We will remember our Euro928 2002 vacation forever.

Entrance to Hotel Nestor, Site of Euro928 2002.

Five of the Seven Americans at Dinner (Dan Bise and Rich Andrade of SoCal 928, Jim Komiak and Fran Mulchy, Betsy Andrade taking picture). Where are Jay Kempf and John Eiffert ? ? ?

Courtyard with Some of the 96 Porsche 928s Attending.

Porsche 959s in the Factory Workshop. Five in the photo and a sixth black one over to the right.

928 Engines in the Factory Workshop (4.5 L Old Bugger, 5.4 L GTS, 4.7 L Euro S2).

Johnny & Josefine Billquist from Sweden with their 1992 928 GTS. My Rented 2002 Carrera 2 Targa Parked Next Space Over, Porsche Zentrum (Left) and Factory (Right) in Background.

Signature Hood From Euro928 2002 Banquet. James J. Komiak and Fran Mulchy signatures in Upper Right.