After 1500 miles, what have I learnt about my Porsche 928 S2 auto & how does it compare to a manual?

Well welcome to a new Harry's Garage video and in this video we're going to be looking at the Porsche 928 S2 I bought recently in a bit more detail. We took it up to that Bluebird event on Coniston Water and basically Bluebird took over the video. We did a bit on 928 but I felt it deserved a more dedicated video and I've got the my 930 S out as well because both cars in about an hour's time we're going off to London for the London Concours event at the Honourable Artillery Club just above the Bank of England which I've been to a few times before and it's just a fun event but they have a class for Sonderwunsch cars and they wanted my 930 S in and I said well all right but the trouble was I exhibited it last year and I feel a bit of a cheat bringing the same car again. I then mentioned when I bought this Porsche 928 that oh I've got another one and this one has also been through the Sonderwunsch program and there's a quite a number of details inside when the original owner ordered this car he wanted bespoke and here there and everywhere but that's for later and then 930 S is this Sonderwunsch car that I've gone into detail in previous videos but this video I'm going to try and concentrate on this we've got to take them down into London now then there'll be the event and whatever happens there if there's anything interesting I'll take you around that and then I'm going to drive this car on my normal test route and go into a bit more detail handling what I've learned I've done just over a thousand miles in it now and there's quite a lot to talk about because I couldn't believe how popular the 928 seemed to be and it's sort of a forgotten hero and I think it needs to be celebrated more but that'll be the second part of the video for now down to London and see what happens tomorrow when judging happens and I get all the folders and all the details out and see what they think of these two cars well we arrived this morning and judging took place and unfortunately it poured with rain and it's been really tricky to do any filming here because they're quite loud on the stage there's background music and things but just to give you an idea as you walk in there's a tremendous display of yellow cars the theme is yellow there's all sorts from Enzo's to early Countach, Periscopo, Testarossa, Viper it is glorious I love colors on cars I wish we were more adventurous with colors but it really hits you as you come in and then you can see the roadrunner Plymouth there with the giant wing and the nose on it as well this is a little group of American muscle cars which I've always loved there's a group of hyper cars there as well I haven't gone round those yet the two near stage I have to show you this S4 though look at this S4 what a wonderful example this is and fantastic see 1986 mad mad thing we saw that one on the ice the rally car but to see the road going one very very special looks utterly perfect if that doesn't win a prize I'll be gobsmacked but I'm in this Sonderwunsch class which and it's sort of been resurrected Sonderwunsch it was my car two cars are from the 80s and that was Sonderwunsch cars in some of these examples here but it's come back Porsche resurrected the personalization of cars more was going beyond the option list having paint to sample cars like this one I know the owner of this one and I love what he's done with this so Porsche RS Spider but properly done with bespoke colors look how he's done the orange there the just simple use of color but very effective and then the silver surround on the windscreen coming onto the mirrors and then this flash of silver here love the color as well brown seems to be the new trend on trend color and I love also that the Germans you gave them a Sonderwunsch number plate as well so that's sort of what's happening here I've got my 928 we'll have a look at that in a moment there's a turbo 50 which is another car there's a number of flat valve Porsches here you can just see this one this has got a crema bigger intercooler on it and extended rear spoiler on it a really special car that one then flick around this side this is a flat valve but a convertible version you can tell the higher horsepower engines generally by having this exhaust so the four outlet exhaust that has the upgraded 330 horsepower engine yeah I'm just on camera sorry and then you come around there's the flat valve now there are a number of different fronts which I didn't realize some have the vents there like that and others don't but that was an option in period but by 87 they'd standardize what a flat valve should look like and this is it and it's just a different license to mine on there which I didn't realize as well that little like that so there is my 930s which were just here the 17 inch roof wheels as I've explained before on it they left Sonderwunsch with those on it and the reason why owners wanted those roof wheels on was so they could fit Porsche 959 which was new at the time upgraded tires to their 930 so that is what my car is basically a flat valve you know this but with regular wings I had some other things that Porsche 959 seats in it as well in the interior here is a an earlier flat valve and the owner did not option the vents on the wings and he was telling me these lights are Porsche 944 flick up lights which I didn't know this one actually was originally I think Saudi Arabia car and they had mirror protectors as I've never seen before here sticks and with the Porsche shield really lovely car he has I think another one of these as well he's got a 928 two 928s as well but here we are with my Porsche 928 and you're thinking well why is this here in Sonderwunsch class well this the original owner this color was not available in 1986 nor was Pasha interior that left I think in 1981 or 82 but he wanted this he also wanted the full leather interior including dash doors roof sun visors everywhere is just plastered in leather and this as I say this color was not on the option list so it is a paint to sample Porsche as well I've just been speaking to the previous owner of this car who did a lot of work to bring it up to this standard and he was telling me this is original sticker on this car I thought he'd found them and put them on said no it was on the car and you'll see that this car was supplied by AFN originally in 1986 and you come down here and he says these plates were with the car they are the original number plate so there's the Chiswick number 01 742 7000 this I love details like that on these cars and it's a and it's 86 and a half basically this car their term because the S4 was about to be introduced that had upgraded brakes on it and suspension things and the 86 and a half S2s had a number of the modifications that were to be found on the later S4 this has them that's why the braking feels so good the it has the Bilstein suspension on and yeah I'm increasingly really liking this car so there you go there's a quick run around some of the Sonderwunsch cars here we're waiting to about I think it's quarter four we'll find out who's won the car if you're asking me which one wins this class I don't know I think this one is a very special one I love it's got the Recaro seats in it as well and the extended thing maybe it's the Flakbau cab that's very rare I love the RS Spider I'm very glad I'm not judging I really don't mind I just think it's great that we see a celebration of Porsche here and these colours as well and what that Sonderwunsch stands for so anyway here's a category the 2025 Porsche 9921 Turbo S Omega Edition well it's been a few weeks since that London Concours and yeah I've done quite a lot of miles in this car since then and including a trip down to Goodwood Festival of Speed where I was a guest of Porsche and they had bought some of their museum cars over for us to try and that included a Porsche 928 S which was 1981 and was a manual so I'm in this video I can now do a sort of definitive auto or manual which I think is a big discussion point with 928 and yeah we'll just go through some of the things I've learnt now I think I must have done 1500 miles or so in this car and the one thing I will say right from the beginning it is an excellent GT more so than I imagined it's easy to do big miles in this car and that is helped with the current weather because it's got excellent air conditioning but a lot of people do are put off by the auto gearbox and I'm just going to explain that and this is my normal sprint up the hill and I am in drive normal and I'm going to sprint up the hill right here we go now it's a slower pickup I think we're in second but then voila it's quite a quick change second stretch is a fair distance and first surprise of this car is how it's got quite a peaky engine you get it sort of linear because you know it's a V8 4.7 litre 310 horsepower but it really gets a bit more of a move on from 4000 on it's a cammy engine in other words and it's worth tapping into that the trouble with the auto gearbox is how do you tap into it and you easy ways to lock out third so if I'd done that on the sprint up the hill then it's quite a much more reactive auto gearbox and you're into that second gear and off we go and it's a surprise how reactive the gearbox this is the four speed auto you went for an earlier car and I believe it's 1984 I'll flat it up when it changed from 3c to four speed having the four speed auto makes a big difference it's much more reactive and obviously there's another gear in it I think the trouble with the auto is there's a quite a big gap between second and third because this is a 160 mile an hour car you sort of forget it's a sort of proper sports car but that is the top speed of it tested by magazines back in period so fourth has to go a long way and third sort of backs up fourth rather than backing up second gear if you see it to me but I'm now going down to my testing road so I'm going to put it into third there I can indicate I could use second so I can press that go into second and then accelerate away in second and there you go but the funny thing is the kick down works so well I find I don't hold it in second very often the other trick with the auto gearbox is how to get a snappier start is if you put it in second it will then start from a standstill in first in a normal mode it actually moves off in second gear so it's quite a relaxed start step off if you like but you can put it in the second and a little top tip that 928 specialists told me was you can when you're at station you can put it in the second the gearbox then selects first and then you can quietly move it back to third without moving and it will still start off in first so yeah that's the sort of way to use the auto gearbox now I'm now going to compare it to the manual 928s that I drove at Goodwood and I should just say the Porsche museum 928s that they brought to Goodwood they'd actually taken the spoilers off and put the early wheels on it just so it had the look of an original 928 even though it was actually a 928s that should have had the spoilers that this car's got but they've been taken off for photographic purposes and the first difference I noticed was the engine didn't have the spark or the top end that this has both were 4.7 but as I explained in the video earlier this is a 1986.5 and this engine got the twin distributors and electronic fuel injection and slightly different cams that got 310 horsepower other cars have 310 without being a 1986 and a half I'm sorry about all these facts and figures but there is definite more sparkle to the 310 horsepower 4.7s to the 300 4.7s the other thing I noticed was the brakes on here are much better because by being an 86.5 I got the S4 brakes up front that was immediately apparent in normal driving let alone hard driving there's just a proper modern response to these brakes being the S4 brakes with a twin piston calipers rather than sliding calipers so that's definitely worth having but the manual gearbox on the 928 it's just not a very nice change it's a little vague especially first to second it's a dogleg first and into second it's just a peculiar change and it's just loose now I'm just going to show you one of the star turns of a 928 round here well there's that kick down really responsive kick down this sits on two to five tyres and yet it's sharp and trustworthy and way better down this road than I ever envisaged you look at the tyres you know it can't handle like it does it's basically an unflappable chassis that's what I've discovered with this I've pushed it really hard at no moment has it thought oh that feels a bit wobbly oh that's a bit on the edge it just deals with it it is a Porsche chassis on it and it's mighty impressive it's not a car you take out for a drive on your favourite b-road type of thing and here we go but when you do get to one in 928 you think crikey I didn't expect it to be that good and it and it's so not like an an r129 as I compared to it previously because it's got Porsche steering it's what one of the best driving positions in any of my cars I'm absolutely in the centre the wheel is perfectly placed it moves up and down with the instruments and the seats are fantastic absolutely fantastic help by being fabric I think rather than leather they do look they're a little slippery the lever but I am gripped here on my torso it's just I could sit here for hours and as I say months miles it is exceptional on the driving position and seating comfort and I've got air conditioning this car is actually enhanced another way because it's got the Blaupunkt Brennan unit in it that has bluetooth connectivity so I can use all the apps and I've got hands-free phone in here the basic thing is I do not feel as though I'm driving an 80s car in any way it's from ignoring the Brennan it feels like a late 90s car I've got abs I've got this rear steer I've got this reactive auto fantastic air conditioning it's just not the early car and yet the 928 was first envisaged in 1973 and they delayed the launch of it because of the fuel crisis and sort of turned it away from being a 5 litre v8 into a 4.5 low compression so it could do better mpg and then by sort of the 80s hang on a minute we're a Porsche we're a sporting brand and they sort of upped the sportiness shall we say of the 928 now I'm just going to show so I'm going to select second now move it to third and here we go now that is starting off in first but it doesn't yeah it changes up at five and then second it has stretched to the red line it's a bit odd that bit but here we are into these corners sharp brake I'm going to rely on the kick down I could change down to second but I think I'll rely on a second India look how sharp that turns in there and there it is kicks down off you go it is quite really quite impressive the way this moves down a road like this and into here it's a very balanced chassis it's got this 50 50 weight distribution because it's a 928 but yeah it is a surprise how this car drives and yet the manual and auto argument will go on forever with these cars but my take having lived with this car is I would choose auto every time because the manual you're trying to pretend this car is a ultimate sports car is that like a 911 rival it's not it's a GT car so it's almost a misnomer having the manual gearbox and because it's not a very nice change I don't feel as though I really want it having lived with this auto and done many more miles I really like this car in this form and I was talking to Paul at the 928 special I was saying how you get on manual to auto and that's all he does all day long is 928 he says I'll have an auto every day of the week and the other advantage is if you were looking to get a 928 well buying an auto is a bit cheaper now price lots of people ask me what I paid for this car because I basically bought it for it hit the website this car was offered to me at £55,000 and I paid very close to that that is quite a premium but I knew the previous owner has spent about that on it to get it into this condition so basically I was buying almost a like new Porsche 928 86 and a half S2 with a Passat interior that just sold it to me so yes I paid a lot for it but there's been a lot of interest in it since I bought it so I don't know it's just a great car and the condition this car has been borne out by the miles I've done it's been exceptionally hot in the UK and this can sit in traffic it could go down motorways it will cruise got cruise control uh sitting at you know 75 indicated and the temperature gauge never moves it can you can sit in traffic for 20 minutes it doesn't move oil pressure's fine bolts and stuff so as I say it's I've had no issues with it whatsoever so there you go that's a sort of quick summary of 928 how I found living with it I think there's more interest today in the transaxle porters as they're termed and 928 has sort of been in the doldrums for quite a while although they I think values have picked up recently because 911 prices have gone stratospheric and when you can pick a quality of a car like this up at 30 50 000 it's quite an interesting alternative especially in today's road conditions when this is absolutely perfect for marmunching in 2026 it's just so livable with a proper GT got space got loads of oddment sort of spaces I love the door pockets love all the glove box and there's a shelf under the glove box and all the space in the back so yeah it's a very easy car to live with as long as you get a sorted one which is always the message with these things but that's the same with 911 and I'm amazed that they're not sort of galactic mileage examples out there because that's what it does best is eat miles what would be my pick well if you can find an 86 and a half example like this one there's only 2 000 in the world so they're quite rare things I would definitely go for one of those I think it's the pick of the 928 it's the best bits of all of the all the car let's just go around here again just it's extraordinary there's the kickdown happening again around here and power out so yeah I think these are worth a premium over a regular S2 then you move to the S4s which I don't think are quite as pretty but they've got the 32 valve engine they're more sorted in a number of ways and I say just go for an auto try an auto and just see how you get on is what I would do or go for the GTS if you really want ultimate experience manual but then you're paying quite a lot of money they're around the £70,000 mark it's interesting when you get a car and you like it more three months later than you did when you bought it there's always excitement when you buy it but that's what I find with it we find it as a night or an easy trip out we just quite often take this Porsche 928 it's much easier to live with than like that XJ Coupe I had or the Lamborghini Espada but they were 70s cars so yeah that's what I found out on 928 I would like it to be more vocal there's a fairly subdued from outside you don't really pick that up on the inside it does 22 mpg but it's got a big tank there's a bump thump there's no cap size on this road but if you hit those it comes through in the cabin quite yeah it's quite loud but I think the tyres are old on this car I want to get new tyres where there are about eight nine year old tyres on it but they're a bit tricky because of the 160 mile an hour potential speed of this car so anyway we'll get those fitted and maybe do another report in the future but I hope you found this useful and you've enjoyed this video on the Porsche 928 and my findings if you have keep watching keep subscribing more videos coming along very soon thanks for watching