Owning a fine driving machine such as the Porsche 928 is not for everyone.  Maintaining road-worthiness is like trying to hold water in the palm of your hand.  Things tend to break faster than repairs can realistically be made.  Parts are strictly mail-order, often unavailable, and intimidatingly expensive when they are.  Once you do get ahold of the parts you need, you can expect to do all the labor yourself.  Mechanics with this type of experience are rare and if you do manage to find one, the price is worthy of the marque.  Even adept mechanics have on occasion simply refused to go to the trouble.  Left to conduct the repairs yourself, you quickly sympathize.  Differential diagnostics and innovative or experimental solutions are standard operating procedures.

Why bother with such a maintenance nightmare?  Because when you do get a shark on the road, you are rewarded with a GT supercar of rare equal; an expertly tuned piece of German automotive craftsmanship.  In 1983, it was the fastest production car sold in the United States, and three years later the world.  But the 928 is not preoccupied with speed, rather it has a perfect combination of power and all the dynamic feedback and control needed to expertly guide that power - the definition of performance.  The result is a car that delivers a firm, unrelenting grip to the road and instills complete confidence even while cruising at triple the posted speed-limit.  (So I've heard.)  Features like its perfect 50/50 weight distribution utilizing a front-engine, rear-transaxle design and dual-plate clutch make this possible.

Manufacturers rarely produce such a work of engineering art.  Compromises are made during the design process for efficiency, value, practicality, manufacturing, profit, safety, maintenance, legal exposure, ease of operation, the list goes on.  These reasons are the driving forces behind most modern cars including newer Porsche models.  Disregard for these reasons allowed the 928 to be great but is also why, though it was in production for nearly 20 years, few were made and even fewer are still on the road.  

Sure, there are faster cars, but I have yet to find a better performing machine for anywhere near the same price.  Try to get close and you will find yourself behind the wheel of a Lotus, Ferrari, or BMW M.  If money is not an issue, you can get a car with twice the performance at ten times the cost or more.  I'll stick with my ol' 928 for now. 

This page will document some of the maintenance done on Allyson.