Porsche 928 sports car, brand's first-ever V8 engine complete 45 years

Porsche is celebrating forty-five years of the world premiere of its 928 sports car and its first eight-cylinder V8 engine that powers the sports car manufacturer’s most powerful hybrids. The Porsche 928 powered by a V8 debuted at the 1977 Geneva International Motor Show, becoming the first road-going Porsche with eight-cylinder power.

Since then, the V8 engine has been powering the heart of many of the most powerful road-going Porsche vehicles such as the 918 Spyder, multiple generations of the Panamera and Cayenne and most recently the Cayenne Turbo GT. Among the track-tuned cars, the V8 is the beating heart of models such as the RS Spyder and will also power the Porsche LMDh challenger, which is currently under development.

Globally, the Porsche 928 sold more than 61,000 examples and a front-mounted V8 engine was used in all its iterations. The V8 engine has also claimed victories on some of the world’s most challenging tracks – the Cayenne S sped over the dunes of the Transsyberia Rally while the RS Spyder raced across the finish line for victories at Sebring and Le Mans - thanks to the powerful V8.

The RS Spyder often challenged high power entries in the Le Mans Racing Series from 2006 to 2008, achieving an outright victory at the 2008 12 Hours of Sebring. They key factor in this success was the meticulously designed 3.4-litre 90-degree V8. Subsequently, the RS Spyder led to Porsche’s first modern-day supercar – the 918 Spyder which utilised a hybrid powertrain and motorsport technology – an electric motor plus a high-revving naturally aspirated V8 engine.

This technology also transferred to some of the current hybrid models of the Cayenne and Panamera series, enhancing the performance and efficiency of the V8 engine alongside their battery electric motors. At present, a V8 engine can be found in seven current Porsche models: Panamera GTS, Panamera Turbo S, Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid, Cayenne GTS, Cayenne Turbo, Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid and Cayenne Turbo GT.

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