This One-Off Porsche 928 Flachbau Offers A Glimpse Into An Alternate Reality

The frog-faced headlights on the V8-powered Porsche 928 grand tourer have always been a point of contention. Some people find them endearing, some people find them dorky, and some people find them simply past their sell-by date by the time the late ’80s rolled around. However, Porsche did build one 928 with more traditional pop-up headlights, and not only is RM Sotheby’s auctioning it off, it almost makes me wonder why it wasn’t a broad, sweeping facelift.

See, Porsche has something it calls the Sonderwunsch or Special Request program, which allows truly well-heeled Porsche clients to do all sorts of insane stuff. From wild trim options to complete one-off coachwork, if you have the means, Porsche will probably build what you envision. One such lucky customer was able to request a Flachbau or slantnose 928 back in the late 1980s, and I’m glad they did.

Although swapping flip-forward lights for pop-ups with painted covers doesn’t dramatically change the silhouette of this 928, the painted covers emphasize the sloping hood and make this V8 bruiser look sleeker, more rakish, and less like a product of the 1970s. It’s subtly more exotic, yet still unmistakably Porsche.

While the more traditional pop-up headlights are definitely the highlight of this particular 928, the revised face is accented by wider rear fenders and skirts, courtesy of option codes XB2 and XC1, respectively. This is probably a serious nerd alert, but Porsche option codes beginning in X are typically special-order boutique items. Anyway, I reckon the flared arches and chunky skirts really work with the more traditional pop-ups, a bit of chunkiness for the shoulder pad era.

Intriguingly, this is also a 928 GT, the slightly pared-back, manual-only performance-focused variant of the 928 that came with a limited-slip differential and a slight boost in power from 316 horsepower to 326. Call it the driver’s choice. Oddly enough, the 928 GT also came standard without door ding protection strips, so the ones on this car would’ve been an option box ticked by the original owner. How weird is that? Then again, with a car this unusual, it’s unsurprising that the original owner has kept it for more than 30 years.

At the moment, this 928 GT shows just 56,636 kilometers on the clock, although it reportedly had a failed odometer replaced in 2003 at a total mileage of “no more than 11,500 kilometers.” Call it around 68,136 kilometers of total distance traveled, which works out to 42,337 miles or 1,245 miles per year since new. Imagine if it was used for one grand tour each year. How brilliant would that be?

In an alternate universe, this could’ve been part of a sweeping 928 update for the late 1980s or the ’90s. However, just two years after this one-off 928 emerged from the factory, Porsche updated its four-cylinder transaxle car with 928-style lay-back pop-up headlights, and the cheap cars swapping looks with the expensive cars would be an odd choice. Still, if you’re well-heeled and looking for an unusually sleek 928, this bespoke car’s up for auction in Paris next year.

(Photo credits: RM Sotheby’s)

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