This stunning €480k V8 Porsche 928 restomod now “sounds like a NASCAR”

Commercial failure, but a cult hero. The Porsche 928 never achieved its stated aim of replacing the 911 and its awkward rear-engine layout (it’ll never catch on, right), selling just over 60,000 examples across 18 years. But it remains a seriously cool car.

And now it looks – and sounds – cooler than ever thanks to a French company by the name of Nardone Automotive. That’s right, this isn’t yet another 911 that’s been treated to a thorough going-over, but an oft-forgotten Porsche GT given a healthy update.

Very healthy, as it turns out. Nardone – run by boss Thierry Nardone – wanted a thorough overhaul to the 928’s V8, and opted for a ‘father-and-son’ company called Italtecnica to breathe new life into the eight-pot.

“When I presented the project [to Italtecnica], what I liked was that they were already in the restomod business,” boss Thierry told Top Gear. And being in the restomod business means being in the details business.

Look at the intake, for example. “We needed to modify completely the plenum,” Thierry said, “because we tested it and the airflow was not good at all to make more horsepower with the original one. So we created a new one.”

And now, not only is that plenum “a piece of art”, it also helps the 928’s overhauled V8 breathe to the tune of 400-odd horsepower. So where the original cross-plane-crank “sounds like a muscle car”, the new, revitalised one sounds a little more raucous.

“Now it sounds like a NASCAR,” Thierry told us. Have a listen to it – as well as a proper poke around – in the vide below, and recap on this rather glorious Nardone Automotive 928 here. Just imagine if it had got the V10 it always should have had…