Jerry Feather

Good Question; and I wonder where the early US 93 GTS fits relative to the later 93 GTS.

hwyengr

That relationship between year and VIN isn’t a Porsche thing, it’s a standard VIN coding thing. All 1986 cars built for the US have a G in that space.

davek9

Big difference between 85/86 and the 86.5's
As Porsche was starting to use the newer S4 parts

Rob Edwards

Dunno what the actual stamping on the body shell (rear hatch) says, but 9288100011 is production number 1280001 in the records.

the flyin' scotsman

the 'early' 93 GTS were sold in Canada in 1992 not sure about US.......my GTS (you saw it Jerry) was sold new March 1992 Montreal Canada.......its a Canadian specific model with DRL, heated seats, no rear air etc.

the distintion between its VIN and 'late' 93 GTS is the last series of numbers.

VINs with N in the year of the VIN are 92 sold in ROW............92 sold in Canada have a P in the VIN.

Given the P designates 93 not 92 I take it they are in the overall count for 1993.............I think!

linderpat

Dave, Porsche never made any special designations for the 86.5 US model, with the VIN or by serial designation, or otherwise. As far as Porsche is concerned, they are just US 1986 928S models. Of course those of us who have (or had) them are in the know, and we know what we have (had)

drooman

Good point, also applies to the question posed in the revival of this thread by classicarbuyer, obviously a relatively new guy to this market.

Porsche had a number of designations:

model year
Model ( 928, S, GT, S4 plus others etc )
Apparently "series" B programme, etc

but the designations get vague over 3 markets: US RoW Japan... Take 1981: the RoW B program 928 had a completely different fuel system (CIS) than the US B program 928 (LH), and the RoW B programme also offered a 928S, with many different engine parts and spoilers not found on the RoW B program 928, whereas the US B programme offered no 928S at all. Once again I don't even have a clue what went on in the japanese offerings in 1981. So there are 4 distinct "variations" before you get into "Auto/Manual" so now 8 distinct variations, just for 1981.. but there as that "competition package" offered for the US... spoilers only...make that 9 variations i think those were all manual.

Most new 928 fans find many references to the abbreviated "928 S S4 GT GTS" It's not inaccurate but it's like saying a car has four wheels. Boy to people run with that; say it, write it down, have arguments about it, etc. I attribute this to the self perpetuating destruction of modern information cycles.. shorter more generalized data fighting for continually decreasing attention spans. The fact that huge names in the automotive collector car insurance and auction business can be the biggest offenders in this area does not help. It's up to us to work on that, we all want the cars and the interest to survive and sharing the "full" "nuanced" and "most accurate to our knowledge" information is important.