The Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe (Swallow) was the first jet fighter to turn a wing in anger. Today, Nice Price or Crack Pipe has what could be described as an Me 928, but will its price be hard to swallow?
Few of you got a charge out of yesterday's 2008 Tesla Roadster, a fact manifested in the 57% who pulled the plug on it for a Crack Pipe loss. Tesla, the Silicon Valley start up, may be the electric car's greatest hope, but for the NPOCP voters, its disadvantages far outweighed its performance and ability to jump start a 747.
That little roadster possessed a power source that was far less common on today's roads than the ubiquitous reciprocating gas-burner. Today we have another car with an uncommon motivational force, however, while the Tesla's required you not to stray too far from an electrical outlet, owning this 1982 Porsche 928 would mean you'd probably want to live near the airport.
Rocking 140,000 miles on its clock - and forward visibility issues due to the MASSIVE EXHAUST FLAMES - this Porsche 928 eschews the lovely but finicky Stuttgart V8 for a fire-breathing Boeing T 50. That 300+ horsepower gas turbine would be more likely found powering the Navy's freaky QH-50 un-manned torpedo deployment helicopter than an Autobahn-burner, but here it spins, none the less. If you think it's odd for this Porsche to have an engine out of a drone chopper, prepare to have your mind blown with this little tidbit: Gyrodyne, the company that developed the QH-50 used Porsche engines in some of their gyrocopters. Circle of life, my friends, circle of life.
While this 928 no longer exhibits the throaty rumble for which the Porsche V8 is Known, the turbine's ascendant whine will likely instill dread in your neighbors, and insanity in your cats, so it's got that working for it. At full chat, you would be forgiven for driving around the neighborhood, with your head out the window, shouting get some! GET SOME! while Wagner blasts from the stereo.
Aside from the Jet Fuel Only sticker and massive exhaust stacks punching through the hood, the 928 looks stock. The wheels are late-model Carrera, and inside the seats are brown so nobody will know when you shit them the first time the hood-mounted weenie roast goes off. That hood, by the way, has been freshly painted, as has the rest of the car, and all of it in an appropriate shade of burnt-orange.
Sadly, those of you adverse to two-pedal cars will be unable to partake in the insanity that is the turbine-powered Porsche. That's because this car rocks an auto box - I'm assuming the Mercedes 3-speed that was originally bolted back there. For the rest of us, well we'll just need to start stocking up on kerosene drums and marshmallows to roast.
You can imagine that a car like this requires a very special person to own it, and you'd be right, however exposition and spelling appear not to be requirements, as the car's description in the eBay ad extends to a brief 13 lines of all-caps, and the listing of features such as 700+ FOOT POUNDS OF TORK, which I think that has something to do with one of the Monkees.
Your spelling ability and brevity notwithstanding, you will need a cool $20,000 to light this Porsche's fire. This isn't something that exactly comes along every day, so you'll have to take the insanity exclusivity into account in your ruminations.
So, what about this rare turbine-powered Porsche for $20,000? Is that a price that gets you all spooled up? Or, did that amount hit you like a bird-strike?
You decide!
eBay or go here if the ad disappears. H/T to eddynat0r for the link!
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