A 1982 Porsche 928 with the most unusual engine swap we’ve ever seen is for sale at a dealership in Tennessee, USA.
In place of its front-mounted V8, the metallic orange 928 features a Boeing T50 jet engine that you’d normally find spinning the rotors of a helicopter.
It’s quite an early example of a turboshaft engine and was the first of its type to be used in a chopper when it was fitted to a number of Kaman whirlybirds and the XL019B Bird Dog in the 1950s. The motor’s compact size means that it just squeezes into the engine bay of the 928 – and if it wasn’t for the two exhausts venting directly through the hood, you wouldn’t know there was anything out of the ordinary.
That all changes the moment this thing fires up, however. As you can hear the deafening turbine howl is nothing like the original V8’s rumble.
Running on aviation fuel the engine was designed to deliver 330 horsepower to its output shaft at 6,000rpm, but in this installation it’s rated at 300 horses and sends power to the automatic transmission via a reduction gearbox. That’s a little less oomph than the last of the five-liter S4 928s managed, but should still make the car fly down the road at a decent lick. Apparently it will achieve 20mpg, has working air conditioning, and has covered over 140,000 miles – although presumably most of those were on its original engine.
Exactly when this heli-Porsche was built is unclear, but it was previously advertised on eBay in 2010, while the video of its engine starting up dates to 2015. It’s ready for take off at Duncan Imports and Classics now for $29,747 or £23,861.
