Porsche – A Hallmark of Stuttgart
When you see a Porsche, you’re seeing the result of one man refusing to settle. At Gertie’s Garage, we have a deep appreciation for the engineering and the “why” behind these cars.
The Car He Couldn't Find
In 1948, in a small workshop in the Austrian town of Gmünd, Ferry Porsche (son of Ferdinand Porsche, the man who designed the original Volkswagen Beetle) finished the first car to wear his family’s name. His explanation became the company’s founding philosophy: “In the beginning I looked around and could not find quite the car I dreamed of. So I decided to build it myself.”
Ferry figured he might sell around 500 of them. By the time the 356 ended production in 1965, roughly 78,000 had been built.
The Story of the Crest
For its first few years, a Porsche wore nothing but the Porsche name. Then, in late 1951, Ferry visited New York and met Max Hoffman, the importer who brought many of the great European cars to America, and Hoffman told him a car this good needed a proper badge.
- The horse comes from the coat of arms of Stuttgart, Porsche’s home. The city’s name traces back to an Old High German word for a stud farm — Stuttgart was, quite literally, a horse garden.
- The antlers and the red-and-black stripes come from the crest of Württemberg, the state Stuttgart was the capital of.
The designer, Franz Xaver Reimspieß, had already drawn another famous emblem 16 years earlier: the Volkswagen logo. Same hand, two of the most recognizable automotive badges in the world.
The 911 That Was Almost a 901
Porsche introduced its new sports car in 1963 as the 901. A year later, Peugeot objected — it had claimed three-digit model names with a zero in the middle. Porsche swapped the zero for a one, and the 911 was born. Only 82 cars were built wearing the original name.
Fittingly, one of the most famous Porsche collectors on earth landed on the other side of that line: Jerry Seinfeld has been reported to own chassis 300049, widely cited as the first car the factory designated a 911. (He also took delivery of the last 993 the factory officially delivered, a Carrera 4S, in 1998 — bookending the air-cooled era.)
The Principles: Evolution, Not Revolution
Park a 1965 911 next to a new one and you’ll recognize the same car immediately: same silhouette / same rear-engine layout / same idea, refined for six decades. Porsche doesn’t throw away what works; it makes it better, a little at a time.
Porsche likes to say that more than 70% of all the cars it has ever built are still on the road. (In fairness, a lot of those are young Cayennes and Macans — but anyone who’s seen a 50-year-old 911 still being driven hard knows the point stands.) These cars are built to be kept, and kept well.
The Porsche That Went in the Lake
If you grew up in the ’80s, there’s a good chance your first Porsche love wasn’t a 911. It was a 928. More specifically, the 928 that Tom Cruise’s character “borrows” from his father in Risky Business (1983), races through Chicago, and eventually watches roll into Lake Michigan.
A few things most people don’t know:
- Porsche was asked to supply a car for the film, read the script, and politely declined. The producers bought their own 928s anyway (four of them).
- The car that went into the lake was only a body shell, no engine or transmission. (We can all breathe again.)
- The famous line Cruise delivers straight to the camera — “Porsche. There is no substitute.” — was Porsche’s own American ad slogan at the time. Porsche turned down the movie and got the free advertising anyway.
- In 2021, one of the surviving film cars sold at auction for $1.98 million, a record for a 928.
A Personal Connection
I’ve always loved the 928 (I even owned one, briefly), and if I’m honest, I’ve struggled to forgive Porsche for walking away from it.
It arrived in 1977 as a clean-sheet design meant to replace the 911: an aluminum V8 up front / the transmission at the back for near-perfect balance / a clever rear axle that steered itself a little in corners. The industry loved it. In 1978 the 928 was named European Car of the Year, the first and still the only sports car ever to win that award.
But the 911 faithful wouldn’t let go, and after 18 years and about 61,000 cars, Porsche quietly ended production in 1995. The 911 lives on and I’m glad it does — but I still think the 928 deserved better.
So what did the purists have against it? I have a theory, and it starts with the key.
A 928 Conspiracy Theory: Left Key, Right Key
Climb into almost any Porsche and you’ll find the ignition to the left of the steering wheel. The legend: in the old Le Mans running starts, a left-hand key let drivers fire the engine with one hand while snicking it into first with the other. It’s a great story — and probably not true. Porsche’s own historians point to something far more Germanic: on the very first Porsche, a switch on the left meant shorter wiring / less material / a little less weight.
Legend or not, the left-hand key became a badge of belonging. But the 914 and the 924 (both of which began as joint projects with Volkswagen) put the key on the right — and so did the cars the 924 evolved into: the 944, the 944 Turbo (a hell of a car, by the way), and the 968. Notice a pattern? Every one of them has spent decades as a purist’s outcast, the “not-quite-real” Porsches. For that family, Volkswagen roots are the easy explanation for both the key and the “bastard-child” status. The curious one is the 928: Porsche’s first fully in-house design, no VW anything, and the key still landed on the right. That was a choice, and as far as I can tell, nobody has ever explained it.
Every 928 ever built (yes, including the one in Lake Michigan) asked its driver to reach to the wrong side of the wheel. I can’t prove it, but I’d bet that small thing did more damage than anyone at Porsche expected. For a purist, it was one more sign this wasn’t a “real” Porsche: front engine / water-cooled / V8 / and the key on the wrong side. Their loss: some of the best-balanced, most rewarding Porsches ever built have the key on the right. (Full confession: I once built a Renegade Hybrids LS1-swapped 944. Stupid fast — and it made the purists even crankier than the key did.)
The 928 didn’t always help its own cause in the shop, either. Its V8 runs on a timing belt roughly 82½ inches long (one of the longest ever used in a production car), and checking its tension properly calls for a dedicated factory gauge, Porsche tool 9201: expensive / hard to come by / not something the average shop keeps in a drawer. Porsche even gave the car a dashboard warning light just for belt tension. I suspect more than a few 928s earned their reputation in the hands of shops that weren’t equipped for them.
So if you’ve got one tucked away in a garage (and you’ve managed to keep it out of the lake), I’d genuinely love to see it.
Why We Love Servicing Porsches
As technicians, it’s a pleasure to work on cars that were designed by people who clearly loved driving. Porsche engineering rewards a careful hand — and punishes a careless one — which is exactly why the right shop matters. From early air-cooled 911s to a new Macan, we bring the same thoroughness: a complete inspection / honest priorities / your call on what happens next.
Ferry Porsche is often credited with saying that the last car ever built will be a sports car. At Gertie’s Garage, we’re here to make sure yours is still on the road when that day comes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes — Gertie’s Garage services Porsche vehicles for owners in Canterwood, Gig Harbor, Fox Island, and Wollochet. We work on the full range, from classic air-cooled 911s and transaxle-era 944s and 928s to the modern 911, Cayman, Boxster, Macan, Cayenne, and Panamera. Every visit starts with our Integrity Inspection — a complete, documented look at your car, calibrated to how you actually drive it.
It depends on the engine, and it’s worth knowing which one you have. The intermediate shaft (IMS) bearing concern applies to the M96/M97 engines used in roughly 1997–2008 Boxsters, 996 and early 997 911s, and 2006–2008 Caymans. Engines from 2009 onward (and the 996 Turbo / GT3) don’t share the issue. If your car is in the affected group, we’ll look for early warning signs, including what we find in the oil filter, and talk through your options based on how you use the car. No scare tactics; just the facts and your decision.
For many Porsche owners in Gig Harbor and Fox Island, the calendar matters more than the odometer. Oil ages even when the car sits, and short trips and our damp Pacific Northwest climate are harder on an engine than long highway miles. We recommend an oil service at least once a year regardless of mileage, using the oil specification Porsche approves for your engine.
You get the same standard of care with a relationship the dealership can’t offer. At Gertie’s, you’ll see exactly what we found (and what we didn’t), with photos and plain-language explanations, and you’ll know where your money is going and why before any work begins. Qualifying repairs are backed by our industry-leading 5-year/50,000-mile warranty.
Yes — mechanical service and repair for classic Porsches is work we genuinely enjoy. Air-cooled 911s, 912s, 914s, and the front-engine 924/944/968 and 928 all get the same documented, thorough approach. We focus on mechanical service and repair (engine, transmission, suspension, brakes, electrical); we don’t do body, paint, or upholstery restoration. See our Classic European Vehicle Repair page for more.
