Allthough the Mercedes 500SEC Gullwing was SGS’s most famous conversion, it’s not the only Gullwing-doored conversion the company did in those crazy 1980s. In 1987 SGS made a Porsche 928S4 with Gullwing-door conversion for a Japanese customer and two more would follow in the years after...
As the story goes, in June 1987 the first of those cars was ordered by a Japanese gentleman by the name of Kiminari Kawashima from Tokyo. Four months later the car was ready to be shipped to the Far East.
The cars were modified according to SGS specifications by Wille Karosseriebau, a company that also did many of the Styling-Garage Mercedes-Benz 500SEC Gullwings as well as the SGS convertibles. Just the Gullwing conversion was offered at a staggering 78.000 DM back in 1987. For that kind of money you could get a brand new Porsche 911 Convertible. The 78.000 Marks didn’t include all the extra modifications that were done to the car and the base vehicle wasn't included in the price either!
So why was it so expensive? Well first of all the roof of an original 928 had to be cut open after which an aluminium frame had to placed to compensate for the "loss of roof" and even more so the actual strain that the opening gullwing doors would put on the roof. You don’t want to see the car collapse under it’s own weight, when opening doors. Special hydraulics were installed to make opening the doors easy.
The original Porsche 928 door handles were removed, because the doors can be opened by pressing a button on a remote control device or by pushing a button in the interior when sitting inside the car. It took the hydraulics five seconds to open the doors and the same time for closing them. If the hydraulics fail you can still open the doors from the inside manually.
Apart from the technical side of creating a Gullwing version of the Porsche 928 this First SGS 928 Gullwing screamed for a beyond-standard out appearance for the Porsche 928 and so a full 928S4 Version III bodykit from Vittorio Strosek was ordered and installed. The 928S4 Version III kit was basically an updated version of the original Version III without the "Testarossa-Streaks" and with a different front bumper. Even though the car was based on an S4 it still used Strosek's old (and bigger) rear wing and accompanying roof spoiler. Later models of the 928 Gullwing would have newer Strosek bodykits fitted to them.
The wheels fitted to the (original First SGS) 928 Gullwing were 16" BBS RS wheels which could be fitted with Strosek's stream line wheel covers. The other two cars made by SGS (black/gold and Silver/Silver) were fitted with 17" OZ Futura wheels from the start, the black/red car would later be fitted with the same.
The complete car including conversion used to cost a total of 296.000 DM back in 1987. That would be more than a million US dollars these days, which is a crazy number. The full name of the car is "First SGS Gullwing 928S-4". "First Corporation" was the representative of Design+Technik / SGS in Japan back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At least three cars were built, with the last one probably in the early 1990s.
All doors open! The SGS Porsche 928 Gullwing in it's full show-off mode! (Photo: RallyeRacing)
(Photo: RallyeRacing)
Two views of the Black/Red SGS 928 Gullwing with doors closed when featured for Japanese magazine Genroq in 1988. Doors closed make it almost look like a regular Porsche 928.... oh wiat....the bright red interior and the Strosek tracksuit make it not so standard after all. (Photos: Genroq)
An all bright red interior with matching red (leather?) floormats. The big "First SGS" logo on the steering wheel can't be missed. (Photos: Genroq)
Recaro CSE seats all lined in bright red with black piping is what driver and front passenger would enjoy speeding through Japan in.
Two cars with the same basis, same bodykit but completely different in appearance: the First SGS 928 Gullwing and the Jurrinek Porsche 928 Convertible.
The silver/silver First SGS 928 Gullwing was a later car that probably built in the early 1990s. Big difference to the first car is the newer Strosek bodykit that was fitted to this car, the so-called Strosek Ultra bodykit with much more rounded look. (Photo: Hans-Jürgen Tücherer)
(Photo: Hans-Jürgen Tücherer)
On the Autobahn with Chris Hahn.... doors closed and at high speed this photo shows the silver car in the wild with it's builder behind the wheel. (Photo: Hans-Jürgen Tücherer)
Gemballa used a 4-pipe exhaust for the 928 and a 6-pipe exhaust for the 911.... SGS topped that with this crazy 8-pipe exhaust for the 928 Gullwing. (Photo: Hans-Jürgen Tücherer)
Presented at the 1992 Essen Motorshow at the display booth of Azev-wheels...
Then there was this black-and-gold 928 Gullwing. Black exterior with rather opulent golden leather interior which included a TV on top of the dashboard. The car was sold in Japan as well. The picture below shows it as for sale in Japan, early 2000s.
Text: copyright Bram Corts
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