Long before Gemballa became synonymous with slammed, wide-arched Ferraris and Porsche 911s, the German tuner’s first real experiment in body-widening happened on an unlikely canvas: Porsche’s front-engined, V8-powered 928 grand tourer. Two surviving examples, one a fairly subdued early effort from 1981 and the other a considerably more aggressive 1990 rework, show how quickly Gemballa’s ambitions grew once it started cutting into Porsche’s factory sheet metal. Both cars have resurfaced for sale in recent years, offering a rare side-by-side look at a tuning program most enthusiasts have forgotten entirely.

From Interiors to Full Body Conversions

Uwe Gemballa founded his eponymous company in 1979 focused on interior upgrades for Volkswagens and BMWs, before pivoting toward Porsche in 1981 with bodykits for the 911, 924 and 928, according to Top Gear. The company’s Porsche work grew serious enough that by the mid-1980s, after Porsche and Mercedes-Benz objected to their badges appearing on heavily modified cars, Gemballa secured its own recognized manufacturer status in Germany, per Silodrome. The 928 became one of Gemballa’s first full-conversion projects, and the brand would go on to build a reputation for some of the era’s most extreme Porsche makeovers.

Version I: A Restrained First Attempt

The earliest 928 widebody, marketed as the Widebody Version I, is best represented by a 1981 928 S completed at Porsche’s Zuffenhausen factory and later converted by Gemballa. RM Sotheby’s sold the car at its Miami auction for $126,000, describing modifications that included a widened body and staggered 16-inch BBS RS wheels, along with a cabin fitted with white-faced gauges, a Gemballa-embossed steering wheel and a period Phillips stereo, according to the RM Sotheby’s listing. Power came from the 928 S’s 4.7-liter V8, rated around 300 horsepower and paired with a three-speed automatic. At auction, the car showed just 171 kilometers, or roughly 107 miles, effectively unused since its conversion. Top Gear, reviewing the car ahead of its sale, called the widebody kit relatively subtle by the standards Gemballa would later set for itself.

Version II: The Widebody Gets Wild

By the time Gemballa revisited the 928 for its S4-generation update, restraint was no longer the goal. A 1990 928 S4 built to Gemballa’s “928 S4 Wide Version II” specification, offered through Collecting Cars, shows redesigned front and rear bumpers, dramatically widened wheel arches, deeper side skirts, vented rear quarter panels and a dual rear spoiler setup that includes a wraparound ducktail, according to Silodrome. The car rides on 17-inch BBS wheels and breathes through a quad-exit exhaust, with a custom KW V3 Competition coilover suspension dropping it noticeably closer to the ground than a stock 928. Power still comes from Porsche’s naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V8, here rated at 320 horsepower, driving through a four-speed automatic and Porsche’s electronically controlled limited-slip differential. Inside, black leather and Alcantara trimmed in yellow stitching and Gemballa embroidery replace the factory cabin, alongside heated seats and cruise control.

Survivors With the Paperwork to Prove It

What makes both cars notable beyond their bodywork is how well-documented they are. The Version II car underwent more than €50,000 in restoration work at the Porsche Classic Centre in Arnhem in 2021, with invoices and maintenance records included in its sale, per Silodrome. Together, the two cars trace a clear evolution: a first-generation widebody kit still recognizably a 928 underneath, giving way a decade later to a car whose factory silhouette is nearly unrecognizable beneath vented panels, spoilers and flared arches.

The 928 was never the model most associated with Gemballa’s reputation for excess; that distinction usually goes to its work on the 911 and later Ferraris. But these two survivors make the case that the tuner’s wildest instincts were present from the very start. What began as a fairly tasteful widening exercise on a factory grand tourer ended, less than a decade later, looking like almost nothing Porsche ever built.