When was Porsche founded?
Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche
During the 1930s, Stuttgart had already established itself as a center for the automobile industry. Germany's most important car companies had settled in the region by then. It was thus an ideal location for the new Porsche design company. When Porsche senior opened his offices in April 1931, his son Ferry (then age 21) was by his side. The firm was called "Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH Konstructionsbüro für Motoren, Fahrzeuge, Luftfahrzeuge und Wasserfahrzeugbau", meaning that Ferdinand Porsche's firm specialized in construction and consultation for engines, automobiles, airplanes, and motorboats. Porsche GmbH was founded in 1931 by Adolf Rosenberger, Ferdinand Porsche and Dr. Anton Piëch. While Rosenberger was the financial backer, he also brought technical knowledge and racing skill to the equation. Father and son were accompanied by renowned engineers.
Porsche
Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern became part of the present land of Baden-Württemberg in 1952 after the political consolidation of West Germany in 1949, and the old design of the arms of Württemberg now only lives on in the Porsche logo. On 30 January 1951, not long before the creation of Baden-Württemberg, Ferdinand Porsche died from complications following a stroke.
Porsche Design
Porsche Design ("Porsche Lizenz- und Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG"), based in Ludwigsburg, Germany, was founded in November 2003 as a majority-owned subsidiary of Porsche AG to combine Porsche AG's and Porsche Design Group's accessories and licensing business into one single company. The company's activities are focused on the Porsche Design Studio (since 2015 "Studio F. A. Porsche") in Zell am See, Austria, which works also for other companies in the field of industrial and product design, and the "Porsche Design" and "Porsche Driver's Selection" brands.
Freeman Thomas
Cris Huergas and Freeman Thomas of California founded R Gruppe, an early 911 Porsche sports club on May 15, 1999. They did so with the intention of bringing like-minded individual together to share technical and historical information related to their cars, as well as sharing views and ideas concerning the ownership, preparation, maintenance and operation of their cars.
Porsche
Porsche's 2002 introduction of the Cayenne also marked the unveiling of a new production facility in Leipzig, Saxony, which once accounted for nearly half of Porsche's annual output. In 2004, production of the Carrera GT commenced in Leipzig, and at EUR 450,000 ($440,000 in the United States) it was the most expensive production model Porsche ever built.
In mid-2006, after years of the Boxster (and later the Cayenne) as the best selling Porsche in North America, the 911 regained its position as Porsche's best-seller in the region. The Cayenne and 911 have cycled as the top-selling model since. In Germany, the 911 outsells the Boxster/Cayman and Cayenne.
Economy car
In the late 1920s in Germany, Josef Ganz independent car engineer/inventor and editor of Motor-Kritik magazine had been a fierce opponent of the status quo of car design. He became a consultant engineer to Adler in December 1930. In the first months of 1931, Ganz constructed a lightweight economy car or peoples car, prototype at Adler with a tubular chassis, a mid-mounted engine, and swing axle independent rear suspension. After completion in May 1931, Ganz nicknamed his new prototype "Maikäfer" (German for cockchafer) which is a species of beetle. In July 1931 he was also consultant engineer to BMW on the 1932-34 BMW 3/20 successor to the BMW 3/15 model. It featured transverse leaf independent front and rear suspension and an updated overhead-valve cylinder head version of the Austin 7 based engine. After a demonstration of the Adler Maikäfer by Ganz, the German Standard Fahrzeugfabrik company (unrelated to the British 'Standard' company), then purchased a license from Ganz to develop and build a small car according to his design. The prototype of this new model, which was to be called Standard Superior, was finished in 1932. It featured a tubular chassis, a mid-mounted engine, and independent wheel suspension with swing-axles at the rear. At about the same time from 1931, two years prior to Hitler's accession to power, Ferdinand Porsche founded "Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH" - the Porsche company to offer motor vehicle development work and consulting. Together with Zündapp they developed the prototype Porsche Type 12 "Auto für Jedermann" ("car for everyone"), which was the first time the name "Volkswagen" was used. Porsche preferred a 4-cylinder flat engine, but Zündapp used a water-cooled 5-cylinder radial engine. In 1932 three prototypes were running but were not put into production. All three cars were lost during the war, the last in 1945 in Stuttgart during a bombing raid.
Porsche in motorsport
Despite their early involvement in motorsports being limited to supplying relatively small engines to racing underdogs up until the late 1960s, by the mid-1950s Porsche had already tasted moderate success in the realm of sports car racing, most notably in the Carrera Panamericana and Targa Florio, classic races which were later used in the naming of street cars. The Porsche 917 of 1969 turned them into a power house, winning in 1970 the first of over a dozen 24 Hours of Le Mans, more than any other company. With the 911 Carrera RS and the Porsche 935 Turbo, Porsche dominated the 1970s, and even has beaten sports prototypes, a category in which Porsche entered the successful 936, 956 and 962 models.
Porsche 930
The Porsche 930 is a sports car built by Porsche between 1975 and 1989, known to the public as the 911 Turbo. It was the maker's top-of-the-range 911 model for its entire production duration and, at the time of its introduction, was the fastest production car available in Germany.
Porsche SE
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE (), is a German holding company with investments in the automotive industry. Porsche SE is headquartered in Zuffenhausen, a city district of Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg and is owned by the Austrian Porsche and Piëch families. The company was founded in Stuttgart as "Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH" in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche (1875–1951) and his son-in-law Anton Piëch (1894–1952).
Ludwig Lohner
In 1897, the company began manufacturing electric automobiles. Lohner hired Ferdinand Porsche in 1898, and with him developed the Lohner Porsche which was popular at the 1900 World Exposition in Paris. The partnership went on to develop mixed gasoline-electric drive cars.
Porsche SE
Porsche reformed the company's structure, with Dr Ing. h. c. F. Porsche AG becoming a holding company, renamed "Porsche Automobil Holding SE", and a new Dr Ing. h. c. F. Porsche AG operating company being formed in 2007. Thus the operating activities are separated from holding activities of the company. There was an Extraordinary General Meeting for Porsche AG shareholders which took place on 26 June 2007, at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart, Germany to discuss the change to the company structure.
Ferdinand Piëch
Piëch owns a significant share of Porsche, exactly 10%. In order to prevent discussions among the many family members, a policy was established in early 1972 that no Porsche family member is allowed to be involved in the management of the company. Even company founder Ferry Porsche, Piëch's uncle, only held a seat on the supervisory board of Porsche after the company's legal form was changed from a limited partnership to a private legal company. This made Piëch move to Audi after the foundation of his engineering bureau.
Porsche 911
It originally was designated as the "Porsche 901" (901 being its internal project number). A total of 82 cars were built as 901s. However, Peugeot protested on the grounds that in France it had exclusive rights to car names formed by three numbers with a zero in the middle. Instead of selling the new model with a different name in France, Porsche changed the name to 911. Internally, the cars' part numbers carried on the prefix 901 for years. Production began in September 1964, with the first 911s marketed to the US in February 1965.
The first editions of the 911 had a rear-mounted Type 901/01 flat-6 engine, in the "boxer" configuration like the 356, air-cooled displacing compared with the 356's four-cylinder, unit. The car had four seats although the rear seats were small, thus it is usually called a 2+2 rather than a four-seater (the 356 was also a 2+2). A four or five-speed "Type 901" manual transmission was available. The styling was largely by Ferdinand "Butzi" Porsche, son of Ferdinand "Ferry" Porsche. Erwin Komenda, the leader of the Porsche car body construction department who initially objected, but later was also involved in the design.
Production of the 356 ended in 1965, but there was still a market for a 4-cylinder car, particularly in the US. The Porsche 912, introduced in the same year, served as a direct replacement, offering the de-tuned version of 356 SC's 4-cylinder, , boxer four Type 616/36 engine inside the 911 bodywork with Type 901 four-speed manual transmission (a 5-speed manual transmission was optional).
Auto Union racing car
Having been made redundant from Steyr Automobile, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche founded Porsche in Stuttgart, with engineering colleagues including Karl Rabe, and financial backing from Adolf Rosenberger. Unfortunately, car commissions were low in the depressed economic climate, so Porsche founded the subsidiary company "Hochleistungsfahrzeugbau GmbH (HFB)" (High Performance Car Ltd.) in 1932 to develop a racing car, for which he had no customer.
Porsche Club of America
Today, activities range from competitive events, such as autocrossing, club racing, rallying, and Concours, to social events, such as Touring, vehicle restoration, and Porsche history. A revised “Treffen®” now allows PCA members to visit the factory, the new Porsche Museum, the area around Stuttgart, Germany, and the research-and-development unit at Weissach. A professional staff, headed by Executive Director Vu Nguyen, operates the National Office in Columbia, Maryland, where a growing historical section is also housed. The Club functions like a finely-tuned, high performance Porsche. One of the objectives stated in PCA's Bylaws is to promote the enjoyment and sharing of goodwill and fellowship engendered by owning a Porsche - that hasn't changed in nearly 60 years of operation.
Anton Piëch
Piëch had a 15% share in the founding of the Porsche company in Stuttgart on 25 April 1931. In the Kommanditgesellschaft founded in 1937 (Porsche KG), his share was 10%. Piëch represented the company in legal and contractual matters.
Porsche SE
In its process to acquire a majority holding in Volkswagen AG, Porsche SE built up a large debt burden, aggravated by taxes due on very large paper profits on Volkswagen AG options. By July 2009, Porsche SE was faced with debts exceeding 10 billion euros. The supervisory board of Porsche SE finally agreed to a number of arrangements whereby the Qatar Investment Authority would inject a large amount of capital into Porsche SE, and Porsche automobile manufacturing business would be merged with Volkswagen Group. On 23 July 2009, Michael Macht was appointed CEO of Porsche AG, to replace Wendelin Wiedeking, who was expected to receive a compensation package of 50 million euros.
Porsche 944
The Porsche 924 had originally been a project of VW-Porsche, a joint Porsche/Volkswagen company created to develop and produce the 914 which was sold in Europe badged as both a Porsche and a Volkswagen. In 1972, a replacement for the Volkswagen version of the 914, code named EA-425 began development. The model was to be sold as an Audi as part of the VW-Audi-Porsche marketing arrangement. Porsche was to manufacture its own version of the car. At one point, VW head Rudolf Leidig declared the EX-425 was going to be a VW exclusively, thus denying Porsche's version of the 914's replacement. Although testing had begun in the Spring of 1974, Volkswagen cancelled the EX-425 program, the reason being significant financial losses due to declining sales and rising development costs for new vehicles as well as the departure of Leidig. The recently released Volkswagen Scirocco was expected to fill the sports coupé market segment.
Porsche Typ 754 T7
The Porsche Typ 754 T7, also known as the T7 prototype or 695, is a prototype automobile built by Porsche in 1961. It would later become the Porsche 911. The front end is very similar to the 911, but the rear is somewhat different. Also, unlike the 911, the T7 had four seats. The T7 was developed from the Porsche 356 by Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, and has a wheelbase that is longer (up to longer in early designs). It has a top speed of .
Anton Piëch
On 17 September 1948 in Bad Reichenhall, Piëch participated in the signing of the agreement between Volkswagenwerk GmbH (under the leadership of new CEO Heinrich Nordhoff) and Porsche Kommanditgesellschaft. As a result of the new treaty, Porsche was put in charge of the development activity of Volkswagen, as it occurred to date. Through license fees and representation rights paid by VW, financial foundation was laid for the new plant of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG.
Porsche Club of America
Great things start small, and the Porsche Club of America is no different. It began with one man, Bill Sholar, who was a commercial artist in the Washington, D.C. area in the early 1950s. He bought a new 1953 356 Coupe, and, as time passed, he met other Porsches on the road and flashed his lights at them in silent greeting. By late 1954, Sholar was convinced that a more personal meeting would be appropriate with other Porsche owners to discuss the positive and the not-so-positive aspects of driving the infrequently encountered marque. Hence the Porsche Club of America was born. The first unofficial PCA meeting was held at the Sholar house on February 8, 1955. Following that meeting, several Porsche owners occasionally got together that spring and summer to share knowledge about the unique cars they drove. Eventually, they decided to start a club. A brief paragraph in the August 1955 issue of Sports Car Illustrated informed readers that a Porsche club was being formed in the United States; all inquiries were directed to Bill Sholar's attention. As part of the effort, Porsche was petitioned to recognize the proposed club.
Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche Sr was chief designer at Austro-Daimler in Austria. His designs were focused on compact street cars and race cars. Austro-Daimler was so strongly tied to the local royalty that the Austrian double-headed eagle became the trademark of the company. The day Ferry Porsche was born, his father was competing with one of his race cars (called the Maja) at Semmering, finishing first in his class. He found out about his son's birth by telegram.
Pac-Man defense
Internationally, perhaps the best-known case was that of Porsche and the Volkswagen Group, in which Porsche, under the leadership of Wendelin Wiedeking, led a hostile takeover of the much-larger Volkswagen Group by slowly acquiring a large stake in Volkswagen, eventually to the point of owning over 75% of the company in 2008. By October 2008, Porsche, who was enjoying record profitability, suddenly ran out of money during the financial crisis of 2007–08 and banks were reluctant to lend any more money to Porsche; in fact, they wanted their loans paid back immediately. Ferdinand Piëch, the chairman of Volkswagen and a board member of Porsche, who was in fact the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, founder of Porsche and a co-founder of what became Volkswagen, loaned Porsche enough money to cover their debts, and Volkswagen, which Porsche tried to acquire, became the white knight and Volkswagen effectively took over Porsche. The unique situation had much to do with the historical closeness of the Volkswagen Group to Porsche, and the battle between the Porsche and Piëch families (both descended from Ferdinand Porsche) for control of Porsche. However, later that year when the two companies announced an official merger, Volkswagen was announced as the surviving partner.
Porsche 356
Little noticed at its inception, mostly by a small number of auto racing enthusiasts, the first 356s sold primarily in Austria and Germany. It took Porsche two years, starting with the first prototype in 1948, to manufacture the first 50 automobiles. By the early 1950s the 356 had gained some renown among enthusiasts on both sides of the Atlantic for its aerodynamics, handling, and excellent build quality. The class win at Le Mans in 1951 was a factor. It was common for owners to race the car as well as drive them on the streets. They introduced the four-cam racing "Carrera" engine, a totally new design and unique to Porsche sports cars, in late 1954. Increasing success with its racing and road cars brought Porsche orders for over 10,000 units in 1964, and by the time 356 production ended in 1965 approximately 76,000 had been produced.
Porsche 911
Production of the first 400 units qualified the 930 for FIA Group 4 competition. With the racing version called the Porsche 934 of 1976 participating at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and other races including battles with the BMW 3.0 CSL "Batmobile". The FIA Group 5 version called Porsche 935 evolved from the 934. Fitted with a slope nose or "slant nose", the 500+ PS car was campaigned in 1976 by the factory, winning the world championship title. Private teams went on to win many races, like Le Mans in 1979, and continued to compete successfully with the car well into the 1980s until the FIA and IMSA rules were changed.
Porsche in motorsport
Porsche dropped its factory motorsports program after winning the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Porsche 911 GT1 for financial reasons, facing factory competition from Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and others. An LMP1 prototype with a V10 engine, intended to be entered in 2000, was abandoned unraced due to an agreement with Audi, a related company led by Porsche co-owner Ferdinand Piech. The V10 was used in the Porsche Carrera GT instead, while Audi dominated Le Mans after BMW, Mercedes and Toyota moved to F1.
Porsche 550
Inspired by the Porsche 356 which was created by Ferry Porsche, as well as spyder prototypes built and raced by Walter Glöckler starting in 1951, the factory decided to build a car designed for use in auto racing. The Porsche 550 Spyder was introduced at the 1953 Paris Auto Show. The 550 was very low to the ground, in order to be efficient for racing. In fact, former German Formula One racer Hans Herrmann drove it under closed railroad crossing gates during the 1954 Mille Miglia.
Porsche
In keeping with the family name of founder Ferdinand Porsche, the company's name is pronounced in German, which corresponds to in English, homophonous with the feminine name "Portia". However, in English it is often pronounced as a single syllable —without a final . In German orthography, word-final is not silent but is instead an unstressed schwa.
Porsche in motorsport
Porsche is currently the world's largest race car manufacturer. In 2006, Porsche built 195 race cars for various international motor sports events, and in 2007 Porsche is expected to construct no less than 275 dedicated race cars (7 RS Spyder LMP2 prototypes, 37 GT2 spec 911 GT3-RSRs, and 231 911 GT3 Cup vehicles).
Porsche
In 1972, the company's legal form was changed from "Kommanditgesellschaft" (KG), or limited partnership, to Aktiengesellschaft (AG), or public limited company, because Ferry Porsche came to believe the scale of the company outgrew a "family operation", after learning about Soichiro Honda's "no family members in the company" policy at Honda. This led to the establishment of an Executive Board with members from outside the Porsche family, and a Supervisory Board consisting largely of family members. With this change, most family members in the operation of the company, including F. A. Porsche and Ferdinand Piëch, departed from the company.
Magnus Walker
Walker was born in 1967. Growing up in Sheffield, England, Walker's fascination with the Porsche brand sparked when his father took him to the 1977 Earl's Court Motorshow as a 10 year old, where he saw the Porsche 911 for the first time. After that, he wrote Porsche a letter, asking for a job. Porsche actually replied and encouraged him to apply for a job when he had finished school. However, in 1982, Magnus had dropped out of school without a degree, got involved with the punk rock and heavy metal scenes, and bounced around places and jobs. Seeing no perspectives for the future in Britain, he decided to follow the American Dream and try his luck in the US. He got accepted as an instructor at a summer camp north of Detroit in 1986. He traveled to Los Angeles soon after the camp was over.
Porsche 968
Porsche's 944 model debuted for the 1982 model year, was updated as "944S" in 1987 and as "944S2" in 1989. Shortly after the start of production of the S2 variant, Porsche engineers began working on another set of significant upgrades for the model, as executives were planning a final "S3" variant of the 944. During the development phase, 80% of the 944's mechanical components were either significantly modified or completely replaced by the engineers, leaving so little of the outgoing S2 behind that Porsche management chose to introduce the variant as a new model, calling it the 968. In addition to the numerous mechanical upgrades, the new model also received significantly evolved styling both inside and out, with a more modern, streamlined look and more standard luxury than on the 944. Production was moved from the Audi plant in Neckarsulm (where the 924 and 944 had been manufactured under contract to Porsche), to Porsche's own factory in Zuffenhausen.
Ruf Automobile
Alois Sr.'s involvement in the car industry had a distinct effect on his son, Alois Ruf Jr., who became a sports car enthusiast. In 1960, Alois Jr. began servicing and restoring Porsche automobiles out of his father's garage. Following Alois Sr's. death in 1974, 24-year-old Alois Jr. took control of the business and focused on his passion: Porsche vehicles, and especially the 911. A year later in 1975, the first Ruf-enhanced Porsche came to life.
Porsche 968
The Porsche 968 is a sports car manufactured by Porsche AG from 1992 to 1995. It was the final evolution of a line of water-cooled front-engined rear wheel drive models begun almost 20 years earlier with the 924, taking over the entry-level position in the company lineup from the 944 with which it shared about 20% of its parts. The 968 was Porsche's last new front-engined vehicle before the introduction of the Cayenne SUV in 2003.
Porsche
Dr.-Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche AG (), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans. Porsche AG is headquartered in Stuttgart, and is owned by Volkswagen AG, which is itself majority-owned by Porsche Automobil Holding SE. Porsche's current lineup includes the 718 Boxster/Cayman, 911, Panamera, Macan and Cayenne.
Porsche in motorsport
Between 1998 (when Porsche won overall with the Porsche 911 GT1-98) and 2014, Porsche did not attempt to score overall wins at Le Mans and similar sports car races, focusing on smaller classes and developing the water-cooled 996 GT3. Nevertheless, the GT3 and the LMP2 RS Spyder won major races overall during the period. Porsche returned to top-tier Le Mans racing in 2014 with the 919, but both cars experienced unknown engine issues with an hour and a half left to go and retired just as the #20 car was chasing down the #1 Audi in first place.
Porsche
On May 11, 2017, Porsche built the one millionth 911. An Irish green Carrera S was built for the celebration, and it will be taken on a global tour before becoming a permanent exhibit at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.
Ferdinand Porsche
In June 1934, Porsche received a contract from Hitler to design a "people's car" (or "Volkswagen"), following on from his previous designs such as the 1931 Type 12 car designed for Zündapp. The first two prototypes were completed in 1935. These were followed by several further pre-production batches during 1936 to 1939. The car was similar to the contemporary designs of Hans Ledwinka of Tatra, in particular the Tatra V570 and Tatra 97. This resulted in a lawsuit against Porsche claiming infringement of Tatra's patents regarding air-cooling of the rear engine. The suit was interrupted by the German invasion of Czechoslovakia: several years after World War II Volkswagen paid a settlement.
Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche died 74 days short of the 50th anniversary of the company, at the age of 88, on 27 March 1998, at the farm in Zell am See, Austria. He was buried there at the Schüttgut church, beside his parents, his wife Dorothea and Anton Piëch. Porsche AG conducted a memorial service soon after in Stuttgart.
Erwin Komenda
Erwin Komenda was born on April 6, 1904 in Jauern am Semmering. His father, Franz Komenda, was the technical director of the first power station on the Semmering and in Weyer / Enns, where the family relocated in 1913.
From 1916 to 1920 he attended a higher technical institute for iron processing in Steyr.
From 1920 to 1926 he worked as an automotive designer in the "Wiener Karosseriefabrik" and completed the bodywork design course at Josef Feldwabel in the Vienna Technological Museum of Commerce.
From 1926 to 1929 he was a designer in the Steyr works. Here he met Ferdinand Porsche for the first time, who came to Steyr as Technical Director after leaving the Daimler-Benz AG.
From 1929 to 1931 he was chief designer of the experimental and body development department of Daimler-Benz AG in Sindelfingen. During this time, cars such as the Mercedes-Benz Mannheim 370 K were built in a remarkably weight-saving design with a new design, equipped with Steyr technology from the Steyr XXX: "swinging-axle suspension, independent suspension, braking systems". Also a streamlined small car with rear engine was developed.
In November 1931 Komenda joined the engineering office newly founded by Ferdinand Porsche as head of the bodywork design department, which he headed until 1966.
Among other things, he developed the body of the VW beetle.
With more than 21.5 million copies, VW Beetle became the best-selling automobile of the 20th century. With a graduate engineer Josef Mickl, a Porsche employee specializing in aircraft construction and aerodynamics, Komenda developed the bodywork of the P-Auto Union racing car and Cisitalia racing car.
As early as 1946 Komenda began work on the body of the first Porsche sports car. He developed the body of the 356, various following types and the Porsche 550 Spyder.
As a responsible Porsche engineer, he led the Stuttgart-based company into the next generation, accompanying and supervising the bodywork production of the Porsche 356, 901, which was further developed for the 911. One of his latest projects was the development of the plastic body of the 904 race car.
Komendas last phase of life was marked by in-house difficulties with Porsche family members during the development of the Porsche 911.
Erwin Komenda died on 22 August 1966. He was an active employee at Porsche until his early, sudden death. His life ended with the development of the Porsche 911.
Porsche 912
In 1963, Porsche assigned Dan Schwartz, later Chief Departmental Manager for Development, Mechanics, a project to oversee design and construction of a new horizontally-opposed four-cylinder engine for the 902, utilizing components from the new 901 six-cylinder engine, that would produce higher performance than their 356SC engine, and be less costly and complex than their Carrera 2 engine. Another option explored by Claus von Rücker was to increase displacement of the 356 Type 616 engine to 1.8 liters, add Kugelfischer fuel injection, and modify both valve and cooling systems. Considering performance, cost, and scheduling, Porsche discontinued both of these design projects, and instead developed a third option, to tailor the 1.6 liter Type 616 engine to the 902.
Before 911 production commenced in 1964, the Porsche Vehicle Research Department had set aside chassis numbers 13328, 13329, 13330, 13352, and 13386 through 13397 for research testing of the 902; research vehicle Serial Number 13394 is the oldest 902 known to exist today. In production form, the Type 912 combined a 911 chassis / bodyshell with the 1.6L, four-cylinder, push-rod Type 616/36 engine, based upon the Type 616/16 engine used in the Type 356SC of 1964-1965. With a lower compression ratio and new Solex carburetors, the Type 616/36 engine produced five less horsepower than the 616/16, but delivered about the same maximum torque at 3,500 rpm versus 4,200 rpm for the 616/16. Compared to the 911, the resulting production Type 912 vehicle demonstrated superior weight distribution, handling, and range. To bring 912 pricing close to the 356, Porsche also deleted some features standard on the 911.
As production of the 356 concluded in 1965, on April 5, 1965 Porsche officially began production of the 912 coupé. Styling, performance, quality construction, reliability, and price made the 912 a very attractive buy to both new and old customers, and it substantially outsold the 911 during the first few years of production. Porsche produced nearly 30,000 912 coupé units and about 2500 912 Targa body style units (Porsche's patented variation of a cabriolet) during a five-year manufacturing run. 
Production of the Targa, complete with removable roof and heavy transparent plastic rear windows openable with a zipper (later called 'Version I' by Porsche and the 'soft-window Targa' by enthusiasts), commenced in December 1966 as a 1967 model. 
In January 1968, Porsche also made available a Targa 'Version II' option ('hard window Targa') with fixed glass rear window, transforming the Targa into a coupé with removable roof.
The 912 was also made in a special version for the German autobahn police (polizei); the 100,000th Porsche car was a 912 Targa for the police of Baden-Württemberg, the home state of Porsche. In the April 1967 edition, the Porsche factory's Christophorus Magazine noted: "On 21 December 1966, Porsche celebrated a particularly proud anniversary. The 100,000th Porsche, a 912 Targa outfitted for the police, was delivered."
Porsche executives decided that after the 1969 model year, continuation of 912 production would not be viable, due to both internal and external factors. First, production facilities used for the 912 were reallocated to a new 914-6, a six-cylinder high performance version of the Porsche 914, Porsche-Volkswagen joint effort vehicle. Second, the 911 platform had returned to Porsche's traditional three performance-level ladder, including a most powerful 911S, a fuel-injected 911E, and a base model 911T, with pricing largely in line with market expectations. Third, more stringent United States engine emission control regulations also had a bearing on the decision; Ferry Porsche stated "It would have taken some trouble to prepare the 912 for the new exhaust rules, and with the arrival of the 914 we would have had three different engines to keep current. That was too many."
Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche (3 September 1875 – 30 January 1951) was an automotive engineer and founder of the Porsche car company. He is best known for creating the first gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle (Lohner-Porsche), the Volkswagen Beetle, the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, several other important developments and Porsche automobiles.
Ferdinand Porsche
A new city, "Stadt des KdF-Wagens" was founded near Fallersleben for the Volkswagen factory, but wartime production concentrated almost exclusively on the military Kübelwagen and Schwimmwagen variants. Mass production of the car, which later became known as the Beetle, began after the end of the war. The city is named Wolfsburg today and is still the headquarters of the Volkswagen Group.
Porsche 356
Prior to World War II Porsche designed and built three Type 64 cars for a 1939 Berlin-to-Rome race that was cancelled. In 1948 the mid-engine, tubular chassis 356 prototype called "No. 1" was completed. This led to some debate as to the "first" Porsche automobile, but the 356 is considered by Porsche to be its first production model.
Porsche Holding
After Ferdinand Porsche was released from a French prison after the war, the production of Porsche 356 was taken over by Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH, in Stuttgart, Germany, and the facility in Salzburg became home to Porsche Konstruktionen as the Austrian importer of Volkswagen and Porsche products in 1949. Ferry Porsche joined his father's company in Stuttgart, while the Austrian operation was left with Anton Piëch and Louise Piëch, who managed it to become the largest car dealership chain in Austria by 1957.
Ulrich W. Schiefer
In 2001, Schiefer founded the Porsche Engineering Group Holding, under whose umbrella all development activities of Porsche for internal and external customers were concentrated. He thereupon was both managing director of the PEG and the biggest subsidiary of PEG “Porsche Engineering Services GmbH” based in Bietigheim. Moreover, he was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Porsche Engineering Services based in Detroit (with a design studio in California) and was member of the advisory board of the Porsche Consulting GmbH, Zuffenhausen.
Porsche family
Ferdinand Porsche was born to a German-speaking family of Maffersdorf, Bohemia, son of Anton Porsche (1845-1908) and Anna Ehrlich. The Sudeten German surname "Porsche" can be traced to the 18th century in the area of Reichenberg (now Liberec), Bohemia. The surname originates with the German word "Bursche" ("boy, young man, apprentice, farmhand") and is on record in northern Bohemia in various spellings ("Porsch, Borsche, Borsch, Bursche, Bursch, Pursch, Pursche", etc.) from the early 17th century.
Porsche
Porsche won the J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study (IQS) in 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2014.
Porsche in motorsport
The Porsche 917 is considered one of the most iconic racing cars of all time and gave Porsche their first 24 Hours of Le Mans win, while open-top versions of it dominated Can-Am racing. After dominating Group 4, 5, and 6 racing in the 1970s with the 911-based 934 and 935 and the prototype 936, Porsche moved on to dominate Group C and IMSA GTP in the 1980s with the Porsche 956/962C, one of the most prolific and successful sports prototype racers ever produced.
Porsche family
The Porsche family is a prominent Austrian family of industrialists descending from the automotive pioneer Ferdinand Porsche. Its members have full ownership of the Porsche SE automobile company and majority voting rights over Volkswagen AG, the biggest automaker in the world.
Porsche (surname)
Porsche is a German surname, well known with its connection to the car company of the same name.
Porsche 917
This was the original Porsche 917 made by Porsche from 1968 to 1969 to comply with the CSI rules about entering a car in the World Sportscar Championship. This car was first run at Le Mans and had considerable handling problems due to aerodynamic lift. The original specification of the car included a detachable long-tail (Langheck), that was designed using experience from the previous 907 long-tail coupes for minimum aerodynamic drag (with suspension controlled moving flaps). A short-tail version was run at the 1969 Nurburgring 1000 km, which had no moving flaps and a full-width rear spoiler. None of the early specification 917s are known to have survived with this bodywork - all being converted at a later stage to the vastly improved 1970-spec Kurzheck or Langheck specifications. One 917L is known to have been destroyed (917L-005 - J.Woolfe) at Le Mans and one or two others simply location unknown although many suspect some were scrapped by the factory as being 'tired chassis' with new replacements being built when needed by customers.
Lohner-Werke
In 1887 Jacob Lohner's son Ludwig Lohner (1858–1925) took over the company. He decided that self-powered cars were the future, initially working with Béla Egger, and in 1898 hiring Ferdinand Porsche (from Béla Egger's electricity company). During his employment Porsche designed a number of vehicles. The Lohner Porsche chaise was powered by batteries, with two front wheel electric motors mounted in the wheel hubs. One of his electric vehicles was a popular exhibit at the "Exposition Universelle" (Paris world fair, 1900). Porsche later developed petrol-engined cars with electric transmissions, some versions of which had additional batteries. Vehicles using the petrol electric transmission with hub motors were sold to the German army and to the Viennese fire brigade. Porsche left the Lohner company in 1905, and joined Daimler affiliate company "Österreichische Daimler Motoren Commanditgesellschaft Bierenz Fischer & Co."; vehicles were later built using the Lohner Porsche system under the Mercedes brand of Daimler.
In 1909, the firm undertook aircraft manufacture, producing reconnaissance aircraft for the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War, and a series of flying-boat patrol aircraft for the Navy, which were later copied by the Italian Macchi aviation firm for the Italian military in World War I. Lohner also produced aircraft for the budding Spanish Air Force.
Porsche P1
The Porsche P1, otherwise known as the Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model, is the world's first Porsche. It was designed by Ferdinand Porsche and is considered to be the first stepping stone for him before he and his son created the company, Porsche. The vehicle resembles a wooden crate or an old horse-drawn carriage but it is actually an electrically motored vehicle.
Porsche 962
When the Porsche 956 was developed in late 1981, the intention of Porsche was to run the car in both the World Sportscar Championship and the North American IMSA GTP Championship. However IMSA GTP regulations differed from Group C and subsequently the 956 was banned in the US series on safety grounds as the driver's feet were ahead of the front axle center line.
Porsche 962
The Porsche 962 (also known as the 962C in its Group C form) is a sports-prototype racing car built by Porsche as a replacement for the 956 and designed mainly to comply with IMSA's GTP regulations, although it would later compete in the European Group C formula as the 956 had. The 962 was introduced at the end of 1984, from which it quickly became successful through private owners while having a remarkably long-lived career, with some examples still proving competitive into the mid-1990s. The vehicle was later replaced by the Porsche WSC-95.
Ferdinand Porsche
In 1906, Austro-Daimler recruited Porsche as their chief designer. Porsche's best known Austro-Daimler car was designed for the Prince Henry Trial in 1910, named after Wilhelm II's younger brother Prince Heinrich of Prussia. Examples of this streamlined, 85 horsepower (63 kW) car won the first three places, and the car is still better known by the nickname "Prince Henry" than by its model name "Modell 27/80". He also created a 30 horsepower model called the Maja, named after Mercedes Jellinek's younger sister, Andrée Maja (or Maia) Jellinek.
Porsche 924
The 924 was originally a joint project of Volkswagen and Porsche created by the Vertriebsgesellschaft (VG), the joint sales and marketing company funded by Porsche and VW to market and sell sports cars (Ludvigsen: "Porsche, Excellence was Expected"). For Volkswagen, it was intended to be that company's flagship coupé sports car and was dubbed "Project 425" during its development. For Porsche, it was to be its entry-level sports car replacing the 914. At the time, Volkswagen lacked a significant internal research and design division for developing sports cars; further, Porsche had been doing the bulk of the company's development work anyway, per a deal that went back to the 1940s. In keeping with this history, Porsche was contracted to develop a new sporting vehicle with the caveat that this vehicle must work with an existing VW/Audi inline-four engine. Porsche chose a rear-wheel drive layout and a rear-mounted transaxle for the design to help provide 48/52 front/rear weight distribution; this slight rear weight bias aided both traction and brake balance.
Porsche 930
Porsche began experimenting with turbocharging technology on their race cars during the late 1960s, and in 1972 began development on a turbocharged version of the 911. Porsche originally needed to produce the car in order to comply with homologation regulations and had intended on marketing it as a street legal race vehicle like the 1973 Carrera 2.7 RS. The FIA's Appendix “J” rules that brought about the 911 Turbo Carrera RSR 2.1 in 1974 changed in 1975 and 1976. The FIA announced that cars for Group 4 and Group 5 had to be production cars and be available for sale to individual purchasers through manufacturer dealer networks. For the 1976 season, new FIA regulations required manufacturers to produce 400 cars within a twenty-four month period to gain approval for Group 4. Group 5 would require the car to be derived from a homologated model in Group 3 or 4. Porsche's Group 4 entry was the 934, homologated on 6 December 1975. For Group 5, Porsche would create one of the most successful racing cars of all time, the 935. The 911 Turbo was put into production in 1975. While the original purpose of the 911 Turbo was to gain homologation for the 1976 racing season, it quickly became popular among car enthusiasts. Four-hundred cars were produced by the end of 1975. Since Porsche wanted to be racing for the 1976 season, they gained FIA homologation for the Porsche Turbo for Group 4 in Nr. 645 on 6 Dec 1975 and the 1,000th 911 Turbo was completed on 5 May 1976.
Porsche
According to CNBC, even an at-the-time questionable foray into the SUV market with the Cayenne in 2003 could not damage Porsche credibility. In 2009, "The Times" journalist Andrew Frankel says on one level, it is the world's best 4x4; on another, it is the cynical exploitation of a glorious brand that risks long-term damage to that brand's very identity in the pursuit of easy money with his verdict being "Great car, if only it wasn't a Porsche".
Porsche 904
The Porsche 904 is an automobile which was produced by Porsche in Germany in 1964 and 1965. It was officially called Porsche Carrera GTS due to the same naming rights problem that required renaming the Porsche 901 to Porsche 911.
Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche
In view of this new stabilized situation, "junior" Ferdinand Porsche decided to reestablish the headquarters of the "Porsche" at Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. Though, the old original "Porsche" 's facilities were occupied by American forces. Nonetheless, he rented some workshops then from the company "Reutter" (which was a constructor of bodies for automobiles). He brought most of his employees and opened on September 1949. Their first work was the development of an engine which was called "Carrera".
Porsche 997
Porsche 997 is the internal designation for the Porsche 911 sports car manufactured and sold by German manufacturer Porsche between 2004 (as Model Year 2005) and 2012. Production of the Carrera and Carrera S coupés began in early 2004, all-wheel drive Carrera 4 and Carrera 4S began to be delivered to customers in November 2005, the Turbo and GT3 derivatives went on sale in late 2006 and the GT2 in 2007. In addition to the coupé and cabriolet versions, Targa versions of the Carrera 4 and Carrera 4S were also available, which carry on with the "glass canopy" roof design used since its first application on the 993 until the 991, which reverted to the classic targa top layout used on the early 911 Targas.
Ferdinand Oliver Porsche
Ferdinand Oliver Porsche (born 13 March 1961 in Stuttgart), son of Ferdinand Alexander Porsche and great-grandson of automotive pioneer Ferdinand Porsche is an Austrian entrepreneur and member of the Supervisory Boards within the Volkswagen Group. He completed his legal studies with a Doctor‘s Degree in Law from the University of Salzburg, subsequently taking his MBA at the University of Toronto.
Porsche
At the end of World War II in 1945, the Volkswagen factory at KdF-Stadt fell to the British. Ferdinand lost his position as Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen, and Ivan Hirst, a British Army Major, was put in charge of the factory. (In Wolfsburg, the Volkswagen company magazine dubbed him "The British Major who saved Volkswagen".) On 15 December of that year, Ferdinand was arrested for war crimes, but not tried. During his 20-month imprisonment, Ferdinand Porsche's son, Ferry Porsche, decided to build his own car, because he could not find an existing one that he wanted to buy. He also had to steer the company through some of its most difficult days until his father's release in August 1947. The first models of what was to become the 356 were built in a small sawmill in Gmünd, Austria. The prototype car was shown to German auto dealers, and when pre-orders reached a set threshold, production (with aluminium body) was begun by Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH founded by Ferry and Louise. Many regard the 356 as the first Porsche simply because it was the first model "sold" by the fledgling company. After the production of 356 was taken over by the father's Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH in Stuttgart in 1950, Porsche commissioned a Zuffenhausen-based company, "Reutter Karosserie", which had previously collaborated with the firm on Volkswagen Beetle prototypes, to produce the 356's steel body. In 1952, Porsche constructed an assembly plant (Werk 2) across the street from "Reutter Karosserie"; the main road in front of Werk 1, the oldest Porsche building, is now known as Porschestrasse. The 356 was road certified in 1948.
Porsche 356
From the earliest, 1,100 cc Gmünd beginnings, the overall shape of the 356 remained more or less set. In 1951, 1,300 and 1,500 cc engines with considerably more power were introduced. By late 1952 the divided windscreen was gone, replaced by a V-shaped unit which fit into the same opening. In 1953, the 1300 S or "Super" was introduced, and the 1,100 cc engine was dropped. In late-1954 Max Hoffman, the sole US importer of Porsches, convinced Porsche to build a stripped down roadster version with minimal equipment and a cut-down windscreen. Towards the end of the original 356's time (in 1955, when the 356 A was about to be introduced) Hoffman, wanting a model name rather than just a number, got the factory to use the name "Continental" which was applied mostly to cars sold in the United States. Ford, makers of the Lincoln Continental, sued. This name was used only in 1955 and today this version is especially valued. For 1956, the equivalent version was briefly sold as the "European". Today all of the earliest Porsches are highly coveted by collectors and enthusiasts worldwide based on their design, reliability and sporting performance.
Porsche 911 GT2
The Porsche GT2 comes from a long line of 911 Porsche Turbo racing cars in international motorsports. Starting with the 1974 911 Carrera turbo for Group5 racing, followed by the 934 (a racing version of the 930) for Group4 racing, then the famous Porsche 935 which dominated Group5 and IMSA racing through 1984. In 1986 a Porsche 961 (racing version of the 959) would be created with little racing success but a leap forward in technology and development such as AWD, 4 valves per cylinder and water-cooled heads (which first appeared in the 1978 Porsche 935 Moby-Dick, used in the Porsche 956/962 GroupC prototypes and then in the 959/961). In 1993, Porsche had experimented with the extensively modified turbo 964, named the Turbo S LM-GT. Seeing the car's potential to be fast and reliable, as well as customer demand for a car to replace the 964 Carrera RSRs, Porsche chose to develop the turbocharged 993 for customer use.
Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche
Following his father's death in 1951, Ferry Porsche was the most responsible official of the company, as general manager, the chairman of the board of management. In 1972, he decided to transform the "Porsche Company" (which was a limited partnership) into a public concern, also by merging all the three enterprises which constituted it:
Additionally, Ferdinand Porsche stepped down from the chairmanship and became honorary chairman of the supervisory board. In fact, he continued controlling the company as such. He remained in that position until his death In 1998. Ferdinand Alexander Porsche took his place as general manager.
Porsche Junioren
The Porsche Junioren () are a team of young racing drivers, employed by Porsche and driving for various private teams, as Porsche officially retired from factory racing after winning the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans overall with the Porsche 911 GT1. The current Porsche Junioren are Sven Muller of Germany, Matteo Cairoli of Italy, Mathieu Jaminet of the France, and Dennis Olsen of Norway.
Michael Macht
Macht was born in Stuttgart, Germany on 28 August 1960. He studied mechanical engineering at the University of Stuttgart and then worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering, before joining Porsche in 1990, at first a specialist for engine planning. He later became assistant to the chairman of the management board, and in 1994 he was made managing director of Porsche Consulting. In 1998 he was appointed to the board of Porsche AG, responsible for production and logistics. Macht was also directly involved in the design of Porsche's most controversial models, the Cayenne and the Panamera. In July 2009 he was appointed chairman of the management board of Porsche AG, as successor to Wendelin Wiedeking.
Porsche in motorsport
The various versions of the Porsche 911 proved to be a serious competitor in rallies. The Porsche works team was occasionally present in rallying from the 1960s to late 1970s. In 1967 the Polish driver Sobiesław Zasada drove a 912 to capture the European Rally Championship for Group 1 series touring cars. Porsche took three double wins in a row in the Monte Carlo Rally; in 1968 with Vic Elford and Pauli Toivonen, and in 1969 and 1970 with Björn Waldegård and Gérard Larrousse. In 1970, Porsche also edged Alpine-Renault to win the International Championship for Manufacturers (IMC), the predecessor to the World Rally Championship (WRC). Porsche's first podium finish in the WRC was Leo Kinnunen's third place at the 1973 1000 Lakes Rally.
Porsche Design
In 2015, the Design Studio changed its name to "Studio F. A. Porsche" in memory of its founder Ferdinand Alexander Porsche.
Porsche Museum, Stuttgart
The original Porsche museum opened in 1976 in a side-road near the Porsche factory. It was a relatively small "works museum" with little parking space and it was only big enough to hold around 20 exhibits (in rotation).
Ferdinand Porsche
In 1932, Auto Union Gmbh was formed, consisting of struggling auto manufacturers Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer. The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Baron Klaus von Oertzen wanted a showpiece project, so at fellow director Adolf Rosenberger's insistence, von Oertzen met with Porsche, who had done work for him before. At the 1933 Berlin Motor Show German Chancellor Adolf Hitler announced his intention to motorize the nation, with every German owning either a car or a tractor in the future, and unveiled two new programs: the "people's car" and a state-sponsored motor racing programme to develop a "high speed German automotive industry"; to initiate this, Mercedes-Benz were to be given an annual grant of 500,000 Reichsmark.
Porsche Carrera
Carrera (Spanish for "race" and "career") is a brand of Porsche automobile. The name commemorates the company's success in the Carrera Panamericana race.
Porsche
The two companies collaborated in 1969 to make the VW-Porsche 914 and 914-6, whereby the 914-6 had a Porsche engine, and the 914 had a Volkswagen engine. Further collaboration in 1976 resulted in the Porsche 912E (US only) and the Porsche 924, which used many Audi components, and was built at Audi's Neckarsulm factory, which had been NSU's. Porsche 944s were also built there, although they used far fewer Volkswagen components. The Cayenne, introduced in 2002, shares its chassis with the Volkswagen Touareg and the Audi Q7, which is built at the Volkswagen Group factory in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche
Following his father's old aspiration, Ferdinand Porsche designed the Porsche 356, with a unique chassis and body while using Volkswagen components. The 356 had an air-cooled, rear-mounted, 4-cylinder engine producing 35 hp. Due to the location of its engine, the car was a little unstable but the balance favored potency and light weight.
Graham McRae
McRae followed this up in 1993 with a replica of the Porsche 356 Speedster. It was based around a 2.0-litre Porsche 914 with a five-speed gearbox. McRae had imported a Porsche 356 Speedster from Vintage Speedsters of California to make the moulds for his production kits. Being a technical perfectionist, McRae's Spyder is an accurate replica of original built by Porsche in 1954 and 1955. Some McRae Spyders are powered by a Subaru engine. In June 2000 McRae set up the New Zealand based McRae Cars Ltd. Since his illness in 2003 no more of these cars have been made and the existing 38 models are in high demand. The company was stuck off the register in June 2003.
Porsche 356
The last revision of the 356 was the 356 C introduced for the 1964 model year. It featured disc brakes all around, as well as an option for the most powerful pushrod engine Porsche had ever produced, the "SC". Production of the 356 peaked at 14,151 cars in 1964, the year that its successor, the new 911, was introduced to the US market (it was introduced slightly earlier in Europe). The company continued to sell the 356 C in North America through 1965 as demand for the model remained quite strong in the early days of the heavier and more "civilized" 911. The last ten 356s (cabriolets) were assembled for the Dutch police force in March 1966 as 1965 models.
The 356 originated as a coupé only 1948-1955. Over time a variety of other styles appeared, including roadster, convertible, cabriolet, and a very rare split-roof.
Porsche P1
In the year 1898, Ferdinand Porsche designed his first ever car and named it the Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model or "P1" for short. The short form of the car "P1" came from Ferdinand Porsche who made sure that he would be credited for his design and work of the vehicle, hence he engraved the code "P1" which stood for Porsche number 1, onto all of the key components of the vehicle. The P1 was originally created for a car maker company by the name of Jacob Lohner. Ludwig Lohner, the owner of Jacob Lohner became convinced after seeing Ferdinand Porsche that the age of horse and carriage was over, requested Ferdinand Porsche to create an electric drive train. On June 26, 1898, the P1 officially rolled out to the streets of Vienna, Austria. On September 28, 1899, Ferdinand Porsche entered the Berlin road race with the P1, where it won the gold medal and crossed the finish line 18 minutes before the second car did. With such shocking results from the P1, it had also won another title where the P1 came out on top in the efficiency test, where it is recorded as the lowest energy consumption vehicle in urban traffic.
Recaro
Founded in 1906 by Wilhelm Reutter as "Reutter Carosserie-Werke", the company became known for building limousine bodies during the 1920s. In 1930 they started producing bodies for the Volkswagen Beetle, and in 1949 Porsche began engaging the company to build their Porsche 356 sports car bodies.
Due to new manufacturing methods, the market for car bodies went downhill in the 1950s, and Reutter found himself on hard times.
Porsche 911 (classic)
Starting in MY 1978, the new 3.0 L 911 SC (2,994 cc) was now the basic 911 model. It was in effect a Carrera 3 (known as a 911S in the United States) detuned to provide . The "SC" designation was reintroduced by Porsche for the first time since the 356 SC (as distinguished from the race-engined 356 Carrera). No Carrera versions were produced and the 930 Turbo remaining at the top of the range. Porsche’s engineers felt that the weight of the extra luxury, safety and emissions equipment on these cars was blunting performance compared to the earlier, lighter cars with the same power output, so in non-US cars, power was increased to for 1980, then finally to . However, cars sold in the US market retained their lower-compression engines throughout. This enabled them to be run on lower-octane fuel.
Porsche 986
The Porsche 986 is the internal designation for the first generation Boxster, a mid-engined two-seater roadster built by Porsche. Introduced in late 1996, the Boxster, based on the 1993 Boxster Concept, was Porsche's first road vehicle to be originally designed as a roadster since the 550 Spyder. Powered by a 2.5-litre flat six-cylinder engine, the base model was upgraded to a 2.7-litre engine in the year 2000 and a new Boxster S variant was introduced with a 3.2-litre engine. In 2003, styling and engine output was upgraded on both variants.
Project 1 Motorsport
Project 1 Motorsport, formerly known as tolimit Motorsport, is a German auto racing team founded by Hans-Bernd Kamps and Jörg Michaels in 1993 to compete in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany and later the Porsche Supercup. Based in Lohne, the team has won eighteen championships in the two Porsche series, and has expanded in 2018 to the FIA World Endurance Championship. The team changed their name from tolimit Motorsport to Project 1 in 2013. Deutsche Post has sponsored the team since 1998.
Ferdinand Alexander Porsche
Ferdinand Alexander Porsche (11 December 1935 – 5 April 2012), nicknamed "Butzi", son of Ferry Porsche, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, was a German designer whose best known product was the first Porsche 911.
Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche
After World War II, while his father remained imprisoned in France being accused of war crimes, Ferry Porsche ran their company. Aided by the postwar Volkswagen enterprise, he created the first cars that were uniquely associated with the company. Despite the political-economical adversities of the postwar years, the company manufactured automobiles and, eventually, became a world powerhouse for producing sports cars.
Ferdinand Alexander Porsche
When it came to the designworks of the coachwork for the company's most successful car so far, the Porsche 911, Ferdinand Alexander was heavily involved, as it was family tradition that every generation of the Porsche family took part in the genesis of a new car generation. Ferry Porsche wished the successor of his 356 should provide more space and comfort in the cabin, though he was also cited as saying, "Comfort is not what makes driving fun, it is more on the opposite." The trunk, especially, should have provided more space. Ferdinand Alexander's first drafts were well accepted, but Komenda made unapproved changes over the objections of Ferdinand and Ferry . Ferry set the main attributes concerning wheelbase, power figures and suspension and after Komenda still did not cooperate, he took F.A.'s drawings to the coachwork manufacturer Reutter across the street. They gave the actual shape to the 901 as it was presented at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show. The original project code 901 was changed to 911 after intervention of Peugeot who had a trademark protection on three-number-combinations with "0" in the middle. Production began in 1964.
Porsche 928
By the late 1960s Porsche had firmly established itself as a manufacturer of high-performance sports cars. Executives, including owner Ferdinand Porsche, were beginning to consider adding a luxury touring car to the line-up. Managing director Ernst Fuhrmann was pressuring Ferdinand to approve development of the new model due to concerns that the then-current flagship model, the 911, was reaching the limits of its potential. Slumping sales of the 911 seemed to confirm that the model was approaching the end of its economic life cycle. Fuhrmann envisioned the new range-topping gran turismo model as being the best possible combination of a sports coupé and a luxury sedan. This would set it apart from the 911, with a relatively spartan interior and true sports car performance.
Porsche in motorsport
In the late 1950s the Porsche 718 RSK, a two-seater sports car, was entered in Formula Two races, as rules permitted this, and lap times were promising. The 718 was first modified by moving the seat into the center of the car, and subsequently proper open wheelers were built. These 1500 cc cars enjoyed some success. The former F2 cars were moved up to Formula One in 1961, where Porsche's outdated design was not competitive. For , a newly developed flat-eight powered and sleek Porsche 804 produced Porsche's only win as a constructor in a championship race, claimed by Dan Gurney at the 1962 French Grand Prix. One week later, he repeated the success in front of Porsche's home crowd on Stuttgart's Solitude in a non-championship race. At the end of the season, Porsche withdrew from F1 due to the high costs, just having acquired the Reutter factory. Volkswagen and German branches of suppliers had no interest in an F1 commitment as this series was too far away from road cars. Privateers continued to enter the out-dated Porsche 718 in F1 until 1964.
Porsche 356/1
The Porsche 356/1 was the first real Porsche car created by Ferdinand "Ferry" Porsche. This prototype car was a two-seater open roadster with a mid-mounted, air-cooled flat-4 engine of 1,131 cc displacement that produced . While the body was an original design, most of the mechanicals (including engine and suspension) were derived from the Volkswagen Beetle which Ferry's father, Ferdinand Porsche, had designed.
Porsche Club of America
The club was founded in 1955 in Washington, D.C.
Porsche 356/1
The aluminum roadster body of the 356/1 was designed by Porsche employee Erwin Komenda in April 1948 at Gmünd and completed only a month later. Smooth and low, the 356/1 set the pattern for later 356s with one fundamental difference; the engine of the production cars was moved behind the rear axle (to reduce costs and make room for two additional seats). The car was registered by the state of Carinthia ("Kärnten") with the license plate K45-286 and made its maiden voyage on June 8, 1948.
Only one 356/1 was made and it is on display at the Porsche Museum, Stuttgart.
Wendelin Wiedeking
A mechanical engineer by training, he joined Porsche in 1983, aged 31. After a stint at Wiesbaden based Glyco AG, a subsidiary of auto-parts maker Federal-Mogul, he returned to Porsche as head of production in 1991, taking over two years later as Chairman (CEO) when Porsche was close to bankruptcy. Due to Porsche's large shareholding in Volkswagen, Wiedeking also found himself on the supervisory board of that company. Some industry analysts believed that Porsche could not survive on its own, but Wiedeking, who says he made his first million by the age of 30 with real estate investments, took on the challenge.
Porsche 911
In 1978, Porsche introduced the new version of the 911, called the '911SC'. Porsche reintroduced the SC designation for the first time since the 356SC (as distinguished from the race engined 356 Carrera). There was no Carrera version of the 911SC. The "SC" stands for "Super Carrera". It featured a 3.0-litre aluminum engine with Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection and a 5-speed 915 transmission. Originally power output was , later and then in 1981 it was increased to . The move to an aluminum engine was to regain case reliability, something missing for many years with magnesium. In 1981 a Cabriolet concept car was introduced at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The convertible body design also featured four-wheel drive, although this was dropped in the production version. The first 911 Cabriolet debuted in late 1982, as a 1983 model. This was Porsche's first cabriolet since the 356 of the mid-1960s. A total of 4,214 were sold in its introductory year, despite its premium price relative to the open-top targa. Cabriolet versions of the 911 have been offered ever since.
Ferdinand Porsche
The Porsche family returned to Stuttgart in 1949 not knowing how to restart their business. The banks would not give them credit, as the company's plant was still under American embargo and could not serve as collateral. So Ferry Porsche took one of the limited series 356 models from Gmünd and visited Volkswagen dealers to raise some orders. He asked the dealers to pay for the ordered cars in advance.
Group 5 (racing)
Starting in July 1968, Porsche made a surprising and very expensive effort to take advantage of this rule. As they were rebuilding race cars with new chassis every race or two anyway, they decided to conceive, design and build 25 versions of a whole new car for the Sport category with one underlying goal: to win its first overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In only ten months the Porsche 917 was developed, based upon the Porsche 908, with remarkable technology: Porsche's first 12-cylinder engine, and many components made of titanium, magnesium and exotic alloys that had been developed for lightweight hillclimb racers. Other ways of weight reduction were rather simple, like a gear lever knob made of Balsa wood.
Porsche 911 (classic)
In 1974 Porsche introduced the first production turbocharged 911. Although called simply Porsche 911 Turbo in Europe, it was marketed as the Porsche 930 (930 being its internal type number) in North America. The body shape is distinctive, thanks to wide wheel-arches to accommodate the wide tires, and a large rear spoiler often known as a "whale tail" on the early cars, and "tea-tray" on the later ones. Starting out with a 3.0 L engine producing , it rose to 3.3 L and for 1978. The early cars are known for their exhilarating acceleration coupled with challenging handling characteristics and extreme turbo lag.
Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche
The first units were manufactured in 1962. However, Peugeot pushed legally for a change of the name, due to its registered trademark on automobile names with a "zero amid two numbers". The model was renamed "Porsche 911". Over time, it has evolved, but still kept the general shape and architecture since the beginning with a rear-mounted high-performance engine. On the 11th of May 2017, the millionth example was built.
Sports car
In Germany the motor industry was devastated by the war, however a small number of manufacturers brought it to prominence once more. In 1948-9 the first Porsche appeared under the aegis of Dr. Ferry Porsche, son of Ferdinand Porsche. In 1957, author John Stanford wrote that the original Porsche 356 was "an 1100-c.c. version of the Volkswagen, itself a [pre-war] Porsche design, differing only in the most elegant, light and low-drag coachwork which has since become familiar. Since then numerous design changes have taken place and except for general layout the car has little in common with its parent. All models except the sports-racing "Carerra" and "Spyder" have had an opposed four-cylinder air-cooled engine set behind and driving the rear axle, a four-speed gearbox with Porsche's own excellent synchromesh, and laminated torsion bar suspension to all wheels. The short stroke of the engines has meant exceptionally long life and hard-wearing qualities, and the beautifully profiled coachwork has led to exceptionally refined high performance in view of their modest engine size. This has been progressively increased to the current 1488-c.c. and 1582-c.c. sizes, and the cars are geared to sustain cruising speeds comfortably near their top speed, which varies between 90 and 110 mph; the most popular of the series weighs only 16 cwt. As much as any current production car the Porsche represents to the smallest detail the very definite ideas of its designers as to what constitutes agreeable fast motoring. Future historians must see them as among the most important of mid-century production cars." Stanford thought the contemporary German Mercedes 300SL just as remarkable, and it is covered in the accompanying grand tourer article.
Ferdinand Porsche (disambiguation)
Ferdinand Porsche (1875–1951) was an automotive engineer and founder of the Porsche car company.
Porsche SE
When the European Union was founded in 1993, a European Union law was signed with the principles to promote free movement of goods, people and capital within the Union. It became somewhat clear that the anti-takeover measure (the 80% agreement requirement) in Volkswagen Law would violate the European company law (as a part of the EU law), and it was feared that suitors would eventually be able to take over Volkswagen AG, as amendments to the German law and the bylaws of VW AG were seen to be likely.