Porsche Introduction and History

- Porsche name became one of the biggest names for the sporty cars.

- The story of the Porsche as a brand name started in Austria in 1946, after the end of hostilities in Europe. Although Ferdinand Porsche and his adult son Ferry were non-combatants and had no real connection with the Nazi government, the French occupation forces imprisoned both of them for collaborating with the German war effort. The father had been a well-known industrial and race car designer in the '20s and '30s and while in prison, French authorities forced him to work up the design of the Renault 4CV. This subsequently popular French car carried the same design parameters as the Volkswagen which was at the time being built in Germany under the auspices of the British military government.

- Ferry Porsche was released by the French in the middle of 1946 but his father was incarcerated until the end of 1948. Upon his release, the younger Porsche returned to the family design firm in Austria and gathered around him a cadre of skilled designers and fabricators. The first order of business was to design and build a sports car to showcase the firm's creative talents.

- That first Porsche was dubbed the 356 and utilized Volkswagen components, (air-cooled horizontally-opposed four cylinder engine, fully independent suspension, four-speed transaxle, etc.) since they were, in truth, Porsche designs. The engine was modified for more power, rotated and placed midship behind the passenger compartment but in front of the rear axle, while the differential ring gear was flipped over to provide four forward speeds. These components were brought together in a very modern "space" frame (a design common in aircraft but rare in the automotive field) and wrapped in a hand- hammered aluminum aerodynamic open roadster body not unlike the current Boxster.

- Realizing that their design was too costly to produce and too race- oriented for universal consumption, the team turned its talents to producing a car that could be sold to the public. The engine was returned to the rear of the car and a steel platform chassis replaced the tubular space frame. Clothed in coupe and convertible cabriolet bodies, the "civilized" version of the Porsche 356 became an overnight success with European sports car enthusiasts. Just four cars were built in 1948, 25 more in 1949 and another 18 the following year.

- In 1964, Porsche introduced its 911 model to the automotive world and although it was modernized and refined to keep it contemporary with the competition, its aerodynamic two-door coupe design was unmistakably the successor to the original 356. It differed from the earlier car in many ways, including the fact that its overhead cam, flat-opposed, air-cooled engine carried six cylinders rather than the previous four although the aberrant 912 version carried the pushrod VW-based four-cylinder engine. To say that it has been a success is an understatement and I use the present tense here because the Porsche 911 is still in production virtually unchanged (but highly refined) 34 years later. It's only for the 1999 model year that the 911 will be radically altered in its running gear and body design. Even then, the new-millenia Porsche 911 will remain identifiable as a Porsche.

- Over the years the company has made other models with water-cooled engines mounted in front and has even ventured into the world of purpose-built open-wheeled race car design. But the 356/911 coupe body style is the design the public will always link to the Porsche name.

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