Porsche

History

Ferdinand Porsche was born in 1875. Undoubtedly, he was one of the greatest engineers in automotive history. First emerged as a designer for electric cars, then joined Daimler in 1906 to start his motor car engineering career. During his golden years, he designed the famous Mercedes SSK, the Auto Union GP racer (the first mid-engine car, with a V16 engine) and the "People?s car" which evolved to Volkswagen Beetle after the war. His talent also expended to the military area like tanks, aero engines and military trucks. Therefore he was jailed after the war until 1947, four years before his death.

Back in 1931, he created the company bearing his name. However, in then the company Porsche was an engineering consultant instead of a car maker.

As the old Dr. Porsche was half retired after WW II, his son Ferry succeeded the job. Ferry Porsche had been trained in Bosch and effectively took over his father?s position when the latter was still in jail. In order to raise money for releasing his father and his sister?s husband, Piech (who was the father of Ferdinand Piech, the current CEO of Volkswagen), Ferry Porsche designed a Grand Prix car for Cisitalia. The car was powered by a 12-cylinder boxer engine with 4-valves head and supercharger.

At the same time, he also started working on his own car. Both Porsches designed many cars for others, but a car bearing their family name did not appear until 1950, that was the 356. The car was designed with reliability and price very much in mind. For cheap and reliable sourcing of parts, the rear suspension and engine were carried over from the Beetle. However, the air cooled engine received some modifications, hence more power.

The car turned out to be more popular than expected, thanks to its elegant build and good look. During the production run of 15 years, some 76,000 cars were produced. Anyway, the Volkswagen root prevent the car from upgrading any more, so Ferry Porsche started working on an even faster, better and more expensive model, 911, which was launched in 1964.

First to be noticed is the use of Porsche?s own boxer engine, now with 6 cylinders and a full 2-litre displacement, and its own synchromesh 5-speed gearbox. The car was styled by Ferry?s eldest son, Butzi Porsche. As you must know, the 911 achieved even greater success with 400,000 units built in 34 years. It was also regarded as the most successful sports car in history.

The 911 received many update and upgrade through the years. However, there were times the company itself thought the car could be no longer upgraded. That called for a successor to be developed in the early 70?s. That was the frong-engined, V8-powered 928. When it was launched in 1977, it won the European Car of The Year award. However, the company soon realised that the car was too heavy and too expensive to be a real successor to the 911. Therefore it gradually evolved into a luxurious Grand Tourer.

At the same time, a smaller car called 924 was developing as a reaction to oil crisis. The front-engined 2+2 was powered by a 2-litre inline-4. Launched in 1976, it became a hit. In later years it was further developed into 944 and then 968 until the final curtain dropped in 1995.

As a result, from the late 70?s to the late 80?s, Porsche had its golden years with a model line up consisted of a trio - the four-cylinder 924 / 944, the six-cylinder 911 and the 8-cylinder 928. The all-time sales record of over 50,000 units was recorded in the mid-80?s.

Right after the peak was several years of sales slump, mostly due to the rising Deutsch mark and high salary which made Porsche's cars too expensive to be affordable, especially is under the competition from Japanese coupes. The situation once became so worse that the company was struggling for survival. Both the 928 and 924 were too old and had to be retired. A 4-doors sports sedan named 989 was developed as the successor to the 928, but the top management thought the expensive car was so risky - if it failed, the company would have got into bankruptcy. Therefore the 989 project was axed at the last minute although the development had nearly finished. That was the blackest days for Porsche.

However, the decision seemed correct as the company chose to build a cheap and small roadster instead. That is today's Boxster (986). It shares one-third components with the all-new generation 911, thus saves considerable cost. Both cars were received well by the market right from the start. In addition to the softened Deutsch mark and the fall of Japanese car makers, Porsche became profitable again.