Ferdinand Porsche was an automobile engineer with more than a thousand patents to his name, and played an important role in the development of airplanes and the development of tanks for the Wehrmacht too. In the 1920s he was allocated chief engineer at Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart and later set up his own engineering workshop. There he designed, among other things, the Volkswagen. He acted as chief of operations at the plant where the Volkswagen was made, Wolfsburg, and at the end of the war he was interned by the Allies.
He was released some years after and right away went to work building his first automobile with his boy, Ferry Porsche. This vehicle was named the Porsche 356, after Ferry, and was a sports vehicle with styling harking back to the Volkswagen. In fact it had the same four-cylinder fighter engine, and wore it rear-mounted, just as the VW did. This meant that it was very far from being a robust sports automobile, offering a mere forty bhp and a maximum speed of 87 mph (140 km/h). Distinguished by its elegant and innovative body, the Porsche 356 was first produced as a convertible and then as a hard produced as a convertible and son developed it in the workshop of Erwin Komenda, a master of restrained streamlining who had been in charge of sheet metal and design techniques for Ferdinand Porsche since the VW Beetle. This new style of closed coupe since the embodiment of the sports car, due in part to its “fastback”.
Erwin Komenda and Ferdinand “Butzi” Porsche, the founder’s grandson, continued this tradition with the 911.
The 911 became instantly recognizable: it had an attractive sloping bonnet reminiscent of the 356, what later became characterized as “frog eye” headlights, curves running from the top edge of the windscreen to the rear bumper, and a straight waistline. From a functional and technical point of view it shared more in common with a BMW from the distinctive stylistic features of the original Porsche. The new 911 became the keystone of Porsche’s identity, even though the design was not always fully appreciated. During the 1970′s and 1980′s, many Porsche designers attempted to distance Porsche from its legendary design and nearly the first Porsche. the keystone of disaster. The more modern 924 model, “a people’s Porsche”, developed with Volkswagen, as well as the 928 fell short fulfilling expectations, and failed to allow the company to branch out in new directions and styles.
However, in the 1990′s the company seemed to realize that what some perceived as a stylistic straitjacket was in fact a market advantage. During this period Porsche embraced the timeless nature of classic styling to become highly profitable. Nearly forty people and styles.
However, in the design department solely dedicated to further improvement of the long running 911. Such developments included the 911 GTI, put forward by the in-house designer Anthony R. Hatter as a powerful combination of sports and racing car. In 1999, Porsche’s chief designer proudly unveiled the new Boxster, enabling Porsche to establish a second independent range of successful models.
For more reviews about sports cars, visit www.thesupercars.org and while you are at it, you might also want to have a look at Porsche Carrera GT.
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