A Short History of Porsche Articles | Automotive

Ferdinand Porsche did not only play an essential role in the development of cars, he also played an essential role in the development of airplanes and the construction of tanks for the Wehrmacht as well. He was an automobile engineer who had an excess of a thousand patents registered in his name. He even had a history with famous car maker Mercedes Benz, having been appointed as chief engineer of the vehicle maker in Stuttgart in the 1920s. Later on he was to venture out on his own and start up his own engineering workshop where he continued in his innovative design in creating the Volkswagen. In the particular plant where the Volkswagen was created in Wolfsburg, he was made chief of operations which may have led to his internment by the Allied Forces at the end of the war.

Later on after a few years, he was released and started the making of his first car along with his son, Ferry Porsche. The car was called the Porsche 356 and it was a car which reminded people and engineers alike of the Volkswagen. It was made of the same four-cylinder rear-mounted engine in the manner of the Volkswagen. However, it wasn't a powerful sports car as it only had 40 bhp and a maximum speed of 87 mph or 140 km/h.

This first car was created as a convertible and later as a hard top. Its design was rather innovative and elegant and partly responsible for all this was Erwin Komenda, the engineer in whose shop it was created. He had also been in charge of sheet metal as well as design techniques at the offices of the Volkswagen Beetle. The new style of the closed coupe was created by Komenda and soon it became the basic design idea of the sports car.

This same tradition was ably continued by Komenda as well as Ferdinand “Butzi”

Porsche, the founder’s grandson, when the Porsche 911 was created.

The 911 easily stood out, it came with a very attractive sloping bonnet and the unique “frog eye” headlights as well as curves which ran from the top edge of the windscreen to the rear bumper. When it came to function and technicalities, it was somewhat like more of the BMW 15000. However, it stayed true to the idea behind the original Porsche in terms of style. The 911 became the basis of the identity of Porsche, although at certain times its design may not have always been appreciated.

In the 1970's as well as 1980's an effort was made to deviate from the usual Porsche style by introducing a model which was perceived to be much more modern. The result was the 924 and the 928 models, which were developed in conjunction with the Volkswagen and fell very short of people’s expectations.

When the 90's came, the company started to realize that the design that it had seen for years as rather limiting, was a great market advantage. In the 90's Porsche increased in profitability as its features were seen to be timeless. As many as forty people were now working in the design department in order to bring about the 911 series. What this development resulted in was the creation of models such as the 911 GTI. In 1999 the Boxster model was subsequently introduced allowing Porsche to establish a second and independent range of models.