Ferdi porsche architekt driver#
Ferdi porsche architekt full#
Ferdi porsche architekt series#

In late 1932, the office had worked on the development of the Type 12 small vehicle for motorcycle manufacturer Zündapp. The importance of the commission in the history of the company is “impossible to overestimate.” Motorsport remains a part of the brand core of Porsche to this day.Ī second labor of love for the visionary designer would come to play an equally important role. Motorsport “laid the foundation for the rapid ascent” of the company, notes historian Pyta.

Ferdi porsche architekt driver#

The legendary Silver Arrow from Auto Union boasted a sixteen-cylinder engine mounted directly behind the driver for optimal distribution, a construction that is still successful in motor racing today. Originally dubbed the P race car-“P” for Porsche-the design would prove to be a stroke of genius. The new Grand Prix formula limited the curb weight of the race cars to 750 kilograms, but otherwise set few technical restrictions. At the time, it was the most demanding task that a vehicle designer could possibly undertake. The job was the fruit of many years of discussions.

The big breakthrough came in early 1933 from the recently founded Auto Union in Saxony: Porsche was commissioned to design a completely new type of race car. “Ferdinand Porsche was not a bookish man,” writes historian Wolfram Pyta, “but a technician, driven by a restless fervor in continual pursuit of the optimal technical solution.”

Ferdi porsche architekt full#

It would prove to be an advantage that Porsche’s technically adept team covered the full spectrum of vehicle technology, always motivated by the ideas of the founder. Development jobs for other manufacturers of chassis and steering elements would follow.

Ferdi porsche architekt series#

Porsche’s team developed a complete mid-range sedan that would later go into series production as the Wanderer W21/22 as well as a straight eight-cylinder engine for the Saxon manufacturer. Chemnitz-based Wanderer was among the first clients. The wages for the initial nineteen employees often consisted of room and board, nothing more.

Even as a child, he had been inspired by his father’s ingenuity: “He was always seeing new horizons,” Ferry later said, “and always creating automobiles that were ahead of their time.”įerdinand Porsche was already a well-established player by the time he founded the office, but he too had to fight for orders during the Depression. Porsche’s son Ferry was in the mix as well. Later, body developer Erwin Komenda and engine expert Franz Xaver Reimspieß joined their ranks.

Or transmission expert Karl Fröhlich and engine specialist Josef Kales. Chief engineer Karl Rabe, for example, who became Porsche’s right-hand man as head designer.

Nearly all of them had followed him from his former stomping grounds. After a short stint with Steyr in Austria, he returned to the Swabian automotive hotbed and in 1931 assembled a crack team of seasoned technicians and engineers. The tale of how a provider of design services became an independent development firm and later a world-renowned company with operations around the globe is one of the great success stories in automotive history.īefore settling in Stuttgart with his own company at the age of fifty-five, Ferdinand Porsche had been responsible for the development of pioneering models at leading automobile manufacturers, including Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in Stuttgart (Daimler-Benz AG from 1926), for almost a quarter of a century.