Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, is not only been a leading manufacturer of sports cars for more than six decades, as the historic roots of the Porsche brand go back much further than that. When Ferry Porsche built the legendary Type 356 in 1948, he and his engineers were able to look back on a wealth of comprehensive technological experience. Back on 25th April 1931, Ferdinand Porsche founded and registered a design bureau named “Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, Konstruktion und Beratung für Motoren- und Fahrzeugbau” in Stuttgart.
Since then, the Porsche company has experienced many highs and lows and has grown from a small design bureau to a world famous manufacturer of sports and racing cars. This success story is based on decades of development experience, stretching far beyond just building sports cars. Over an 80 year period, Porsche has built up a reputation as one of the best known and multi-faceted engineering service providers in the world.The tradition of customer development started by Ferdinand Porsche in 1931 is still successfully continued today by Porsche Engineering Group GmbH, based in Weissach. Porsche Engineering carries out development work on behalf of car manufacturers and suppliers, as well as companies from other sectors, combining the skills of Porsche as a series manufacturer, technology company and engineering service provider and making these available to third parties.
The 80th anniversary of the founding of the Porsche design bureau in 1931 is one of this year’s central themes for the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. From 21st June to 11th September 2011 the special exhibition entitled “Porsche Engineering – 80 Years of Porsche Designs” will honour the most important and interesting customer developments from the last eight decades. It will display around 20 special examples ranging from whole vehicle developments, through engines and gearboxes to extraordinary industrial projects in the present. The ten vehicle customer developments on display include a Wanderer Limousine from 1931, the legendary Auto Union Grand Prix racing car and the Audi Sport Quattro S1 with Porsche dual clutch gearbox (PDK). The Porsche Museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 9 am to 6 pm.
For more information, visit www.porsche.com/museum.
Porsche Engineering – 80 Years of Porsche Designs
[Source: Porsche AG]
As most people start to consider ‘Porsche ‘engineering with the development of the VW Beetle at at the behest of Adolph Hitler, which inevitably led to the Porsche 356, it is important to remember that the iconic achievement of the VW was not Porsche’s at all, but was rather a blatant copying of Hans Ledwinka’s truly groundbreaking engineering of the original rear engined air cooled TATRA which was the first car with a central tube chassis, rear mounted boxer motor and swing axles. In subsequent litigation brought by Tatra over the design infringement, even old man Porsche admitted to “looking over the shoulder” of Ledwinka as he penned the VW. So while wer’e celebrating the success of Porsche, let’s not forget the plagarizm it started with!