Ferdinand Porsche, sports car designer, dies

[Cooley Hurd]

Source: MSNBC.com

By The Associated Press

FRANKFURT, Germany — He designed Porsche's classic 911 sports car — the sleek model that evokes power, wealth and envy among aficionados — cementing his grandfather's name into the modern psyche

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche died Thursday in Salzburg, Austria at age 76, Porsche AG said. No cause was provided.

Porsche, known as F.A. to his colleagues, was head of the Porsche design studio in the early 1960s when the company developed the 911 model that remains its brand-defining product. The car, now in its seventh version, remains recognizably the same vehicle, with its sloping roofline, long, low hood and prominent headlights.

"The creator of the Porsche 911 has founded a culture of design in our company that distinguishes our sports cars even today," Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller said.

Porsche was the son of former Porsche Chairman Ferry Porsche, who died in 1998, and the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who started the company as a design and engineering firm in the 1930s.
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Thanks for the incredible cars, Herr Porsche!

My 928

[frylock]

1. 911 is still my favorite car to this day..

just a classic design.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Absolutely. I've had a 944 and a 928 (both were affordable)...

...and loved them. I've driven 911's before and I love how you feel... cupped by the machine.

[frylock]

4. i've only ever driven a 911 once..

a 2006 carrera 4s 911 cabriolet. pulled the thing onto the freeway and goosed it. my friend riding with me exclaims "OMG, we're doing 100mph!" i didn't even realize it! felt like we were going maybe 80!

[madokie]

34. Mine too

I've wanted one ever since the first day I seen one. And brother thats been a long time ago

[Blue_Tires]

3. r.i.p. to a true visionary

[AtheistCrusader]

5. Not just cars. I have a Grundig radio designed by him.

It is fan freakin' tastic. FAR better than the Red Cross emergency radios, for the same price.

[CJCRANE]

6. Porsche - there is no substitute.

[usrname]

7. Grandfather was a weapons designer for Herr Adolph

They were cool tanks, though. The King Tiger (Panzer Mk VI(?)) was the biggest and baddest tank in WWII and was designed by the Porsche group. There was a Henkel (sp?) element to it as well. There was a competition among several designers for the King Tiger.

As cool as they were, they didn't have either range or the mobility. They were dinosaurs the moment they were conceived.

[EverHopeful]

12. You've reminded me of a favorite joke

that, through the years, only Porshe/VW owners ever laughed at (or maybe I just don't tell a joke well).

Do you know why the Germans really lost the war? Because they had to keep stopping to adjust the valves on their tanks.

I'll avoid going into my rant about how Grandfather Ferdinand Porshe was apolitical and how he was deceived by Hitler. From everything I've read, he was a focused, engineering genius and just wanted to make great cars.

[flamin lib]

8. In 1969 I almost bought a silver 911 off the showroom floor in San Antonio.

Went back home to Kerrville to check finances and found the draft notice.

Given my tender age of 21 and the twisty turny roads of the Texas Hill Country I think the US Army saved my life . . . .

[IMOTM2012]

9. RIP

cool cars!

[cliffordu]

10. Every Porsche ever made to this day turns my head,

more than women, motorcycles, fast bicycles or train wrecks.

A mechanic (and ex- pro driver) I knew took me for a test ride in an old bathtub Porsche

and as he steered us through a four wheel drift on a city street to make the 90 degree corner back to the shop said:

"This is really a nice car, isn't it?"

We might have been doing 60.

I might have peed a little.

[awoke_in_2003]

11. "I might have peed a little"

[grasswire]

15. turns my head too

I always look at and listen to a Porsche go by. And I always remember my sand colored 912, which is long gone.

[Citizen Worker]

13. I rented a 911SC Targa and drove the Mountain Loop Highway in WA. Remember taking a curve that was

posted at 25mph at 70mph. No drift, tires didn't break loose and in fact, the car hugged that curve so tightly I probably could have taken it at 80mph. There is no other like a Porsche!

[dipsydoodle]

14. When his grandfather got together with Daimler

the name Mercedes had already been used by Daimler years before - she was a young Austrian girl he named a car after. If her name had been Daisy some would now be driving a Daisy Benz.

[leveymg]

16. Homage to the 911, and the men who designed and developed it

From the early 911 that was very much just a logical follow-on to the 356, through the highly erotic RS, to the mind-blowing 935 Moby Dick. They all get traced back to Dr. Ferdinand's 1939 Type 64, the true grandfather of all Porsche cars:

[Beacool]

21. That car is from 1939?

It must have turned heads.

[leveymg]

23. The all-conquering 917 of 1970 traces directly back to the still-born 1938 V-10 Type 114

1970 Type 917 flat-12 mid engine sports-racer


1938 Type 114 V-10 mid engine sports coupe, which was to have been Porsche's first car built in-house by his own design bureau

[hifiguy]

25. The 917 was a truly terrifying car.

McLaren had dominated the Can-Am series for years until Roger Penske and Mark Donahue showed up with a 917. They promptly demolished and dominated the series to such an extent that Can-Am died off. Jeebus, that thing had something over 1000 horsepower - in 1970!

[leveymg]

28. If you think the 917 was terrifying, can you imagine driving a mid-engine V-16 with swing axles?

Three decades before there was a McLaren M8 or the Can Am Panzerwagens, there were the Auto Union and Mercedes streamliner record cars. Prof. Ferdinand Porsche (the elder) also designed this one, below.

Would you drive on 1937 tyres at over 200 mph? Maybe if you're Tazio Nuvolari, Bernd Rosemeyer or Dick Seaman:

[hifiguy]

37. The men who drove those cars

and the equally scary mid-engine Auto Union grand prix cars had brass balls, that is for certain.

[leveymg]

38. Video of Nuvolari winning the 1938 Donnington Grand Prix in an Auto Union D-Type:

Last edited Mon Apr 9, 2012, 03:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Add oil onto a corner for extra fun. Even the spectators had to be brave. Brass balls, indeed.

[Beacool]

27. Thank you.

Never owned one, but they are the coolest cars.

[kentauros]

32. A very similar shape was used in a concept VW.

I think that maybe the designers of the VW L1 hybrid have been looking at it for inspiration:

[mopinko]

33. goosebumps.

[unkachuck]

17. RIP Ferdinand....

....I always wanted to drive and own a Porsche....the closest I ever came was to own one of granddads air-cooled Beetles....not that I'm complaining....

[Manifestor_of_Light]

18. Didn't Porsche design the Schickelgruber's Revenge??

a/k/a the Volkswagen Bug?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

20. Maybe his grandfather designed the bug.

Whoever designed the bug's heating system should have been shot for crimes against humanity.

[jmowreader]

31. Did you ever see the "comparison" when the new Beetle came out?

Volkswagen put a "comparison" checklist between the Type 1 (classic Bug) and the new Beetle (Bug with the engine at the wrong end) on their webpage, and under "climate control" or whatever the hell they called it:

new Beetle: Heat, dual-zone air conditioning...
classic Beetle: Heat only in the summer.

[hifiguy]

26. That was the first Ferdinand Porsche.

Not his son Ferry or grandson F.A.

[madokie]

35. Yes

I drove VW beetles for years after I got home from the service. My younger brother still does.

[CottonBear]

19. I met FA back in the late 1970s at a Porsche Club event in Virginia.

I learned to drive a stick shift in a Porsche 912E (1976) on a mountain top town in TN. We also had a 1978 bright red 928. It was AWESOME! Thw 912E was a total blast to drive up and down the winding mountain roads every day! Porsches are incredible.

[burrowowl]

22. Beautiful cars!

But the Mercedes Gullwing is still y favorite.

RIP FP!

[hifiguy]

24. One of the most brilliant automotive designers of all time.

The 911 is and has been an amazing car for nearly half a century.

You own a 928?? I have loved that car since the first time I saw one. You are a lucky dawg!

RIP, Herr Porsche.

[Rhiannon12866]

29. K&R. Very sad... :(

Beautiful car!

[flvegan]

30. Engine is still at the wrong end.

Sorry, had to be said. All jokes aside, RIP. The 911 is a brilliant automobile.

Even if it is a Beetle.

I know, but I can't help myself.

[Hotler]

36. 917...