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  1. #1

    Porsche: A living legend

    Seems we have quite a few Porsche fans among us.

    Thought I'd create a Porsche dedicated thread for enthusiasts, owners, connoisseurs. Please add more Porsche related content you find interesting. Enjoy!

  2. #2

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    I'll start from where it all began....

    Behind the Wheel of the First Car Ever Called Porsche



  3. #3

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    The Porsche Type 64 | Chris Harris Drives | Top Gear



  4. #4

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    Famous 1939 Porsche Type 64 fails to sell in auction blunder



  5. #5

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    If chronological order of events is of interest, one must consider the WW2 efforts of Porsche to be fair to history.

    Considering that In April 1931, Porsche returned to Stuttgart and founded his consulting firm Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH, Konstruktionen und Beratungen für Motoren und Fahrzeugbau, (designs and consulting services for motors and vehicles). Porsche joined the Nazi party and in 1934 landed a contract from Hitler to design a "people's car" (or Volkswagen).



    I'll leave it to historians to debate Porsche and Hitler working and personal relationships and simply present a part of factual history of the heavy WW2 tanks that Porsche was involved with.




    Porsche's FAILED Tiger Tank - VK 45.01 (P)



  6. #6

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    The post war days saw Ferdinand Porsche arrested for war crimes due to his association with Nazis and SS

    On December 15, 1945, French authorities arrested Ferdinand Porsche on charges of being a war criminal. Porsche was imprisoned for 22 months before his son, Ferry Porsche, was able to buy his freedom. In 1948, Ferdinand and his son Ferry formed the Porsche automobile company we know today, called Porsche AG.

    While Ferdinand Porsche was serving his 22 month sentence, his son Ferry Porsche had begun the work on a car that would carry the Porsche name forward. The legendary and magnificent Porsche 356.

    On 8 June 1948, the first car to bear the Porsche name was road-certified: the Porsche 356/1 Roadster produced in Gmünd (in Carinthia, Austria).The "Gmünd Roadster" was powered by a 1.1-liter air-cooled flat-four engine from Volkswagen. The engine's power was increased to 35 hp for the 356. The roadster weighed just 585 kilograms and reached speeds of up to 135 km/h (83 mph).The original 356 (also called "pre-A") is easy to recognize from its two-piece windscreen divided by a center bar. This was replaced by a single-piece windscreen with a center bend as of model year 1952.All 356 generations were also available in an open-top version (Cabriolet, Speedster or Roadster).



  7. #7

    Re: Porsche: A living legend


  8. #8

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    The four cam 356.

    Porsche 356 A Carrera GS 1500

    In 1956 Porsche was on a production number of 10,000 cars and their racing skills were often proven on track and on long-term rallies. Several victories and podium places in the illustrious Carrera Panamericana gave them the idea to create a model of the 356 with the engine of the 550 Spyder.

    They installed a slightly down-dated version of the complicated 1.5-liter engine, developed by Dr. Ernst Fuhrmann, in the 356, and so the 356 GS was born. The engine itself is a true technical feat, the assembly only took 120 hours, by an experienced engine builder !! The car was presented at the Frankfurt Motor show with the name Carrera, a name that to date associates itself with the fast production cars of Porsche!


    The Porsche 356 brought the automaker into a new era. The model started the trajectory that would eventually lead to the venerable 911, and prototype versions of the car earned Porsche its first major achievements in endurance racing—namely a class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In addition, the 356 can be seen as something of a democratizer of Porsche’s racing efforts, with coupes and roadsters and speedsters being a popular choice for privateer competitors the world over.

    This week we’re taking a drive with our host Sam Hancock in a special 356 bred for motorsport, the Carrera GS/GT. Efforts to reduce weight went as far as swapping out the side and rear window glass for lighter Perspex, suspension and braking was treated to higher-performance setups, but the real draw of the GS/GT was its motor—that twin-plug, four-cam, dry-sumped and air-cooled four-cylinder is a piece of mechanical engineering artwork, and a perfect partner for dancing along these mountain roads in Italy.




  9. #9

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    Starting any classic car is special. There is the sensation that something distinct and superior is taking place because of the rituals observed and details you notice. On this 1956 Porsche 356A T1 Speedster for example the windscreen is removable, the seats have a thin fiberglass shell and the steering wheel is elegant and spartan. There is little concession to comfort and virtually none to safety.

    When new, this was the least expensive Porsche available and had a 'less is more' philosophy behind it. Indeed, the car was intended to be taken to the track and be a legitimate club-racing contender. It seems that that's precisely how this 356 spent a large portion of its early life. Raced around Connecticut, the car racked up trophies and actually won the E-Production Championship in 1963. The majority of this car's first 50,000 miles were racked up on the track.

    It wasn't designed to coddle. Although it only makes about 60hp, it causes an adrenaline rush as you're close to the road, the instruments, and there isn't a lot surrounding you. There's immediacy about the car. And according to the owner, Mr. Jon Warshawsky, "It feels like a racing machine." When driving on B-roads, "you feel like you should be on the track." There is an intimate mechanical interaction because the power-band is narrow; both you and the car have to agree that the next shift is appropriate otherwise there might be bogging or might over-rev the engine. The feeling that something great is happening is due to this constant dialogue between you and the car.

    Drive Tastefully®






  10. #10

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    The 550 SPYDER




    By 1953, Porsche needed to go RACING. It was time to put the brand to the ultimate test. Inspired by the 356, Porsche designed and built the 550 which was a racing sports car produced from 1953 to 1956. In that time only 90 Porsche 550s were produced, but it quickly established dominance in the 1.1- and 1.5- liter classes.

    The 550 Spyder would usually finish top 3 in its class. Each Spyder was designed and customized to be raced.


    The Type 550/550 A is powered by an all aluminium 1,498 cc (1.5 L; 91.4 cu in) naturally aspirated air-cooled 4 cylinder boxer engine known as the "Fuhrmann Engine" (Type 547).

    Its valvetrain uses double overhead camshafts on each cylinder bank, driven by vertical shafts, actuating 2 valves per cylinder. The engine is equipped with twin 2-barrel Solex PJJ downdraft carburetors and dual ignition. In its first version it produced 110 PS (108 hp; 81 kW) at 6200 rpm and a maximum torque of 121 N⋅m (89 lb⋅ft) at 5000 rpm.

    The engine of the 550 is mounted in front of the rear axle making it mid-engined. This gives it a more balanced weight distribution, and allows for largely neutral handling. On the other hand, the low mass moment of inertia about the vehicle's vertical axis can lead to a sudden, difficult to control rotation of the car.

    Ferdinand Porsche had pioneered this design layout with the Auto Union Grand Prix car of the 1930s.

    The first 550 had a fully synchronized 4-speed gearbox. Starting in 1956, a five-speed gearbox was used, but its first gear only had to start and (like the reverse gear) had to be placed over a barrier and not synchronized. Excessive slip to the drive wheels in corners was prevented by a limited slip differential


    The first three hand built prototypes came in a coupé with a removable hardtop. The first (550-03) raced as a roadster at the Nurburgring Eifel Race in May 1953 winning its first race. Later that year the 550 took class wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Carrera Panamericana; the Carrera Panamericana win was commemorated with the Carrera branding for later Porsches with performance options.

    From 1953 to 1957, the Porsche works team evolved and raced the 550 with outstanding success and was recognized wherever it appeared. The silver Werke cars were painted with spears of different colors on the rear fenders to aid recognition from the pits.

    Hans Herrmann’s particularly famous ‘red-tail’ car No 41 went from victory to victory. For such a limited number of 90 prototype and customer builds, the 550 Spyder was always in a winning position, usually finishing in the top three results in its class.

    During its tenure with the works team it was challenged only twice among the smaller cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with a 1.5 liter O.S.C.A. finishing ahead but disqualified in the 1954 race and a 1.1 liter Lotus Eleven trailing the 1.5 liter winning 550 by one lap in the 1957 race.

    The 1956 version, the 550A with a lighter and more rigid spaceframe chassis, gave Porsche its first overall win in a major sports car racing event, the 1956 Targa Florio.

    During this era Porsche was the first car manufacturer to get race sponsorship, which was through Fletcher Aviation, who Porsche was working with to design a light aircraft engine and later Telefunken and Castrol.




  11. #11
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    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    Quote Originally Posted by TheOctopus View Post
    The 550 SPYDER

    By 1953, Porsche needed to go RACING. It was time to put the brand to the ultimate test. Inspired by the 356, Porsche designed and built the 550 which was a racing sports car produced from 1953 to 1956. In that time only 90 Porsche 550s were produced, but it quickly established dominance in the 1.1- and 1.5- liter classes.

    The 550 Spyder would usually finish top 3 in its class. Each Spyder was designed and customized to be raced.


    The Type 550/550 A is powered by an all aluminium 1,498 cc (1.5 L; 91.4 cu in) naturally aspirated air-cooled 4 cylinder boxer engine known as the "Fuhrmann Engine" (Type 547).

    Its valvetrain uses double overhead camshafts on each cylinder bank, driven by vertical shafts, actuating 2 valves per cylinder. The engine is equipped with twin 2-barrel Solex PJJ downdraft carburetors and dual ignition. In its first version it produced 110 PS (108 hp; 81 kW) at 6200 rpm and a maximum torque of 121 N⋅m (89 lb⋅ft) at 5000 rpm.

    The engine of the 550 is mounted in front of the rear axle making it mid-engined. This gives it a more balanced weight distribution, and allows for largely neutral handling. On the other hand, the low mass moment of inertia about the vehicle's vertical axis can lead to a sudden, difficult to control rotation of the car.

    Ferdinand Porsche had pioneered this design layout with the Auto Union Grand Prix car of the 1930s.

    The first 550 had a fully synchronized 4-speed gearbox. Starting in 1956, a five-speed gearbox was used, but its first gear only had to start and (like the reverse gear) had to be placed over a barrier and not synchronized. Excessive slip to the drive wheels in corners was prevented by a limited slip differential


    The first three hand built prototypes came in a coupé with a removable hardtop. The first (550-03) raced as a roadster at the Nurburgring Eifel Race in May 1953 winning its first race. Later that year the 550 took class wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Carrera Panamericana; the Carrera Panamericana win was commemorated with the Carrera branding for later Porsches with performance options.

    From 1953 to 1957, the Porsche works team evolved and raced the 550 with outstanding success and was recognized wherever it appeared. The silver Werke cars were painted with spears of different colors on the rear fenders to aid recognition from the pits.

    Hans Herrmann’s particularly famous ‘red-tail’ car No 41 went from victory to victory. For such a limited number of 90 prototype and customer builds, the 550 Spyder was always in a winning position, usually finishing in the top three results in its class.

    During its tenure with the works team it was challenged only twice among the smaller cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with a 1.5 liter O.S.C.A. finishing ahead but disqualified in the 1954 race and a 1.1 liter Lotus Eleven trailing the 1.5 liter winning 550 by one lap in the 1957 race.

    The 1956 version, the 550A with a lighter and more rigid spaceframe chassis, gave Porsche its first overall win in a major sports car racing event, the 1956 Targa Florio.

    During this era Porsche was the first car manufacturer to get race sponsorship, which was through Fletcher Aviation, who Porsche was working with to design a light aircraft engine and later Telefunken and Castrol.

    I have a beautiful AutoArt 1:18 diecast model of that exact car.

  12. #12
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    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    Here's one of my favorite Porsches, the GT2 RS. Photo by yours truly.


  13. #13
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    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    That’s a fabulous photograph Stephen!
    _______________

    Mike

    Amplification: MBL 6010D, MBL 9008A Monos
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  14. #14
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    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    Quote Originally Posted by Ritmo View Post
    That’s a fabulous photograph Stephen!
    Thanks, Mike. That shot was taken when I was on a real estate shoot in Dec. 2019. The car is sitting in their brick driveway. The home owners were very wealthy, and had 3 exotic automobiles, including a Bentley and a Ferrari 488.

    I spent a lot of time on that shot in post, getting it to look just right.

  15. #15

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    “Once you get it on song, get up to 7,000-plus-revs, it was absolutely amazing,” says racing driver Derek Bell, “…and the fact you could brake so perfectly, flick it into a corner, put the power on…it just wanted the hell driven out of it.”

    Former Porsche works driver Derek Bell wasn’t just driving any classic Porsche on any road—he was driving the Targa Florio-winning 718 RS 60 on the actual Targa Florio course in Italy. Noted for its 800+ corners, dozens of hairpin turns, and danger everywhere else, the Targa Florio is still a revered, respected, and cherished event in Sicily, where it was held in period.

    The Porsche 718 is a series of one- or two-seat sports-racing cars built by Porsche from 1957 to 1962. An open-wheel single-seat model was developed for Formula racing.


    The 718 was a development of the successful Porsche 550A with improvements made to the body work and suspension. The car's full name is 718 RSK, where "RS" stands for RennSport (sports-racing) and the "K" reflects the shape of the car's revised torsion-bar suspension. It had a mid-engined layout and used the 142 horsepower (106 kW) 1.5-litre Type 547/3 quad-cam engine introduced in the 550A.




  16. #16

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    Watch this amazing footage of Sir Stirling Moss driving his own Porsche 718 RS 61 up the Goodwood Hill as part of the 2011 Festival of Speed.

    Whilst not usually associated with racing Porsche cars, Stirling Moss raced the 718 RS 61 in the infamous Targa Florio in 1961 and described the car as perfect for race.


  17. #17

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    Porsche 718 History


    . The car made its racing debut at the 1957 24 Hours of Le Mans driven by Umberto Maglioli and Edgar Barth. The car failed to finish the race due to an accident.

    In 1958, the car finished first in class and third overall at Le Mans guided by Jean Behra and Hans Herrmann. Jean Behra also brought one of the cars home second at the Targa Florio. In 1959, the car, driven by Edgar Barth and Wolfgang Seidel, claimed overall victory at the Targa Florio. A 718 also won the European Hill Climb Championship in both 1958 and 1959.

    In 1961 Masten Gregory and Bob Holbert piloted a 718/4 RS Spyder to a class win at Le Mans.




    Cool bit of history here. I used to frequent Holbert Porsche back in the day before it was sold to another family and there were always some interesting cars to look at and some great info to learn and stories to hear. I was very grateful for Holbert Porsche to always been welcoming as I had not yet even bought my first Porsche then. Holbert Porsche in Warrington PA is the second oldest dealer and was founded in 1954 by the legendary Holbert family. Sadly Al Holbert, the son of racing legend Bob Holbert, being a racing legend himself, died in a private plane crash when his Piper PA-60 crashed shorty after takeoff in Ohio after the races in September of 1988.


  18. #18

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    In October 1958 the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) announced that for the 1961 Formula One season, engine capacity would be limited to the same 1.5 litres as in Formula Two (F2).  This meant that Porsche could use their F2 cars almost unchanged in F1.

    In 1959 Porsche unveiled the prototype of a narrow, open-wheel car called the Porsche 718/2 that married the 718 sport-racer's mechanicals with a more traditional single-seat Formula body. The unpainted car was entered in the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix, where driver Wolfgang von Trips qualified twelfth, but crashed on the second lap of the race. At Reims driver Joakim Bonnier finished third. For 1960 the production 718/2, starting with chassis number 718201, received revised bodywork, a 6-speed transaxle, and a wheelbase extended by 100 mm (3.9 in).[4][5]: 278–281  A total of five cars were built. Some of these four-cylinder cars were later raced in F1 under the 1½ litre formula.

    In 1961 Porsche launched the Type 787. Ferdinand Alexander "Butzi" Porsche, the founder's grandson, was involved in the design of what would become Porsche's first Formula One car.

    The 787 would not get the eight-cylinder though, continuing with the air-cooled, DOHC four-cylinder Type 547 boxer engine that had been developed by Ernst Fuhrmann and that had powered the 550 Spyders and 718 series until then. While it kept the 718/2's rear suspension of an upper A-arm and lower reversed A-arm with a radius rod and helical coil spring over damper units, at the front a new upper and lower A-arm suspension with coil-over damper units replaced the previous trailing arm and torsion bar system.

    The first chassis was completed in April 1961, and appeared at the Monaco Grand Prix shortly after  It was powered by a 547/3 four-cylinder engine with Kugelfischer fuel injection.


    Only two 787s, serial numbers 78701 and 78702, were ever built. Due to their lack of power and poor handling Ferry Porsche retired the model and continued with the 718/2 as a stopgap.

    Porsche would focus on the upcoming 804 and its flat-eight engine for Formula One in 1962. Both 787s were scrapped by the factory in 1964.






  19. #19

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    THE FIRST PORSCHE 911, WASNT A 911 | PORSCHE 901 STORY



    In September 1963, Porsche presented the Porsche 901 at the IAA in Frankfurt as a successor to the Porsche 356.Series production of the 901 began in September 1964. When Porsche presented the vehicle at the Paris Motor Show in October of that year, the French car manufacturer Peugeot objected to the model designation. The reason: Peugeot had trademarked a three-digit type designation with a zero in the middle.Porsche therefore renamed the 901 as the 911. This combination of numbers is the same as the emergency number in the USA and was therefore already well known in this key market for Porsche. 82 units of the 901 were produced before the name change.

    Considered one of the most recognizable sports cars in the history of the automobile, the Porsche 911 debuted in September 1963 at the Frankfurt Auto Show. A radical departure in form from the four-cylinder Porsche 356, the 901 represented the most advanced thinking of Ferdinand “Butzi” Porsche – a rear-mounted, flat six, giving the car both power and traction.

    Advanced in comparison to the Volkswagen-derived Porsche 356 engine, the newly designed Porsche 901/911 power unit was a two-liter, air-cooled flat six that produced 130 horsepower. Acceleration from 0 to 60 miles per hour was a brisk 8.3 seconds.




  20. #20

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    No music. No words. Just the raw footage of the greatest cars on Earth. This week, the Porsche 901 (No. 57).



  21. #21
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    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    Quote Originally Posted by TheOctopus View Post
    No music. No words. Just the raw footage of the greatest cars on Earth. This week, the Porsche 901 (No. 57).


    Wow, that looked familiar...all the track footage was shot at Sonoma Raceway; where I've shot racing with credentials since 2003. The final shot in the garage was the enclosed paddock at Sonoma Raceway, also.

    Porsches at Sonoma...







  22. #22

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    Great pictures Stephen!

  23. #23

    Re: Porsche: A living legend

    "After having withdrawn from Formula One at the end of the 1962 season, Porsche focused again on sportscar racing. The 904 debuted late in 1963, for the 1964 racing season, as a successor to the 718, which had been introduced in 1957. Porsche designed the GTS variant to compete in the FIA-GT class at various international racing events. The street-legal version debuted in 1964 in order to comply with group 3 appendix J homologation regulations requiring a certain number of road-going variants be sold by the factory. Porsche produced one-hundred and six 904s at four or five a day with a list price of US$7245 (FOB Stuttgart). Orders far exceeded the one hundred car requirement to satisfy homologation rules and more cars could have been sold. The 904 marked the beginning of a series of sportscars that culminated in the dominant 917."

    The 904's mid-engine layout was inherited from the 718, also known as the RSK (Rennsport = racing, kurz = short), the factory's leading race car. It was powered by the 1,966 cc (120 cu in) Type 587/3,[4] four-cam flat four-cylinder engine producing 180hp, "probably the most complex four-cylinder" ever. It drove a five-speed transmission with a standard 4.428:1 final drive, with available 4.605, 4.260, 3.636, and 3.362 ratios




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Porsche: A living legend

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