The History of Porsche
The Porsche manufacturing company was first founded by a German family in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1931, by Ferdinand Porsche. One of the first jobs for the company was to design a car for the people of Germany. The Kubelwagon, which is the forerunner of the Volkswagen Beetle, was built in 1939. The design featured an air cooled engine in the rear in order to balance the car. This was a very unusual concept to many other auto manufacturers.In 1945 Ferry Porsche, the son of Ferdinand, built the first Porsche in a sawmill in Gmund, Austria. The Porsche 64 was the first Porsche produced by the company using parts from the Volkswagen, and redesigning the body. There were 356 cars built using an aluminum body work. And were road certified in 1948. In 1950 the first Porsche 356 had been completed, and by the summer its sales were up to 33 a month, and by the end of the year had gone as high as 298. Ferdinand Porsche saw the rapid progress of the company and the automobiles before he died in January 1951. At the time of his death the Porsche Company was manufacturing 60 cars a month. In April of the same year it had been stated that being able to go from 0 to 50 mph was not expected from the size of the engine, and in 3rd gear 60 mph could be achieved. Once Porsche announced that they were going to make new changes in the car, by improving the defrosting system, and add the new Volkswagen base suspension, Lockheed Ate brakes and an optional tachometer, the sales took off to earn a $3 million profit for the years 1103 sports cars. Porsche completed its 1,000 car on August 28, 1951. However the most popular car in the world didn’t carry the Porsche name until 1967.Max Hoffman a Park Avenue Dealership is responsible for the fame of the Porsche when he added them to his showroom in 1950. Hoffman was also responsible for bringing the Volkswagen to The United States, selling only two in 1949 and gave up its franchise, which he admitted later that it was a very bad mistake. Hoffman continued to sell 10 Porsches a week in 1954. he later stated that his Porsche sales boomed when the company changed the Volkswagen “cashbox” for Porsches own four speed synchromesh transmission.The Porsche 550 Spyder was so successful in the racing industry that it started the design of the Porsche 911, using the same rear air cooled engine but changed the block design to use a 6 cylinder “boxer” engine. Porsche cars continues to manufacture very extravagant and very well designed sports cars today, and is the leader in the sports car industry. In 1990 Porsche teamed with Toyota to learn how to use hybrid technology to build its first hybrid Cayenne SUV and the four door cope, the Panamera, and in 2002 the Cayenne made its appearance in Leipzig, Saxony.
The History of Porsche
