Porsche
Porsche, headquartered in Stuttgart, was founded there in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche. The company currently produces sports cars, sport utility vehicles, and a four-door sedan.
At first, the company did motor vehicle development consultation but did not build cars of its own. One of its first assignments was from the German government to design a people’s car, a Volkswagen. The result was the Volkswagen Beetle, one of the most successful designs ever. The Porsche 64, a prototype racer developed in 1939, used many Beetle components, as did the 356, Porsche’s first production car.
Porsche showed the prototype of what would be the 356 car to German dealers and began production after advanced orders reached a threshold. The 356 received road certification and went into production in 1948. Some of its parts came from the Volkswagen Beetle, but over time Porsche-made parts replaced them. The Beetle designer did the sleeker bodywork of the 356. Most Porsche designs have had air-cooled, rear-mounted engines that produced very well-balanced automobiles.
In 1964, with the 356 in need of major upgrades, Porsche launched the 911, another sports car with an air-cooled, rear-mounted engine, this one of six cylinders. An economy model with the same body but with moving parts from the 356 and its four-cylinder engine sold as the 912. The 911 has become Porsche’s best-known and most successful model that defines the brand far more than does any other. After so many years in production, it now shares with the original car only the basic concept of an air-cooled, rear-mounted, six-cylinder engine and basic styling. The 911 and its 930, 964, 993, 996, 997, and present 991 variants have been in continuous production for 50 years.
In 1969, Porsche replaced the entry-level 912 model with the 914, another two-seater with a mid-mounted engine of either four (the 914/4) or six (the 914/6) cylinders. As a result of a production dispute with Volkswagen, the 914/6 sale price was only slightly less than that of the 911, and it sold poorly, only 3,332 cars, in contrast to much less pricey 914/4, Porsche’s top seller during the 1969–1976 model run, which sold 118,978.
Porsche produced the 924 sports car from 1976 to 1988. A two-door coupe with a small rear seat area (2+2 style), the 924 replaced the 914 as an entry-level model that finally retired the 912. The 924 was the first model with a liquid-cooled, front-mounted engine normal for most manufacturers but then unusual for Porsche. It was the first Porsche with an optional fully automatic transmission. Porsche produced just over 150,000 924s. While the car won praise for styling, handling, fuel economy, and reliability, its performance from the four-cylinder, 95–110 horsepower engine was lackluster. Swift acceleration was not available. The later 924S with its larger (2,500 cubic centimeters), more powerful (150+ horsepower) 944 engine did better.
Porsche built the 944 sports car available in naturally-aspirated and turbocharged models from 1982 to 1991 on the same platform as for the 924. Planned to stay in production well into the 1990s, this car came to need major revisions. While working on what would be the third generation of the 944, Porsche engineers realized that so many parts would be changed that the car would be almost entirely new. Development shifted from the 944 to the car that would replace it, the 968. The 944 production run sold over 200,000 cars.
The 968 made its debut in 1992 and sold alongside the 928 through 1995, when Porsche discontinued both liquid-cooled, front-engine models. The 928 was a sports-GT car sold from 1978 to 1995. It combined the handling of a sports car with the comfort of a luxury sedan. The car was the company’s only coupe with a front-mounted, eight-cylinder engine and its first mass-produced V8 model. Highly priced, the 928 was not a hot seller but achieved total sales of 61,056 during its long run. The 968 took over from the 944, with which it shared some parts, the entry-level position in Porsche’s lineup. The 968 was the last in an evolving line that began almost 20 years earlier with the Porsche 924. Like the 944, the 968 sold as both a coupe and a convertible. Porsche produced 12,776 968s
The 986 mid-engine, two-seater Boxster, introduced in late 1996, had a 2,500-cubic centimeter, flat six-cylinder engine upgraded to 2,700 and then to 3,200 cubic centimeters in the 2003 Boxster S. The Boxster was Porsche’s best seller from 1996 until the 2003 introduction of the Cayenne sport utility vehicle.
The Cayenne is Porsche’s first V8-engined vehicle since the 928 ended its run in 1995. The base Cayenne model delivers 300 horsepower. The Cayenne shares its naturally-aspirated and turbocharged V8 engines with the Panamera. The Panamera is a luxury four-door, full-sized sedan, another first for Porsche. It has a front-mounted engine with rear-wheel and four-wheel drives. The production model first appeared at the 2009 Shanghai International Automobile Show, and in 2011 hybrid and diesel versions launched. A plug-in hybrid version, the Panamera S E-Hybrid, came to the American market in November 2013.
