Porsche. the start of the marque & design process of the 901/911

[911T1971]

Got a few feedbacks on two posts I once wrote and which were deeply hidden in a another thread.
It was suggested I should start a new thread for a broader audience, so here..

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I would love to write a book about the "truth" of the 901' design history as well as outlining period design influences for the 901/911. Even there is good literature about this aspects (Frere, Ludvigsen and Aichele) no one combined latest infos...and the "world" continues to beleive the simplified story of Butzi designing the 901.
Michel Thiriar, a belgium historian just published new literature that exists only in french and I currently beleive his writings are the most complete and simply the best. Most infos below are from his sources.

As most know the first Porsche Gmünd cars from 1948ish were bought by two swiss businessmen, von Senger and Mr.Blank. (Blank later was the importer for Porsche cars into Switzerland and he was the one who organised the Geneva show stand for Porsche, 1949. He however lost the contract to AMAG -already importer for Volkswagen since 1950- and its beleived because he did not apply to Geneva show 50 and 51..so the factory was able to cancel the contract.)

More interesting, the official story today is that Mr. von Senger was the first client for Porsche cars as his orders were helping to start the fledging Porsche company. (The million French Francs Mr. Druso paid for his Cisitalia race car helped to free Ferdinand Porsche from french prison..but no money was left to built cars with the amount..the french wanted one million and this is the reason Druso paid this amount directly to the french authorities, Porsche never received any amount from this job and was not able to send funds from Austria to France. So Drusio sent 1947 the amount from Italy directly to France).

It was actually Ferrys sister Louise who legally startet the Porsche company as she was Austrian citizen and would have the legal rights to open an Austrian branch of her fathers German-based "Porsche Konstruktionen KG" Company. Ferry -since Hitler's demand and like his father now a German citizen so suddenly a foreigner on Austrian soil- did initially not had the rights to open a company in Austria.

As Drusio did, von Senger too contacted Porsche in late 1946 to command a car to be built in Switzerland (Typ 352-Porsche opened a file for it). Arriving in Gmünd von Senger realised that plannings for a Typ 356 were already advanced and Anton Piech (husband of Louise and father of Ferdinand Piech) convinces von Senger he rather buys the first two Porsche cars ever built, 356.001 and 356/2. Later, von Senger buys 3 other cars being therfore the first client for Porsche. (as for 356.001 and 356/2, Thiriar thinks the funds were probably itself advanced/provided by Anton Piech and one reason Piech was eager von Senger would buy the first batch of cars...)

To start however the car production for the 356 model the sale of a few 356 cars to von Senger would never be enough and substantial start-up capital was needed by Ferry to start his company in 1948.

Author Michel Thiriar now beleives swiss citizen von Senger was just a front-up man to get access to funds hidden by the Porsche family in Switzerland at the end of WW2. These undeclared funds helped to start the company in Austria and paying the work force as well as all equipment. Even it was easy to funnel out money from Germany into Switzerland for Germans however in the first years afterWW2 (the Porsche were -now- Germans but the Piech's stayed Austrians) all capital gains/funds imported by Germans back into war-torn Germany needed to be declared to the occupying military forces (US, UK,F).

It therefore was simply impossible for Porsche to have acces to the money hidden in Switzerland unless a Swiss citizen would help to bring the funds back.
Even its true that Switzerland was excempt of the WW2 destruction and always had wealthy people, the reason the first Porsche cars were sold to Switzerland was not a mere coincidance: it was also were the Porsche family probably did hide their assets...and needed them to start again their factory.

Im not a fan of any "conspirancy" stories but Thiriar's conclusion (he has no proof) seems economicially pretty plausible.

Here is the first appereance of Porsche at an international sales show, Geneva 1949
Both von Senger and Blank are present, as well Ferry and his older sister Louise.

[911T1971]

and post two (found originally here: http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...el-and-end-cap )

Interesting is the discussion about the Porsche Design studio from late 1959 until 1968.
As described in brand new literature by a Belgium historian, the Porsche family had a long "tradition" of giving credit to its members working at the factory but minimizing the impact of external inputs.

Those were, among others, the origins of the Volkswagen Beetle (numerous "similar" designs existed before Porsche developed the car by Hitlers request. Even the term "Volkswagen" was stolen from another car maker and since Hitler wanted that the Austrian Porsche family should rather be German to show off German know-how, they accepted German citizenship), the aerofoil mounted on a 550 by swiss engineer Michael May in 1955 showing that downforce of all "rounded" Porsche cars was very weak (he later was hired by Porsche and was responsable for the F1 with its horizontal turbine setting), the extensive research by Team Wyer on the 917 to make the car finally driveable (named as 917K, Porsche adopted Wyer's ideas and later won with such a design the 1970 Le Mans. Wyer later discovered that even they told him that both Wyer as Salzburg team would have the same equipment secretly the Salzburg team received the better factory materiel) or the true design input by Erwin Kommenda regarding the 901.

In a similar fashion, the factory told the public for about 40 years that most design on the 901/911 was done by the third generation of Porsche members, "Butzi".
Since about 10 years and the spread of more worldwide information it seems now more clear that even Butzi was named "studio head" of a so called Porsche Studio in the early 1960, he had no prior knowledge of car design and was rather a drop-out from Ulm design school (he never finished and did just 2 semesters). He was not able to "design" a car and did not know how to lead the complicated team structure of the 901 project.
Kommenda, himself no designer but rather a engineer in car development instead was probably the man in charge for putting the 901 on track even some design influences by "Butzi" (he loved everything from Pininfarina as well as the Citroen DS:compare both 901 and the DS and you see similarities) were part of the finished product.

More interesting is what happened after the 901 was presented and what Butzi designed then at the Factory..there are no infos and imho no infos will ever appear.

Already by 1968 Anatole Lapine - in the middle of the 911 program and with no reasons to replace young "Butzi"- was named chief designer at Porsche. Having worked at Daimler he later joined the Design Studio at GM in Michigan (at that time the biggest and probably the best Design Studio by a leading car manufactor, the americans were first to implement a Design Center within their car company) then worked for Opel before being hired at Porsche (european car maker were very slow in building their own Design studios and all car design was outsourced...mostly to italian firms).

Porsche did not need to have his own Design Studio (after all, they sold just one car model) but their Development center had countless design contracts for all kind of machinery..engines, military tanks, miltary vehicules, suspensions, trucks etc..and they needed a professional design studio with a proffessionel trained Designer: anatol Lapine.

One would think our "hero" Butzi would be perfect to lead this new office but they choose rather Lapine.
Butzi "lingered" on with his studio at the factory (for the 917 ' graphic design race dept chief Ferdinand Piech gave Lapine the job by bypassing Butzi..) until he received ownership stocks in late 72..which guaranteered him a pretty easy life w no worries when later designing watches, bycicles and pipes.

I think however he did design the shape of the 904, the only car to his credit.
Much easier to design since the chassis (which he shurely did not design) is not connected with the fiberglass shape. One can clearly see influences of the Ferrari 250 Le Mans and even its a nice shape, its rather traditional.

As for the 901...it finally looked very similar to a 356..designed by Komenda.
We might never know the truth as most actors are now dead.
But if one reads the Autobiography of Piech one could think It was Ferry Porsche and Ferdinand Piech who built the 901/911, together with Metzger (engine) and Komenda (Design process).

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As for Fuchs wheels, most credits go to Heinrich Klie (who probably also was responsable for designing the 914 -where the hell was Butzi ?!: Komenda was dead in 1966 and rather than giving the task to Butzi...they gave the 914 to be designed by Klie-.
Aichele describes the fascinating story of the Fuchs wheel in his book and i can only recommend to read it.

Here are a few pics.
The interior dept, run by Heinrich Klie, pictured left.



A well known shot of the Fuchs wheel in process, including the mock up (Klie is far right, grey hair)



A picture of young Klie, with a unknown Porsche dashboard mock up..including steering wheel

[911T1971]

As for Erwin Komenda. most likely the "true" designer of the 901 and many other Porsche cars, here is a site put up by his family in Austria. Interesting to know that Komenda held most patents for the 901 design process as well as many for the 904...He died in 1966. As family members report on their site, since Komenda was by law a simple employe for the Porsche factory, all his paperwork and development scetches were confiscated and probably until today are stored at the factory.
http://www.komenda-porsche-designer.at

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one this site one can read two interesting interviews:


2000: Ferdinand Piëch: Komenda developed Car body of 911
Ferdinand Piëch, a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, Austrian engineer and business magnate, who is currently the chairman of the supervisory board of Volkswagen Gruop.

TIME: Each is measured by his ancestors?

Piech: A little bit. My grandfather I think is a genius. Less in inventing - I too am no great inventor - but rather in finding the right people. I have known him even too less. In the time, in which I could capture his person, he and my father stayed in French custody for three-quarter years.

But I knew his core staff. These were Erwin Komenda, who designed the car body of the Beetle, the 356 and the 911 Porsche, Karl Rabe, the engine designer, he built the Auto Union 16-cylinder and also worked on the beetle engine; Josef Mickl, who built airplane and aircraft engines during the First World War, he was the theoretician of my grandfather; Finally, Franz Xaver Reimspieß who has worked conceptually for my grandfather and invented the Volkswagen logo.
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and

2013: Designer Thomas Freeman: FOR ME IT WAS KOMENDA
Interview with Freeman Thomas, an American automobile and industrial designer, who has worked for Porsche, Volkswagen Group, DaimlerChrysler and Ford.

INHABITAT: Are there any vehicles that have had a particular impact on you or influenced your design style?
Thomas: VW Beetle and the early Porsches.
INHABITAT: Are there any designers you look up to in the auto industry or in other design disciplines? Who is your favorite architect and why?

Thomas: For me it was Erwin Komenda as a designer and engineer.



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and, most interesting:
Christophorus 1966. "The porsche form was basicially his work"




last but not least, the site also list an almost surreal observation, taken at the Porsche Museum.
there are 3 cars, all designed by Komenda. But instead, its all Porsche.
If it defines the company's owners, then the last "F.A Porsche" info is wrong.
if it defines however designers of all 3 cars then 2 or most likely all 3 names are probably wrong, even "F.A.Porsche* gets all credits. (And where is Piech ?)
It could mean simply the time line of three cars, but again F.A had brothers also involved within the firm. While no info is legally wrong, it rather tells that family members were everything while others were invisible.

[LongRanger]

Fascinating, fascinating, Karim . . .

. . . especially regarding the source of their capital



As for Mr Komenda? . . .

[mimimemegna]

Interesting..

[LongRanger]

. . . another account . . .
http://www.komenda-porsche-designer.at/secret-history/

[Merv]

Interesting post and informative additional views. I guess we all suspect that Komenda had a/the major role in many of these designs - but he was hired by and worked for, Porsche under their supervision. Butzi is the enigma. If he did design the beautiful 904, who not have leading hand in another car as well? We may never know.

[StephenAcworth]

Thanks for pulling these things together, Karim... Thiriar's work should be put into a book...

[911T1971]

Once you dig deeper it looks like it was teamwork by Komenda, Klie and Schröder. Not only at the 901 but also for the 904.

Butzi had no prior knowledge of car design and by around 1968ish was replaced/sidelined by Lapine. Komenda held all body construction patents for 901 but also for the 904. As for the engine, it was Metzger together with Piech plus their team. However since all factory team members were simple employes of their company, of course they had no right to speak or getting credit.
Looks like the factory then constructed a myth, no doubt to construct a family line of Ferdinand > Ferry > Butzi.
Also, from a marketing/selling point of view it makes much more sense and was much more appealing to the public.

Butzi probably had indeed design qualities as his office showed later with watches and other small stuff.

But he probably got too much credit for the 901/904 and -back then- nobody cared.
It was a very hierachical structure/society and what was told by Porsche was never questioned.

Looks like either fully beleiving the factory version or maybe reading btw the lines.

[haul]

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...ned-911-a.html