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.