RETROspective - The Porsche 911 - Part One

I’d been putting off writing the Porsche 911 RETROspective article.

We’ve been publishing this feature for almost a year now and the 911 was always near the top of the list of cars to cover, however we kept pushing it back further and further because it’s still in production.

While the Mustang, Camaro, MINI, Fiat 500 and many more are also still in production, they are modern interpretations of the originals, rather than an ever-growing evolution that has spanned over four decades.

The history of the 911 is vast and each and every incarnation has evolved out of the last which makes it very difficult to pick reference points when we talk about the car as it will continue to grow over the years to come.

However, last week we received some news that reverberated through the motoring world - the sad death of Ferdinand Alexander Porsche. As the mind that designed the 911 departs this world, we thought that this was as good a time as any to finally take the plunge into the car’s history.

Having said that, we thought it wouldn’t be right to detract from the news of Mr Porsche’s sad demise, and therefore we have turned this into a two part feature. The history of the 911 will follow next week.

In the mean time, it is only right that we salute a true legend of automotive design.

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche died on 5 April 2012 in Salzburg, aged 76.

As the eldest son of Dorothea and Ferry Porsche, even his childhood was dominated by automobiles. He spent much time in the construction areas and development workshops of his grandfather Ferdinand Porsche.

In 1962 he became head of the Porsche Design Studio and a year later created the 901 - which was re-named the 911 following a legal dispute. The car was designed to be a supercar that could be used every day. 

Built as a more powerful, larger and more comfortable replacement for the 356, the 911 made its public debut at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show.

At this point it still carried the 901 name, it was forced to alter this before lauch after Peugeot played it’s trump card of owning exclusive rights to car names formed by three numbers with a zero in the middle. While this only applied to cars sold in France, it was decided that the model number should be changed for all markets. 

Although the 911 is probably the most iconic gift that Ferdinand gave the world, he was also behind the Formula 1 race car type 804 and the Porsche 904 Carrera GTS. He also founded 'Design by Porsche' in 1974.

Everything he created had to fit with his conviction of: "Design must be functional, and functionality must be translated into visual aesthetics, without gimmicks that have to be explained.

"A formally coherent product needs no embellishment, it should be increased by a mere formality.

"The form should be presented to understand and not distract from the product and its function.

"Good design should be honest."