The Disturbing History Of Porsche

Behind the Porsche brand there is a prodigious but dark

history

, a story of success, tragedy, innovation and destruction, but to make sense of all this we have to go back in time, where it all began. 1898 Ferdinand Porsche had just left his job to launch a new career in the automobile world. During the following decades, he created some of the fastest and most innovative vehicle designs for other automobile manufacturers, becoming one of the best engineers in the world. all time and yet after founding his own car company, his success disappointed him. a darker path when Porsche became involved in military projects for the Nazi regime that landed him in prison and eventually even cost him his life, so buckle up because we're going on a journey to discover Porsha's true story and how they managed to transform.

They became one of the largest luxury car brands known today. Ferdinand Porsche was born in September 1875 in a small town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now the territory of the Czech Republic, while wagons, trains and bicycles were the main transportation at that time and the first automobiles slowly spread around everyone. Porsche grew up learning the trait from his father, who ran a blacksmithing business; However, he never showed a personal interest in a family business and instead focused primarily on school in hopes of finding his career elsewhere, unfortunately for Ferdinand. He lost his older brother when he was 14, which led him to drop out of school and work full-time in his father's shop, as he was now the eldest son overseeing the family business.

These times proved to be difficult for Ferdinand, as he reluctantly followed in his father's footsteps into a job he never enjoyed, however, there was something else he found satisfaction exploring in his free time: electricity in the era when Candles and gas lights were still common, but by the end of the 19th century electric light bulbs were slowly becoming the new Porsche norm. became obsessed with the light bulb and began experimenting with electrical circuits in the attic of his house, his father on the other hand was not happy with his new hobby and frequently told him to stop dealing with such nonsense, but after noticing how passionate and Obsessed, Fernando dedicated himself to electricity and decided to enroll his son in the Reichenberg Imperial Technical School to develop his engineering knowledge.

There Porsha quickly learned the basics and within a few months of starting his studies he was able to build his own electric generator and install electricity. light bulbs all over the house at this point his father could no longer ignore his son's talent and finally relented and let him follow his own path, little did they know that this New Path would continue to help Pioneer in a new automobile industry . In 1893, at the age of 18, Ferdinand left home and took his first job at Bella Egger and Co, a manufacturer of electrical machinery in the city of Vienna.

There he was soon recognized for his traits as a brilliant and skilled engineer and quickly rose. through the ranks becoming the man in charge during his time at Bella Edgar Ferdinand Porsha built the company's first electric wheel hub motor. This electric motor was intended to be attached to the wheel of any vehicle and make it move directly at the time it was commonly only used for bicycles, but shortly after Ferdinand was developing other ideas for this motor, at this time the first Automobiles began to emerge in the region and created enormous enthusiasm not only among the people but also among engineers who were looking for ways to enter the new industry and Ferdinand was no exception after five years working for Bella Edgar, DEC decided to leave his job and began working for Jacob Loner and Co, who had recently stopped producing carriages to focus on building self-propelled vehicles.

It was here that 23-year-old Ferdinand used his electric motors to build his first car, the Porsche P1. The Porsche P1 was an all-electric car built with a wooden cart and had a range of approximately 49 miles. The car was designed for racing, but it was so impressive because of the heavy lead acid batteries. He was driving the car and could only go 21 miles per hour. It is important to note that cars of that era were not yet considered a means of transportation, but were primarily built for racing and tested for racing throughout Europe and America. Porsche continued to improve its vehicle design until 1900, when it added an internal combustion engine to power the vehicle's electric motors, creating the world's first gasoline-electric hybrid automobile.

The Loner Porsche electromobile, this new vehicle would win in several motorsports events. Although it broke several Austrian speed records traveling at a top speed of 36 miles per hour, although Porsche's hybrid vehicle is a brilliant work of mechanical art and far ahead of its time, it also demonstrated why electric cars failed at over decades. A weight of almost two tons stopped the development of an electric car for almost a century. The collaboration between Porsche and Loner ended a few years later and soon afterward the automobile manufacturer Ostrodeimler hired Porsche as its chief designer. Daimler was then the leader in its sector. of modern combustion engines and it was here that Porsche designed its first purely gasoline-powered automobile, the Astro Daimler Maya, in 1908.

His stay at the company proved to be a great springboard in his career that led to his big break in the racing world when he developed his next automobile, the Austro Daimler model 2780, this 85 horsepower vehicle was capable of top speeds of 85 miles per hour and was built specifically for the popular Prince Henry test race in 1910, where He obtained a first victory, second and third place. This victory earned him The young mechanic gained popularity and justified the appointment of him as a teacher in the company. However, when the First World War broke out in 1914, a rush to produce war supplies spread across Europe and the manufacturer Ostrodeimler contributed large quantities of machinery to the Austro-Hungarian army.

He also joined the fold and made a name for himself by creating innovative designs for military aircraft and airship engines, as well as artillery tractors such as the M17 Goliath, establishing himself as one of the greatest engineers of his time after the war ended in 1918. Porsche returned to building racing cars and in 1922 another car left the factory: the Astro Daimler. Sasha Porsche believed that building a vehicle smaller than its competitors would allow its racing cars to outperform those with much larger engines, so it put its newly built car to the test, to the surprise of many, Sasha would win an impressive amount of 43 out of 53 races, including the Florio goal in 1922.

The following year, Ferdinand Porsche moved to Stuttgart, the capital of Germany, and became the technical director and chief engineer of the Daimler division, which later merged with Benzen Sea to become Daimler Benz, during his time at Daimler Benz Porsha would design and build the luxurious Mercedes-Benz S Series, which more or less paved the way for high-performance sports cars that were suitable for both racing and driving. public. and in 1928 Ferdinand Porsche introduced what is arguably one of the best and fastest sports cars of its time, the Mercedes-Benz ssk, the ssk or Super Sport Curts had a 7.1-liter six-cylinder engine powered by 200 a 300 horsepower, even the slowest of its versions came with a maximum speed of 190 kilometers per hour and those with 300 horsepower could reach 235 kilometers per hour.

This Mercedes-Benz model became the overall champion of the Argentine 500 in 1929, followed by further victories in the Córdoba Grand Prix races of 1929 and 1930, as well as the 1930 Irish Grand Prix. , the winning streak continued with several more Grand Prix victories until reaching its peak in 1931, when they achieved another first place victory in Melamelia's career at that time was the best. The fastest and most valuable sports vehicle in the world. Porsche also built a Slicker version of the ssk, the Trossi Roadster, which became a phenomenon for the extravagant appearance of its body and further established itself as one of the best automobile designers of its time;

However, shortly after the car was introduced Ferdinand Porsche had grown tired of the creative differences between him and the Mercedes-Benz board of directors, so he left the company and went to work for another automaker, unfortunately that one. Company collapsed shortly after mainly due to the Great Depression and Porsche now became unemployed despite the economic crisis. It was at this time that he decided to make the most important decision of his career by founding his own automobile company Porsche GmbH. He brought in many of his former associates to work at his new company and probably the most important of all, the Porsche Fairy.

Ferdinand's own son, like his father, Ferry also became interested in design and engineering. He showed great promise by learning his profession quickly, working when and where he could to demonstrate his abilities to his talented father. Initially, the Porsche company did not start building cars under its own brand, but instead offered engine development and consulting projects for other car manufacturers. However, despite being one of Germany's most famous engineers, there was a major problem: customers were not coming to the country at the time, it was still recovering from the economic ruins of the First World War and the demand for public cars was almost non-existent while the business struggled to get off the ground.

Ferdinand received a letter one day that would completely change the trajectory of the company, and it came from a rather surprising foreign source. In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor. from Germany and took a special interest in automobiles, recruiting the country's best automobile engineers, including Porsche, and sitting in on an important meeting. The Mad Titan wanted every German citizen to have a car that would seat a family of five and be fuel efficient and cheap, in fact, so cheap that it would cost 990 Reichsmarks, which many engineers considered impossible. He called it Volkswagen or the people's car. Porsche submitted his design and won the contract for Hitler.

This alliance established an unusual but excellent relationship between The two Hitlers needed a creative mind to design their ambitious automobile, while Porsha needed political backing for her company so she wouldn't have to worry about money or finances, so in 1934 Porsche and His team began working on building one of the most successful automobiles. In human

history

, the Volkswagen Beetle, the Volkswagen Type 1, later known as the Beetle because of its body shape, was a two-door car with an air-cooled engine in the rear, which helped it The engine required minimal maintenance and made steering easier thanks to its weight balance.

It also proved to be very fuel efficient with its mileage of 31.4 miles per gallon, which is still impressive even for By today's standards, just after 300,000 orders for the Beetle had been placed, it was the greatest achievement Porsche had achieved up to that point. and now he was ready to see his Creation at work; However, as the Volkswagen factory prepared to mass produce the car, another major event was occurring that would directly send Porsche's once brilliant career down a darker path. Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939, which led Britain and France to declare war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II.

Suddenly, general production of the Beetle was immediately suspended when the Volkswagen factory began making From war production his first priority being one of the best engineers at Porsche inevitably became involved in military projects for the Nazi army. He began developing all-terrain military vehicles and battle machinery such as the shimwagen, the military version of the beetle, the elephant tank destroyer, and the V1 flying bomb missile. However, although Porsche was among Hitler's favorite engineers when it came to designing tanks, he was unable to meet Hitler's expectations. You see, Hitler held a contest to see who would win the contract to mass produce the Tiger, a heavy tank that would be used.

In this case, in the war, Porsche designed for the Ferdinand a hybrid tank that could run on gasoline-electric transmissions. Although the tank was a revolutionary design, its engines were too complicated and over-engineered, causinga lot of problems and finally broke down during the test, but after. By losing the contest to Henschel and Son Porsche he found himself in a big mess before even presenting his prototype. He had already built 100 chassis for his concept to save his designs. The Germans converted 90 Ferdinand heavy tanks into tank destroyers and renamed them anti-elephants. Tanks became very effective in war, but due to their engine and mobility problems, most of them broke down and were lost on the battlefield.

The Porsche company also reportedly used slave workers at its Stuttgart factory, although the company had previously denied them. accusations and defended themselves by claiming to be a small office during the war, then admitted their crimes after dozens of people spoke out in the late 20th century detailing their capture and forced labor conditions at Porsche plans at the hands of the German regime along with In response to this, dozens or even hundreds of Porsche people have donated millions of euros to funds and compensation for victims of forced labor. Nowadays, at that time it was common practice for German factories that had large numbers of workers to use slave labor, often prisoners of war who were paid little or nothing and often worked to death;

However, despite working with the Nazis, Ferdinand Porsche did not really agree with their ideology, he was rarely known to raise his arm in the Hitler salute and always wore his baggy gray coat. stood out during marches in a sea of ​​brown uniforms, as for the SS rank he received from the Nazi party, Porsha simply ignored it, he was only interested in growing his business and supplying what the government needed at the time despite their practices. inhuman. Thanks to his contributions, the Porsche company went from making profits of 3,000 Reichsmarks in 1934 to more than 2 million in 1944. However, his participation in the war efforts.

It took a heavy toll after the war ended Ferdinand Porsche was arrested by the French government and sent to prison for war crimes due to his membership in the SS and his close relationship with Hitler. With him in prison, it was now up to one man to take charge of the war. torch and lead the Porsche brand in a new and brighter direction that man was the only son of Ferdinand foreign Porsche fairy you know, while making this video I asked myself if Ferdinand Porsha started a new career today, what would he do differently ? It's changed since then and it's safe to say that learning online is one of the best ways to get started.

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Ferry raised the necessary money by signing a contract with the Italian automobile manufacturer sis Italia where he built the sicitalia 360, an extremely advanced vehicle for his time. It was intended to participate in Grand Prix races, but due to the company's financial resources and a rule change in the competition, it was never put on the track. Fortunately, Ferry received his share in advance and was able to free his father after 22 months behind bars. Unfortunately, the terrible conditions in which the French kept Ferdinand prisoner led directly to his irreversible illness that disturbed him until his last breath, so, as Ferdinand's poor health prevented his return to work, the responsibility fell on the fairy Porsche to take a step forward and apply his father's ideas.

When he arrived at his new company, he realized that the car manufacturer he had previously worked for, Sicitalia, made small Fiat-powered sports cars, so he wondered why we couldn't do the same with parts. from Volkswagen. He met with the CEO of Volkswagen and agreed. agreement that would allow her to use his parts as well as the distribution of his network. He also provided documents proving that the Volkswagen Beetle was developed by his father before the war, which led Volkswagen to agree to pay a licensing fee to Porsche for each VW Beetle they built. These negotiations demonstrated that Ferry was not only an expert engineer but also a brilliant businessman.

Most importantly, these agreements with Volkswagen gave the Porsche company the financial resources it needed to begin experimenting and developing its own vehicles, so in 1948 Ferry introduced the first automobile to bear the family name, the Porsche. 356, The 356 was a small two-door Roadster powered by an air-cooled Volkswagen engine and had a top speed of 87 miles per hour. It wasn't the most powerful car nor was it. It was the fastest but fantastic Porsche continued to improve the design and eventually made it faster and smoother to drive. He took the vehicle to race that same year in the city of Innsbruck, Austria, where it scored a first-place victory, laying the foundation for Porsche's future success in Racing World.

Although its sales were initially low, the 350 6 was very successful. beloved among car enthusiasts, including Fairy's father, who was very proud of his son and supported the car's successful debut. Ferdinand Portia also visited the Volkswagen factory once again in 1950 and was happy to Unfortunately, he was not around long enough to see how the Beetle or the Porsche brand would expand around the world, as he died just a year later, a the age of 75 years. Shortly after his death, sales became a reality. The Porsche 356 skyrocketed after winning a race at Le Mans in 1951 and soon after new models such as the 356 Speedster and 356 Carrera were also offered to the public, quickly capturing the hearts of many sports drivers and celebrities, but while the 356 marked a milestone At that time in Porsche history it was still just a variation of the Beetle with minor changes.

Porsche customers at the time were increasingly tired of their body design, so they needed to design and build something completely new while still being recognizable as their brand which it was until the day one of the fairy's children stepped in and introduced a new vehicle that would take the Porsche brand to a whole new level abroad and Alexander Porsche, like his father, Ferry followed in the family's footsteps from the beginning and was actively involved in the automobile industry, but he was more interested in design and did not consider himself an engineer but rather a talented craftsman in modelling.

After receiving practical training in Porsche's body design department, he decided to participate in the creation of its new generation of automobiles and began designing one of the most iconic sports cars in modern history, the 911, the Porsche 911 was much more powerful than the 356. It replaced the four-cylinder of its predecessor with a six-cylinder boxer engine and stood out for having an air-cooled engine at the rear, which due to its weight balance, improved steering. and vehicle acceleration, these elements combined allowed for a driving experience so smooth that it could not be matched by any other car and unlike many other sports cars, the 911 was not only fast but also very reliable.

In fact, it is estimated that more than 70 percent of all 911s manufactured to date are still on the road. The new model was launched in September 1964 and in the following years it quickly became their best-selling vehicle, regardless of how unique its style or driving experience was. Porsha continued to deliver what people wanted, launching faster models with more powerful horsepower, such as the 911 Carrera S and 911 Turbo, which boosted the company's annual sales to more than 20,000 units in the 1970s and , however, despite already establishing itself as one of the best sports cars. The car manufacturers, the 911, went even further by expanding into the world of racing and this was another field in which Porsche once again excelled.

The car debuted on the track at the 1965 Monte Carlo rally, where it took a respectable fifth place in the following years. Porsche improved its performance and achieved three consecutive victories in the Monte Carlo Rally from 1968 to 1970. From then on, the new model won in almost all other motorsport events, such as the Targa Florio, the Paris Dakar, the 24 Daytona Hours and many other rally and GT championships became one of the most successful racing cars in history, but around that same time the Porsche fairy sadly abandoned her position in the company and, since none of her children were interested In taking his position, the family council decided to split the company's shares and leave another person in charge, marking the end of the family's involvement in the company;

However, Porsha continued to update with better and sportier vehicles, further establishing itself as one of the leading sports car brands on the market, but nothing lasts forever. Time was just around the corner for Porsche and to survive they would make one of their most drastic decisions. However, in 1986, a large drop in the dollar exchange rate and the overall cost of producing high-quality vehicles caused the Porsche Company many problems. In 1991, their sales fell to 23,000 units, half the cars they had sold just five years earlier. The company's losses amounted to 240 million German marks and, by the end of 1993, Porsche was barely managing to sell around 14,000 units per year. year in simple terms they were on the brink of disaster, the company needed to do something quickly or risk bankruptcy, so they made the bold decision to announce that they were going to enter the SUV business at the time when SUVs were going down. becoming the new trend and for the same surpassed the sales of normal passenger cars in the United States for the first time in 1999, however, the project received many negative reactions and the reason behind this is not difficult to see that Porsche, by tradition, always had manufactured high-quality luxury sports cars capable of performing on the road as well as off-road. on the race track, so building a family SUV didn't sit well with the brand;

In fact, it was going to be the first time that a Porsche car would have four doors despite all the controversy that Porsche presented with the Cayenne in 2002 and until. To the surprise of many, it not only became their best-selling vehicle, but also the the fan favorite. You see, the Cayenne might have looked different, but it still contained the same features that many lovers of the brand were familiar with, such as solid driving performance and reliability, and thanks. Thanks to its luxurious interior space and comfort, sales of the Cayenne ended up saving the company from bankruptcy.

Today, the Cayenne and more recently the Macan account for more than 70 percent of Porsche sales in the United States and are considered by some to be the sportiest SUVs in the world. In the market, the brand has never lost touch with its sports car roots and its new models, such as the Porsche Panamera and the all-electric Tycon, are among the best-selling sports vehicles to date. Porsche is now owned by the Volkswagen group and remains one of them. of the world's most important luxury car brands. I hope you enjoyed the video and don't forget to like and subscribe until then.

See you next time.