A particular highlight in these early years of his life was the opportunity to drive the "Sascha" racing car built by Austro-Daimler on the Plant's running-in track in Wiener Neustadt in 1922. Indeed, young Ferry, now twelve years old, was so thrilled by this 45-bhp Targa Florio winner capable of a top speed of 144 km/h or almost 90 mph that he decided to soon build his own racing machine. This, however, was not to be, since in March 1923 Ferdinand Porsche left Austro-Daimler and joined Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in Stuttgart-Untertrkheim as their Technical Director and Board Member.
Spending his Youth in Stuttgart
Moving to Stuttgart, Ferdinand Porsche jr. entered a new phase in his life. Attending the Gottlieb-Daimler Secondary School in Cannstatt, he had to find new friends - some of whom remained his friends for life. One of his closest acquaintances at the time was Albert Prinzing, later to become a Professor and Managing Director at Porsche, who described his first meeting with Ferry Porsche on the occasion of the latter's 75th birthday as follows: "Along came a young Austrian with long hair entering our class at school. His haircut was a bit like Hindenburg, he was wearing trousers we had never seen before he called `knickerbockers`, and even back then he was what today you would call a trendsetter, since we, too, soon started growing our hair longer and knickerbockers became really popular in our class."
Throughout his whole life, Ferry Porsche was known and admired as much for his fine and exquisite taste as he was for his consistency and perseverance in maintaining and enhancing human relations. He was friends for life with Manfred Behr, the son of the Behr radiator dynasty, their close friendship going all the way back to the days of their practical training together. Another new highlight in the life of Ferry Porsche leaving the same stamp on the young man as his school was the family's new residence they moved into in December 1923. Built by the famous architect Paul Bonatz in the north of Stuttgart, the Porsche Mansion became the family's main residence and, together with the Schttgut Estate in the Austrian town of Zell am See, a focal point in the life of Ferry Porsche where automobile history was to be written.
Like in the "old days" in Wiener Neustadt, Ferdinand Porsche was eager to involve his son in his work in Stuttgart. Receiving a special permit, Ferry Porsche was licensed to drive a motorised vehicle as of the age of only 16, and was therefore able from now on to drive all the prototypes his father brought home from the Daimler Plant in Untertrkheim. He also accompanied his father on long test drives through the Black Forest, impressing passers-by at the wheel of those mighty Mercedes supercharged `kompressor' models.