For the Love of the Sports Car
The successful story of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, as the Company stands today, would be inconceivable without the lifetime achievement of Ferry Porsche. For it was under his guidance that the engineering office established by his father Ferdinand Porsche became an independent car manufacturer presenting the first sports car to bear the name Porsche in 1948 - Porsche Type 356."At the beginning I looked around, but I could not find the car I was dreaming of. So I decided to build it myself." Building the Porsche 356 and, later, the Porsche 911, Ferry Porsche consistently lived out his dream of "driving in its most beautiful form". With a precise feeling for each and every detail, he set the foundation for the Porsche brand values applicable to this very day. As the Managing Director and Chairman of the Supervisory Board he shaped the destiny of the Porsche Company for five long decades. In particular, it was his achievement as a visionary and an outstanding entrepreneur to make Porsche the world's leading manufacturer of sports cars.
When Professor Dr. Ing. h.c. Ferdinand Anton Ernst "Ferry" Porsche passed away on 27 March 1998, he left the world as one of the last great automobile men. His lifetime achievement for the automobile gave him a position in the European Automotive Hall of Fame, his name is mentioned together with the likes of Gottlieb Daimler, Carl Benz, Henry Ford or Enzo Ferrari. On 19 September 2009 Ferry Porsche would be celebrating his 100th birthday.
A Childhood Among Cars
The son of automotive engineer and constructor Ferdinand Porsche and his wife Aloisia, Ferry Porsche was born in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, on 19 September 1909. The fact that the automobile was to shape his life and destiny became apparent on the very first day of his life: On the day of his birth, Ferry Porsche's father Ferdinand was at the wheel of the Austro-Daimler racing car he had built himself, scoring a class victory in the Semmering Hillclimb Race.
While the heir to the Porsche family was named Ferdinand Anton Ernst, he received his "real" name, which accompanied him for life, from his nurse, who was the first to call him "Ferry". Together with his sister Louise five years his senior, Ferry Porsche grew up in a well-to-do home, where again everything revolved around the automobile. As the Chief Engineer of the Austrian Austro-Daimler-Werke, Ferry's father Ferdinand Porsche consistently worked on new ideas and constructions in automotive engineering. As Ferry Porsche later stated himself, "I was always convinced that I had been born in a car, so it was wonderful listening to my father for hours, with him talking about cars and motor racing and telling us exciting stories". Thrilled by the world of machines, young Ferry obviously loved spending his time at the nearby Austro-Daimler Plant.
When he was allowed at the young age of ten to try out his skills for the first time sitting on the lap of his father, Ferry Porsche soon had the wish to one day build and drive his own car. And what remains a dream for nearly all young boys of this age, quite soon became reality for the son of the already famous automotive engineer on Christmas Day 1919. His father had a small two-seater built in the Plant's Apprentice Department, powered by an air-cooled six-bhp two-cylinder and able to reach an impressive 60 km/h. Driving the "Ziegenbockwagen", as the family called this very special vehicle (which almost translates into English as the "goatmobile"), Ferry Porsche enjoyed a number of lengthy trips on public roads as his first real experience at the wheel.
Although the little car did not even have numberplates and the driver naturally had no driver's licence, "the police in Wiener Neustadt tended to look the other way whenever I came down the road thanks to the position of my father", said Ferry Porsche later.