How different things are these days...

[ianc]

I was rereading an old volume of 'Up-fixin', and ran across this quote from Chuck Stoddard (then PCA chairman) about the development of the 917. Dated Oct of 78:

There are some very gifted people at Porsche and the key to it is that there are a few high officials in that company who could probably blow off most of the people in this room on the race track. They are excellent drivers. They know what makes a car a car. They are not the kind of walnut desk executives that you might expect on a board of directors. Consequently, everybody at Porsche is conscious of the entire car. As engineers see their ideas transformed into hardware and winning world championships, I am sure that must compensate them as much as working for money. This, perhaps, is a good explanation of why Porsche and the 917 have been so successful. Doing it better is a way of life at Porsche and innovative solutions for technical problems forged in the heat of competition with the 917 continue to find new uses in the cars we drive every day.

kinda brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it? Instead of this:



We have this:



Instead of this:



We have this:



Oh for a time machine and the days of grease and glory...

ianc

[randywebb]

Absolutely.

Great pic of Dr. Wienie King, BTW.

[dd74]

And now for an updated viewpoint:

Taken from Motor Trend, May 2006: "Command Performance" an interview with Amedeo Felisa, Engineer and Product Developer for Ferrari SpA, when asked of today's car companies who was "on their game," Felisa's response was:

Porsche.

[livi]

Those were the Good Ol´Days.

On the other hand - the guy in the SUV seems to have picked up a pretty girl anyway..

[slyguy]

and her teenager...

[450knotOffice]

It's a bit sad but the world is a different place now. Porsche is making obscene money, so from a business standpoint they are doing things right.

[aigel]

While the guy may look like a clown to you, he wears a traditional carnival cap. You won't find many officials and politicians that do not wear such a carnival hat and have a speach every year.

Let's not forget that Porsche almost went belly up in the 80s. While I hate to see Porsche SUVs and other strangely designed vehicles where function follows form, it still beats having them bought out. Things could be a LOT worse. A large percentage of Porsches are still made in Germany or at least in central Europe. Would that still be the case if VW would have bougth them? Wiedeking is commited to keep Porsche in Germany. One of the few CEOs that understands that he has to keep business in Germany and not look towards making the last penny with going east.

And let's not forget some of the strange stuff Porsche did in the "good old days". The 914? 924?

Before you get too nostaligic, do not forget that you can still get a respectable 911 turbo these days along with the GT3 and GT2 for the track oriented customer. That car can still be photographed in the same manner than that air cooled early relative. If the GT2 flies by you on the front straight at - what - 8400 rpm?, I bet you it will still give you goose bumps - ugly inner door handles and all.

George

[DARISC]

FWIW, Stoddard's name brought back a childhood memory. I lived about 8 miles from his dealership in Willoughby, Ohio.

He was an Alfa dealer then - don't recall seing any Porsches (but then I was unenlightened in my early teen years, didn't like Porsches so I wouldn't have paid them any attention or remembered if they were there).

It sticks in my mind that he raced Giuletta's & I think won SCCA championships. Also stuck in my head is that either he or one of his employees told me and my buddies about the the straight pipe exhaust he'd designed that was the hot ticket for the racing Alfa's back then - scientifically designed for just the right back pressure.

I think he was at that time a relatively recent MIT graduate at that time and my buddies & I were all impressed by this high tech (that term didn't even exist then) dude (nor that one) - even if he treated us non- money bearing teenagers with a touch of arrogance.

[Svensson911T]

I perfer the 911, but I still think that Porsche makes the best SUV. Some people need more than 2 seats, and here the Porsche SUV is the way to go.

[ianc]

ianc

[SC Schrauber]

Originally posted by Svensson911T
I perfer the 911, but I still think that Porsche makes the best SUV. Some people need more than 2 seats, and here the Porsche SUV is the way to go.

True, Porsche still has a nice reputation but - a Porsche should be a sports car. Let's be honest, generally SUV's are not utilized at all. IMHO SUV's are unneccessary gas hogs. We have a Eurovan camper ( huge, 22mpg, rock solid, <20k back then). A Porsche SUV is a status symbol, nothing to do what we share every day: driving experience. Porsche should stick to what they did best - 911's in its' various editions up to te 997 and revive the spirit of the old days. But I also see the reality of the Frankfurter Boerse and NYSE.
Conclusion: I keep driving my gorgeous SC and enjoy it.

[randywebb]

Agree - for > 2 seats, you want a sedan - add interior cargo capacity by getting a stn. wagon (the little BMW is nice). Beyond that a mini-van, etc.

Add AWD for snow, ski area access, etc.

An SUV _only_ makes sense if you need some of the above + ground clearance for off-road, or as I call it, really bad 'roads.' If I didn't need to do that, I sure wouldn't have one.

AIgel makes a good point re the finances. Nontheless, I think the pendulum has swung too far. Businesses that think they are in business to make money rather than to make a particular product will ultimately fail - GM is one.

[Steve@Rennsport]

Originally posted by aigel
Wiedeking is commited to keep Porsche in Germany. One of the few CEOs that understands that he has to keep business in Germany and not look towards making the last penny with going east. George

Hi George:

Too late, Sir.

You'll find the sources in Panorama & Cristophorus, but the current car's components are now outsourced from all over the World. For example, 996-997 manual transmissions are made by Aisin in Japan and that list shows all of the other parts that are made outside Germany.

Globalization has already arrived at Porsche.

[randywebb]

Yup. ---> Wiedeking is commited to keeping Porsche [final assembly] in Germany.

[newbe911]

Why most people that have an SUV is they bought it so they wouldn't have to get down on their hands to get in and out of it.
We as sports car owners put up with this so we can have the fun of driving it but on a day to day basis I use my truck. As we get older our knees don't bend like they use to and it sure is easier to put packages in a auto that is taller.

[Markus33]

I'm not entirely convinced that a buyout by VW would have been a bad thing for Porsche. It seems that Ferrari has been able to maintain their roots though majority owned by Fiat for some time now.

Markus
'80 SC Targa

[Craig 930 RS]

Still, Porsche kicks butt in the sports car category. TIme after time, each vehicle is superior.

They made changes to stay alive..........the early and mid 1990s were almost the end.

IMO they've done everything necessary and correct to stay building vehicles, and damn good ones at that. The alternative (OOB) was unacceptable.

[87924gt]