Historical Hindsight

Since we all know that the 911 is a genetic descendent of the VW, I thought some of you might like the following quote. It is from a royal commission (the Rootes Commission), set up in 1946 to examine whether the British government should appropriate the VW design of Dr Porsche and give it to British companies to produce:
"The vehicle does not meet the fundamental requirments of a motorcar. As regards performance and design it is quite unattractive to the average motorcar buyer. It is too ugly and too noisy ... To build the car commerically would be a completely uneconomic enterprise."

NB. The chairman of the commission, Lord Rootes, had his own car company, Rootes Motors, that was absorbed by Chrysler (I think) in the 1960s.

Be it known ... Henry Ford II also turned it down, so that makes two out of the big three, sort of. Certainly the logic didn't jive with the twisted thinking of British or American car execs of the time!

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

Good Lord, how could you get a VW to leak? The Brits would have found a way.
And a Bug with lucas electrics?? Ha, ha,ha, ha, ha, ha.