[wayner]

This thread brings up an interesting point that has often been on my mind:

Just because that is the way the Porsche factory did it, does it make it the best way to do it (whatever "it" is)?

My understanding with the tail is that it sits high because the originals were laminated to the standard deck-lid frame rather than designing a new piece. To my mind that is a perfectly acceptable solution if you are a race team trying to make the grid, but for a car manufacturer, I would expect more refinement, but, I think that is the point.

Porsche was less of a production car manufacturer and more of an engineering company and race car manufacturer with a few street models from their early days including that period were they not?

Another example that amazed me as I learned about these cars was that the turbo flares were welded on instead of stamping new panels.

There must be other examples that I am eager to learn about, but it certainly points to their skill as craftsmen being able to adapt work arounds that required highly skilled workers, rather than changing the design at great cost for small production numbers (enabling less skilled workers to do the assembly).