THE COMPLETE BOOK OF
PORSCHE 911
EVERY MODEL SINCE 1964
RANDY LEFFINGWELL
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION:
PREDECESSORS AND PROTOTYPES, 1948–1965
CHAPTER 1:
THE FIRST GENERATION, 1964–1969
CHAPTER 2:
THE FIRST GENERATION CONTINUES, 1970–1977
CHAPTER 3:
THE SECOND GENERATION, 1978–1983
CHAPTER 4:
THE SECOND GENERATION CONTINUES, 1984–1989
CHAPTER 5:
THE THIRD GENERATION APPEARS, 1989–1994
CHAPTER 6:
THE FOURTH GENERATION, 1994–1998
CHAPTER 7:
WATER COOLING DEFINES THE FIFTH GENERATION, 1998–2005
CHAPTER 8:
THE SIXTH GENERATION, 2005–ON
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
PREDECESSORS AND PROTOTYPES 1948–1965
1961 356B Carrera 2 Cabriolet
For several years this car was Ferry Porsche’s daily driver.
1949 356/2 COUPE
1951 356 COUPE
1952 356 AMERICA ROADSTER
1954 356 SPEEDSTER
1955 356A CONTINENTAL COUPE
1956 356A EUROPEAN COUPE
1957 356A SPEEDSTER
1958 356A HARDTOP CABRIOLET
1959 356A-1600GS/GT CARRERA
1952 TYP 530 CLAY MODEL
1960 356B CABRIOLET
1961 356B S90 ROADSTER
1961 356B 2000 GS CARRERA 2
1962 TYP 754 T7 COUPE
1964 356C COUPE
1965 356 SC CABRIOLET
A new car! For customers and automakers, this phrase signifies success, even as it hints at innumerable choices. Porsche’s first decade in business brought revenues and the confidence to undertake a second-generation vehicle. Customers liked the 356s that appeared in 1948 and the 356A models the company introduced in 1956. These automobiles embodied Ferry Porsche’s dream of honoring his father, Dr. Ing. h.c. Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche. But as Ferry related in a story he told countless times before his death in March 1998, when he looked around at the cars available to him 50 years earlier, he found nothing he liked. So with the help of his father’s engineering staff, he created his own and began manufacturing them in a former sawmill in Gmünd, Austria. By the early 1950s, after returning to prewar workshops in Stuttgart, Germany, customers let him know they wanted more power, less noise, a more spacious interior with larger rear seats, and additional luggage space.
Ferry Porsche’s first road cars fit the restrained attitudes prevalent in Europe following World War II. Body engineer Erwin Komenda developed beautifully proportioned coupes and open cars that slipped a function-hugging form around a driver and passenger. The 356 gave owners intimacy with style. Franz Reimspeiss’s air-cooled, opposed four-cylinder engines and Leopold Schmid’s stiff chassis offered lively, responsive driving experiences.
While Porsche assembled its earliest coupes in Gmünd, in the fall of 1948 the company approached Swiss coachbuilder Beutler Carrosserie to develop and manufacture convertibles. Ernst Beutler, a man of modest ambitions, stepped back from the project after completing a handful of cars. He doubted his ability to meet Porsche’s future demands. For Porsche, however, the timing was auspicious; while its factory space in Stuttgart had suffered damage from Allied bombs during the war, in the early 1950s, occupation forces allowed engineers, fabricators, mechanics, and assemblers to move back into the facilities. Next door, Reutter Carrosserie was anxious to take on new work.
Porsche assembled just 52 cars at the Gmünd facility. The coupes sold for 9,950DM, roughly $2,369, at a time when a loaf of bread cost 14 cents. This bench seat was standard equipment.
Porsche technicians assembled these earliest production coupes, known internally as 356/2, by hand in a former lumber mill in Gmünd, Austria, in the province of Carinthia. Porsche delivered this car on June 28, 1949, to Dr. Ernst Herschel.
Porsche supported automobile shows throughout Europe and the United Kingdom with sales people and vehicles. An Austrian with substantial ambitions, Maximilian Hoffman brought Porsche cars (as well as Mercedes-Benz, Jaguars, and Volkswagens) to the United States. His vigorous personality, effective salesmanship, and obsession with detail and perfection led to success with Porsches in America. He raced the cars and encouraged others to do the same, including an equally adventurous fellow Austrian, John von Neumann, who personally drove the cars to the West Coast for his own customers. As the American market grew, Hoffman and von Neumann convinced Stuttgart management to develop new versions for their sporting and racing customers. A trim America Roadster appeared in late 1951 and 1952, followed by the rakish Speedster in 1954. Engine chief Franz Reimspeiss developed power plants of 1.1-, 1.3-, and 1.5-liter displacements for Porsche’s growing product line. At the top of the performance spectrum, the new “four-cam” Carrera, designed by newcomer Ernst Fuhrmann, offered a 1.5-liter dual overhead camshaft flat four that produced 115 horsepower.
Ferdinand Porsche had died in January 1952, and his first generation of designers commingled with Ferry’s younger generation of engineers. One of these newcomers was Ferry’s son Ferdinand Alexander, known to family and friends as F. A. or Butzi. F. A. was among the first students at the Hochschule für Gestaltung, the upper school for art in nearby Ulm. This institution nurtured progressive designers, emphasizing the aesthetic of everyday objects and spaces and incorporating mathematics in the design process. The faculty taught creative minds such as F. A. to “reduce ornament to a fundamental and pure form of geometry.” With Germany in ruins after the war, the school pushed students to “start from new,” to feel little obligation to refer to or take from the past. In his brief time at Ulm, F. A. learned to question whether old techniques applied to new products, to develop independent thoughts and ideas, and to express them confidently. He left the school in 1957, just as his father confronted the need to develop Porsche’s first all-new product, a successor to the 356.
The coupes rode on a 2,100mm (82.7-inch) wheelbase and were 3,870mm (153.4 inches) long overall. They weighed about 765 kilograms, 1,683 pounds, and were capable of nearly 140 kilometers per hour, 88 miles per hour.
1951 356 1100 Coupe
The 44-horsepower 1,286cc (78.4-cubic-inch) Typ 506 engines first appeared in 1951. Manufactured in Stuttgart and assembled by Reutter, the cars had finned drum brakes with two front leading-shoes.
A year earlier, in 1956, the company had introduced its 356A series, with increased engine displacements of 1.3, 1.5, and 1.6 liters from Franz Reimspeiss’s engineers. Neighboring Reutter body works assembled these more potent coupes, cabriolets, and speedsters.
F. A.’s father, Ferry, welcomed the new approaches his son brought home. Five years earlier, Ferry had assigned Erwin Komenda to create a four-seater, designated Project 530. Komenda, whose job title translated as “thin metal technician,” had developed Porsche’s sheetmetal technology and done the company’s body design since 1931. His old-school technical education and dozens of years of Porsche experience convinced him that strong curves imparted strength and that wide surface edges for door cuts reduced stress to thin metal.
Acceleration from 0 to 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour took 22.0 seconds. The cars sold for 10,200DM, $2,429 at the time.
Porsche used Volkswagen’s 1,086cc (66.3-cubic-inch) air-cooled Typ 369 four-cylinder engine. It developed 40 horsepower at 4,000 rpm and drove through a four-speed transmission.
1952 Typ 540 America Roadster
Some sources say Porsche assembled between just 16 of these 605-kilogram (1
,331-pound) open cars. The 70-horsepower 1,500 S (91.5-cubic-inch) Typ 528 engines got them from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 10 seconds. All but one of the cars went directly to the United States for $4,600 each.
1954 Typ 540 Speedster
California Porsche distributor Johnny von Neumann imagined a Porsche not only for racing, but also for cruising. Porsche responded with the Typ 540 Speedster. Equipped with the Typ 546 55-horsepower 1,500 Normal engine or the 70-horsepower 1,500 S Typ 528/2, the company charged 12,200DM for the base model ($2,905).
That sufficed for their first model, but when Ferry first viewed the 530, he saw a swollen 356. Komenda’s philosophy held that any new Porsche must resemble what came before. From his son, Ferry concluded that what followed need not adhere to earlier concepts. Disappointed with Komenda’s effort, Ferry asked Max Hoffman to contact Count Albrecht Goertz, who had designed BMW’s sleek 507. Ferry provided him a set of dimensions, and eight months later Goertz delivered Project 695. Goertz was a German living and working in New York City, and U.S. design trends influenced his creation. The 695 incorporated quad headlights, the latest rage in American car styling. His roofline descended to rear fender height, although that line ended in abruptly angled surfaces sporting three taillights per side. Seen from the side, Goertz’s roof and front fender hinted at shapes to follow. However, the car just was too American for Ferry. It was around this time, in 1957, that F. A. joined the family firm, first assigned to work for overall design chief Karl Rabe, Komenda’s boss.
F. A. spent time with Franz Reimspeiss, learning the engines. Then he designed his first car bodies, finishing up the cigarlike 718 Formula 2, advancing to the Typ 804 Formula One racer and then the 904 Carrera GTS coupe, done hurriedly and with little interference. From the Racing Department, he transferred to Erwin Komenda, who assigned him to help modeler Heinrich Klie reshape Albrecht Goertz’s Typ 695 into something closer to what Ferry desired. Eventually, all seven of Komenda’s designers were at work on the next Porsche.
The company offered several engines for early Speedsters, including the 1,286cc (78.5-cubic-inch) Normal with 44 horsepower and the “Super” with 60 horsepower. The base 1,488cc (90.8-cubic-inch) engine offered 55 horsepower, and the hotter S version developed 70 horsepower.
In early October 1959, F. A. and Klie completed their model on the Typ 695 platform. They adopted the 2400mm, 94.5-inch, wheelbase Komenda used for his 530. Ferry, who hoped for a sportier nature to the car, shortened the wheelbase to 2200mm, 86.625 inches. He agreed with his son that a full four-seater required a longer, flatter roof than Goertz had designed. Preferring the fastback style, because he hoped to incorporate a hatchback-type opening rear window, Ferry reassigned the rear seats to occasional use and preserved the sporting roofline. Within a year, they had a drivable prototype, fitted with a noisy flat six with dual center-mounted cams and cooled by twin fans.
Reutter contended with its neighbor’s increased demand for car bodies. Porsche phased out the Speedster in late 1958 and introduced a gentrified Convertible D, manufactured by Drauz in nearby Heilbronn, when it brought out the improved 356B series later that year. (Designations got confusing; the body for the 1960 model year 356 was known internally as T-5.) To supplement the 1,600cc Normal models, the factory introduced a new, higher-performance 90-horsepower pushrod engine, the Super 90, including a series of GT models for racing.
In late 1960, Porsche changed the Convertible D designation to Roadster, still produced by Drauz. The company’s most potent model, the Carrera GT, introduced the 12-volt electrical system to customers. (Porsche designated these 356 bodies for the 1961 model year and later as T-6. The F. A. Porsche/Heinrich Klie four-seater prototype on the 695 platform was designated T-7.) To broaden the lineup, Porsche added a notch-roof hardtop coupe manufactured by Karmann in Osnabruck in 1961. At the same time, Ferry Porsche shifted manufacture of the Roadster to Belgium, hiring D’Ieteren Frères to produce the handsome open cars.
1955 356-1500 Continental Coupe
These final-year Pre-A coupes with the 44-horsepower Normal 1,286cc engine sold for $2,708 (11,400DM). A 1,488cc (91.5-cubic-inch) Typ 528/2 flat four in Super specification developed 70 horsepower and sold for $3,278 (13,800DM) at the time.
By late 1960, Ferry, F. A., and the engineering staff had begun working on another prototype (T-8). This was a pure two-seater built on a 2,100mm, 82.69-inch wheelbase. The front suspension system took up so much space that engineers relocated the fuel tank to the rear. Ferry encouraged the project. A working prototype, with modified 356 running gear, drove out the gates in early November 1962. Satisfied with its direction, Ferry tentatively set production start for the car for July 1963. But too many problems remained to reach that target.
As the two-seater took shape, Ferry promoted his son to head the Model Department at the beginning of 1961. Within a year, F. A. changed its name to the Styling Department. Among the engineers, a talented arrival named Helmuth Bott continued work on the car’s front suspension, adopting a MacPherson strut configuration that conserved space and improved handling. This enabled Ferry to return the fuel tank to the front and enlarge it. He also reset the wheelbase to 2,211mm. Now the car was a 2+2 in what became its final form. Ferry’s aerodynamicist, Josef Mickl, had worked for Ferdinand. Mickl collaborated with F. A. to fair in the new car’s front bumper and to perfect the elegant sweep of the roofline.
Largely intended for the U.S. markets, the “Continental” appeared more often with bench seats than individual buckets. The 356A introduced the “panoramic” windshield.
In early 1955, Ford Motor Company advised Porsche that it intended to reintroduce the Lincoln Continental for 1956, so the company changed the model’s name.
Porsche lowered windowsills 35mm, 1.4 inches, to make the sleek speedster. Base 60-horsepower “1600 Normal” Speedsters sold for 11,900DM ($2,833), while the company charged 13,000DM ($3,095) for the 75-horsepower 1600 Super Typ 616/2 engine.
1956 356A 1500 European Coupe
The 1,582cc “1600 Normal” developed 60 horsepower. This was good enough to accelerate the 850-kilogram (1,870-pound) coupes from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 16.5 seconds.
Karmann discontinued its hardtop coupe for 1962 but joined Reutter in manufacturing standard coupes and convertibles. Porsche stopped producing the Roadster as well. Its hottest performer was the Carrera 2, using a 2.0-liter version of Fuhrmann’s four-cam engine, offering customers 130 horsepower, in coupe or cabriolet form.
Reutter was a crucial partner to Porsche’s present and future plans. However, when Ferry showed Reutter manufacturing projections for his new car, Reutter balked. The firm had lost its founder before the war and his son in a bombing raid. It would not accede to Porsche’s needs in hiring additional help or financing new tooling. The family wanted out. Ferry faced an untimely choice, but he committed resources and acquired Reutter. The acquisition included costs of new tooling and a new building to house it and the manufacturing processes. As he neared his estimated production start, his investment approached DM 15 million, nearly $4 million at the time. For a small company, this represented an immense risk.
One of the largest obligations was to develop a new engine. Porsche customers admired the 130-horsepower, 2-liter flat-four Carrera 2 engines. But these were noisy and temperamental units—great for racing, with abundant power coming at high engine speeds, but ill suited to daily use on public roads. To achieve equal output from something quieter and more docile was a challenge Franz Reimspeiss handed off to another young engineer, Hans Mezger.
Reimspeiss first experimented with fuel injecting the 356 engine. This didn’t develop the power Ferry demanded. Reimspeiss’s next attempt, designated the Typ 745, was a 1,991cc opposed six with 80mm bore and 66mm stroke. Tests yielded 120 horsepower—close but no success. Enlarging bore to 88mm delivered 130 horsepower at 6,500 rpm from a 2,195cc package. But Reimspeiss and new engineering director Hans Tomala concluded that the 60mm stroke was too long for
future racing development.
Options either from the factory or well-stocked dealers included tinted sun visors and front wing windows. Base price of the “1600 Normal” was 12,700DM, $3,738.
1958 356A Hardtop-Cabriolet
Three clamps above the windshield hold the front of the removable top onto the car body. The car weighed 885 kilograms (1,947 pounds) and the 1600 Normal engine accelerated it to 100 kilometers per hour in 16.5 seconds.
While engineers worked on the new flat six, the Racing Department moved ahead with ambitious plans for a flat eight designated the Typ 753. This complicated engine, with dual overhead cams, developed 185 horsepower (and more) from 1.5 liters (91.5 cubic inches). It required 220 hours for assembly, which made it far too costly for series production vehicles. Still, it yielded ideas.
Mezger commenced work on a Typ 821 engine with dual overhead cams and wet sump lubrication. Air-cooled engines reduced temperatures by circulating huge quantities of oil through them; however, the reservoir requirement for this engine proved too large to fit into F. A.’s car body. Mezger’s next engine, the Typ 901, carried over many of the 821 and 753 developments, but it used dry sump lubrication pumped from a separate tank. This allowed Mezger to mount the engine lower in the car, improving handling and balance. It also made the new car’s long, tapering roofline a certainty.
Porsche introduced the removable hardtop cabriolet for 1958. Manufactured by Karmann of Osnabruck, the company charged 14,960DM ($3,041) for these truly “convertible” coupes.
The Complete Book of Porsche 911 Page 1
