6 Things you Should Know about Dr. Ing. Ferdinand Porsche
If you are a fan of Porsche the car, then you are a fan of the man whose mane is on them: Dr Ferdinand Porsche. Here are some things you might not know about this brilliant engineer.
1. Early Informal Education
Ferdinand Porsche was born in 1875, and only attended school regularly until he was 18, receiving no formal university training. Instead, he worked during the day with his father at a repair shop, and attended technical classes at night. At 18 he went to dork full time for a company manufacturing electrical equipment, and would sometime sneak into university courses in his free time. Though everyone thinks of Porsche as German, the man was actually born in Bohemia, in what is now the Czech Republic, and at the time was Austro-Hungary.
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2. Electrical Engineering
Ferdinand Porsche had tremendous knowledge of electronics as well as combustion engines, and other automotive systems, which allowed him to design his first electric cars for Egger-Lohner, in 1898!. This early car was used in a road race, with Ferdi driving, in which it won by 18 minutes. His electric motors were also used to drive trains, which he personally worked on for a while before returning back to automotive designs.
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3. First Hybrid Car
One of Porsches earliest innovations was the electric motor hub, which easily allowed cars with 2 or 4 wheel drive. Soon after, in 1901, Dr. F. Porsche combined his battery powered wheel hub motor with an onboard gas motor/generator, which was the very first version of the hybrid cars we see on the road today.
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4. Porsche During the Hitler Era
Porsche was considered one of Germany's greatest inventors and engineers around the time when Adolf Hitler was in control, and the government tasked him with designing simple durable, inexpensive cars and tractors. The original air cooled VW Beetle (and all the variations) came about out of this, as well as the Porsche-Diesel tractor During the war he helped with military vehicle design, and the VK4501 tank was his first effort, but another design was used by the army and the Porsche became the Elefant tank destroyer, which featured an electric hybrid drivetrain.
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5. Passion For Performance Cars
Dr. Porsche didn't just make fast cars, he was obsessed with performance. Dr. F spent a lot of his time at races around the globe, like the Targa Floria. His genius creations were inspired by the races he visited, and he was known to wait at the finish line, or stand by the podium. Numerous other leading automakers were influenced by him, including Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and more.
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6. Jail Time and the Birth of the Porsche
After WWII Porsche's collaboration with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis landed him in jail in 1945. His son Ferry continued working, and after designing the type 360 Cistalia grand prix car was able to raise the money to get his father out of jail. Father and son reunited and production began on the first of the new 356 sports cars at a saw mill in Gmund, 49 of which were built by hand. Despite all of the pre-war designs, the Porsche 356 was the first car to bear the brand name of Porsche.
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If you have an older Porsche and need maintenance or repair help, the how to sections of Rennlist.com are full of helpful information