Ferdinand Porsche Essay, Research Paper

Ferdinand Porsche

Ferdinand Porsche was born on September 3, 1875. Always interested in things

mechanical, at the age of 15 he equipped his family’s home with electricity, designing and

building the generator and even the light bulb. The name Porsche first appeared on a car

in 1900, the Lohner-Porsche, a battery-powered car that was first shown at the Paris

Exhibition. In 1906 Porsche was hired by the Daimler Motor Co. as Technical Director,

and eventually becoming the Chief Engineer. One of his Mercedes designs created for

Daimler-Benz won the 1924 Targa Florio, and he built on this success to create the

Mercedes-Benz S series of the late 1920s, cars which have been referred to as “street

legal racing machines.”

Porsche proposed a mass-produced Mercedes-Benz for the ordinary driver but was turned

down by his employer, so he left the Daimler-Benz organization and started up on his

own. The Volkswagen plan dates from this time, along with three aerodynamic versions

built for racing.During World War II Porsche found himself working for hitler and

building projects such as producing farm tractors. Hitler got porsche to build him the

Kubelwagen, the Schwimwagen, and even a car that used wood as fuel to opperate in the

war.But in 1946, when Porsche’s son Ferry and daughter Louise Plech joined the firm,

they returned to the goal of sports car design. The Porsche Type 356 went into production

in 1948.

Porsche died in 1951, having seen the Porsche name on a sports car.