History repeats itself with iconic Porsche
The evolution of the storied brand is on display at this year’s show
Silhouettes of a coke bottle are still recognizable as a coke bottle. It is an iconic part of the Coke DNA, and serves both design function and brand identity.
But when it comes to the automotive industry, many people find it difficult to tell one car from another. Some manufacturers want their car to be instantly recognizable as homage to previous models. So, a new Porsche resembles an old Porsche. It comes from the same DNA.
At this year’s AutoShow, in a separate location on the 100 level of the North Building, there is a special display celebrating 70 years of the Porsche. To truly appreciate the new 2018 Porsches on display on level 800 of the South Building it is advis- able to first visit the100 level to study the evolution of Porsche since 1948.
The iconic styling of the 1963 Porsche 901(the first 911) has defined the Porsche DNA. It and its many successors are perceived as a Porsche on first sight while each new model has its own individual identity and modern upgrades. The visual similarities are intentional on Porsche’s part. Porsche design authenticity creates an almost timeless tradition of model evolution.
Grant Larson was born in Billings, Mont., and was curator of the Brooks Stevens Automobile Museum. He has both a bachelor of fine arts degree in industrial design from the Milwaukee Institute of Design and a bachelor of science degree in transportation design from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. Larson first joined Audi before his tenure at Porsche as director of special projects, exterior design. True to his love of the marque, Larson collects early Porsches from the iconic 356 to the classic 911. He is as they say, a car guy. In 1948, Ferry Porsche was not happy with the cars available, so he decided to build one himself. “Porsche started with sports cars,” says Larson “and the very last Porsche built will also be a sports car.”
Porsche had intended the front engine 924 and 928 would be a replacement for the aging 914, but it did not work out that way. “Customers took a vote and voted with their wallets,” says Larson, “so Porsche listened.”
As an artist and a designer, you don’t know what the future is, but you must be respectful to the past. For Porsche to come up with something new, it first looked at its automotive past.
In the 1950s, countless individual drivers, such as Canada’s Ludwig Heimrath, Peter Ryan and Rudy Bartling, and exceptional European drivers such as Wolfgang von Trips, Hans Herrmann, Olivier Genderbien, and Joakim Bonnier, brought home more than 1,000 race victories with the agile Porsche race cars. They really caused a sensation in motorsport. Despite their small four-cylinder flat engines, they continually won races against a competition that had superior engine power.
Mid-engine, lightweight design and styling added to these powerful and efficient four-cylinder engines: This is what characterizes the philosophy of the legendary Porsche Spyder with type designations 550 and 718. Built for road and hill climb racing, the Porsche factory team and numerous private customers successfully used these racing sports cars from 1953 to the mid-1960s. The 550 A Spyder and the 718 RSK both proved the enormous potential of their original Porsche design, so it is not surprising that the new 2018 Porsche 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman GTS on display at the show borrow heavily from the silhouette of that heritage.
Debuted in 1996, the Boxster had a 2.5-litre flat six engine. It was a huge success in the marketplace and various upgrades to the original design lead us to the 718 Boxster and Cayman of today. The six-cylinder engine has been replaced.
The 718 features two new horizontally-opposed flat-4 turbocharged engines at 2.0L and 2.5L displacement with increased torque and horsepower, higher rpm limit, and lower fuel consumption. The S model turbocharger utilizes Variable
Turbine Geometry (VTG) technology. In October 2017 the GTS models were announced. In addition, 3 other 901 variants will be shown for the first time in the Porsche display. The 2018 Carrera T, 911 Turbo Exclusive Edition and the 911 GT2 RS.
Larson takes a philosophical approach to owing a Porsche.
“For a Porsche to be a Porsche it must be a car that makes the owner happy to drive, but also is fun just to wash by hand in the driveway on Saturday morning” he said.