Porsche 911 designer dies
Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, the designer of the original version of the iconic 911 sports car, died Thursday in Salzburg, Austria. He was 76.
“As creator of the Porsche
911, he established a design culture that moulds our
sportscars still today,” Matthias Mueller, chief executive of Porsche AG, said in
an e-mailed statement. “His philosophy of good design is for us a legacy that we will also honour in the
future.”
Ferdinand Alexander
Porsche, the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who created the original Volkswagen Beetle, designed
the first 911 in 1962. He
went on to develop race cars for the German automaker until leaving the Stuttgart-based company in 1972 with other family members when Porsche was transformed into a joint stock company.
The 911 remains the epitome of the Porsche brand, even as the carmaker, which is jointly owned by the Porsche SE holding company and Volkswagen AG, expands beyond sports cars.
Porsche unveiled the seventh generation of the $82,100 911 in September.
“He was a very special man, and the company Porsche was his life and what he stood for,” said Guenther Molter, who coauthored his father’s Ferry Porsche autobiography. “He carried on the work of his father in his own way. He realized the Porsche 911, which was his idea.”