LOVE FOR THE 911

The man who saved Porsche’s most famed car from oblivion

Peter Schutz, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who became the only American to serve as chief executive of German sports car maker Porsche, died on 29 October in Naples, Florida. He was 87.

His wife, Sheila Harrisschutz, said the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

Schutz was a boy when he and his family fled Nazi Germany on the eve of the Second World War. He returned years later to lead a company whose founders had collaborated with Adolf Hitler. The man who hired Schutz for the job, Ferdinand Porsche Jr, had joined with his father in designing tanks for the German war machine. The elder man formed Porsche AG after the war, in 1948.

Among sports car connoisseurs, Schutz is best remembered for blocking plans in 1981 to end production of the 911 model, which remains the quintessential Porsche.

When Schutz took charge that year, the company, based in Stuttgart, had just suffered the first loss-making year in its history and was in crisis, largely because of slumping sales in the United States. The 911 had been plagued by quality problems, and its air-cooled motor, mounted in the rear, was considered anachronistic; most cars had water-cooled motors in the front. It was also tricky to drive as the heavy rear end gave it a tendency to spin out.

Sales were falling, and the Porsche board had already decided to kill the 911 in favour of other models, like the 928, which, with a motor in front, was easier to handle.

An engineer with a flair for marketing, Schutz said the 911’s quirks were what set the car apart and that stopping production would rip out Porsche’s soul. “While the car could be temperamental at times, at least it had character,” Schutz wrote in an article for Road & Track magazine in 2013. “That’s what people loved most about it.”

As Schutz told the story, about three weeks into his new job he noticed a chart on the office wall of Helmuth Bott, Porsche’s lead engineer, who was also unhappy about the 911’s impending demise. The graph plotted plans for the company’s models. The line for the 911 stopped in 1981. “I grabbed a marker off Professor Bott’s desk,” Schutz wrote in Road & Track, “and extended the 911 line across the page, onto the wall, and out the door. When I came back, Bott stood there, grinning.”

Under Schutz, Porsche modernised and expanded the 911 line and unveiled a convertible version in 1982. Later versions retained the model’s trademark rear-mounted engine – now water cooled.

Peter Werner Schutz was born in Berlin on 20 April 1930, the son of Erna Brugger, a seamstress, and Leopold Schutz, a paediatrician. The family fled in 1939, eventually settling in Chicago.

After studying at the Illinois Institute of Technology in that city, Schutz worked as an engineer for tractor maker Caterpillar and later at engine manufacturer Cummins. In 1978, a corporate recruiter lured him back to Germany after discovering he could speak German. German companies at the time wanted executives who could help them build sales in the US. Schutz worked initially as head of the engine division of Klöckner-humboldtdeutz, an equipment manufacturer in Cologne. Porsche hired him in 1981 in the hope that he would be able to revive sales in America, the company’s most important market.

The Porsche and Piëch families, which owned Porsche, had a fraught history. Ferdinand Porsche Sr, a noted automotive engineer, designed the Volkswagen Beetle for Hitler with the help of his son and oversaw construction of the enormous factory in Wolfsburg that remains Volkswagen’s headquarters. During the war the factory produced rocket parts, anti-tank weapons and military vehicles using slave labourers, including Jews from Auschwitz who were overseen by SS guards. Ferdinand Sr was held by the Allies after the war but never charged with any crimes.

After the war, Ferry Porsche used modified Volkswagen Beetle engines and chassis as the basis for the first Porsche sports cars, which evolved into the 911. Schutz was also credited with reviving the Porsche racing programme. Schutz told his engineers to pull a successful but aging 936 model from the company’s museum and fit it with a more modern engine. In 1982, Porsche won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.

The company’s revenue more than tripled under Schutz. But it began to slump in the second half of the 1980s, leading his critics to complain that he was focusing excessively on the US, which was heading toward recession. He left Porsche at the end of 1987.

After returning to the US, Schutz and his wife started a consulting firm, and he became a sought-after speaker on management topics.

In addition to Harris-schutz, he is survived by daughter Lori, sons Michael and Mitchel and three grandchildren.

Even though his family had been persecuted by the Nazis, Schutz never bore a grudge toward the Porsches or toward Germans in general, Harrisschutz said. “For a kid who gets run out of the country then gets to run a prestigious company – that was a blessing,” she said. “That was the way he felt about it.” © New York Times 2017. Distributed by NYT Syndication Service

“While the car could be temperamental at times, at least it had character. That’s what people loved most about it”