911 icon: Butzi Porsche
The man who created the Neunelfer is perhaps our ultimate Porsche 911 icon, whose legacy will endure forever
The late Ferdinand Alexander Porsche’s legacy will outlast our own lifetime as creator of the iconic 911
“If you analyse the function of an object, its form often becomes obvious.” Those are the famous words of Professor Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, father of the Porsche 911 and founder of Porsche Design, the industrial and product design house. Son of Ferry and grandson to Ferdinand, ‘F.A.’ Porsche was born in Germany in
1935 but spent much of his childhood in
Austria after the family moved there in the immediate aftermath of the second world war. Enrolling in the prestigious College of Design in Ulm, F.A. never finished the course, taking up a position in the design office of the family business by 1958 instead.
His rise was meteoric: by 1962 ‘Butzi’, as he was known, was head of the Porsche
Design Studio, where he duly wrote himself into automotive legend by creating the
911’s flowing lines. Answering his father’s demand for the 356’s successor to have more space and comfort, Butzi’s design would become an icon. He himself wasn’t yet 30.
Butzi was also responsible for the 904
Carrera GTS and Type 804 Formula One race car, but left day-to-day business at the manufacturer (along with the rest of his family) when Porsche became a limited company in 1971. Professor Porsche would not simply rest on his laurels, however. The Porsche Design Studio (now Studio F.
A. Porsche) was founded in Stuttgart in 1972, relocating back to Austria near the family home of Zell am See in 1974. The design business would eventually fall back under Porsche AG’S wing, with Butzi’s talents within the world of fashion spawning the Carrera chronograph and Porsche Design aviator sunglasses among others.
For all of that though, it is his achievements in automotive for which Professor Ferdinand Alexander will always be remembered. Quite simply, the gravitas of Butzi’s achievement is hard to play down: his 911 creation has formed the core of Porsche’s entire automotive design language, and many decorated automotive designers including Tony Lapine, Tony Hatter, Pinky Lai, Grant Larson and Michael Mauer have been tasked with only subtly evolving Butzi’s iconic 911 design in the decades since.
Butzi passed away aged 76 in 2012, yet his legacy will almost surely outlive our own lifetime, and that of our children. Porsche’s statement released just after his death on 5 April of that year contains the most apt and fitting tribute: “As the creator of the Porsche 911, he established a design culture in our company that has shaped our sports cars to this very day. His philosophy of good design is a legacy to us that we will honour for all time.”