Ferdinand Porsche Sold the Same Idea for 45 Years Ferdinand Porsche was not an engineer. He held no degree. The “Dr. Ing.” still baked into the company’s legal name carries an “h.c.” that nobody bothers to read: honoris causa. Honorary. The “Professor” is no better earned: the Stuttgart Technical University handed him an honorary chair … Read more
Porsche 542: The Car Studebaker Paid For And Never Built Studebaker wrote Porsche a check for roughly half a million 1952 dollars and got nothing out of it. Porsche used that money to build the assembly hall in Zuffenhausen that still turns out 911s today. The dying American company paid for the German company’s factory. … Read more
German Auto Industry Crisis: The Hangover, Wolfsburg Edition The suite is destroyed. There’s a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, a mattress speared on a statue outside, and a stolen LVPD cruiser sitting in the valet lane. Four guys on the floor, none of them remember anything, one is missing a tooth, … Read more
Mercedes-Benz T80: The Six-Wheeled Nazi Speed Machine Porsche Designed That Never Turned a Wheel Walk into the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart and you’ll find a black car nearly 27 feet long. Three axles, six wheels, two small stubby wings, an aluminum body built by an aircraft plant. No engine in the bay. No odometer to … Read more
Porsche W18: the engine patented amid an electric crisis Let’s do an exercise together. Picture the following situation. You’re a Porsche AG executive in October 2025. Your group’s full-year operating profit has just collapsed 93%, from €5.640 billion to €413 million (or 98% if you include the €4.7 billion writedowns from abandoning parts of the … Read more
Porsche 911 GT1: the legal loophole that won Le Mans Here’s the part most people get backwards: the Porsche 911 GT1 is not a road car they turned into a race car. It’s a race car they were forced to register for the road. Because if they hadn’t, the FIA wouldn’t let it onto the … Read more
Le Mans: The Race That Changed the Rules (And Broke Them When It Suited) Le Mans is not just a race. It’s a battlefield where manufacturers, regulators, and human ego have been colliding at 350 km/h for over a century. And if you think the 24 Hours of Le Mans is just cars going around … Read more
