The history of Porsche and Volkswagon has always gone hand in hand. In fact, the two companies were basically born from each other in a sense. Ferdinand Porsche created a vehicle development and consulting firm headquartered in Stuttgart in 1931. Ferdinand’s first assignment came from the German government: build a car for the people, a Volkswagon. And he did. It became known as the Volkswagon Beetle.
During World War II, just like in the United States, the Volkswagon factory began manufacturing materials for the German military. After the war Ferdinand not only lost his job as chairman of Volkswagon but was arrested for war crimes. Though he was never tried he served 20 months in prison.
After the war, Ferdinand’s son Ferry couldn’t find a car that he really liked so he decided to build his own. This resulted in what would become the Porsche 356. In order to cobble together the parts necessary to manufacture the car, Ferry turned to Volkswagon and often used, among other things, the engine and transmission. And so the legacy of the two companies, Porsche and Volkswagon, remained twined from the beginning.
Over the years the two companies have worked together to develop and market cars under one or both of their marques. Perhaps the most notable of these came in the late 1960s when the two companies developed what would become known as the 914. Porsche needed a new model to replace their entry level 912 and Volkswagon wanted a replacement for their sporty Kharmann Ghia. In Europe the Volkswagon version was to run with a flat four cylinder 80 horse power engine while the Porsche version was powered by a flat six churning out 110 horses. Both models sold in the USA under the Porsche name.
Sales, particularly in the USA, were sluggish. By the early 1970s plans were already in the works to replace the mid-engine 914 with a water cooled front engine 2+2 model that ultimately came to market as the 924. Using a rather mundane Audi sourced 2 liter engine, Porsche took some heat over the performance of the car. But while a turbocharged 924 increased performance to Porsche levels, it also pushed the price tag out of range.
In 1982 Porsche introduced a totally re-vamped and amped up new front engine model, the 944. The factory claimed a top speed of 130 and a 0-60 turn in under 9 seconds; at the time very respectable numbers. Many who drove and tested the car said that these numbers were being conservative, that the 944, despite having a bit more drag than the 924. What was surprising is the fact that the car generated this type of performance from a 2.5 liter straight four engine with a 100 mm bore and a 79 mm stroke. The weight to performance in this car was amazing.
It was also rather luxurious. These were well equipped cars designed as luxury sports car, meant to have the trappings of a nice sedan but in the package of a sports car. Over the course of its production run, the car was continually upgraded with more power and refined amenities. The last of the true 944s rolled off the lines in 1981, replaced by the 964.
Because of extremely high maintenance costs, there are fewer and fewer 944s roaming the streets. The model seen here is a 1988 model with a more powerful 250 horse power turbocharged engine pushing 250 foot pounds of torque.
No comments:
Post a Comment