Porsche Repair and Service PDF Manuals
The history of the German brand Porsche began in 1931, when Ferdinand Porsche, a famous designer of the time, who worked for Auto Union and Daimler, decided to found his own car brand. Having extensive experience in working on cars for various brands, as well as a doctorate in engineering, Ferdinand Porsche visited the USSR in 1930, where he was offered, together with his design staff, to move to a young socialist state and start debugging the military industry. As a result, he refused, and a year later, having returned to his homeland, he registered the trademark “Dr. Ing. H.C.F. Porsche GmbH ".
However, the next car, which became one of the key ones in the entire career of Ferdinand Porsche, was the Volkswagen Krafter, developed in 1936 by order of Adolf Hitler personally as a popular German car. Gradually, other German automakers began to give up their positions in the country's automobile market. In 1939, Ferdinand Porsche introduced the first car under his own brand - the Porsche 64, built on the basis of the Crafter and using about 70% of the components from the first Volkswagen brand.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Porsche's talent was in demand in the creation of military equipment, as Tiger tanks, artillery tractors and a whole line of trucks were presented, which elevated Ferdinand Porsche to the elite of Germany. But he gravitated towards the creation of cars. Ferdinand wrote an open letter to the country's leadership, where he said that he was no longer going to work for the military dictatorship, for which he was deprived of all privileges, just six months before the end of the war. The latest developments of Porsche amphibians, based on the Volkswagen Beetle, and power units for heavy military equipment, were launched into mass production in February 1945, without the consent of Ferdinand Porsche. At the same time, the designer and his son moved to Austria, where they met the end of the war.
With the overthrow of Hitler, the occupation government, where each side wanted to see the famous designer as a citizen of their country, could not agree on whether Porsche would be sent to the USSR or the United States of America. As a result, in December 1945, father and son were arrested. Ferdinand Anton Porsche was released from prison 20 months after his imprisonment, and the French Ministry of Justice kept the legendary designer in custody until March 1947. Ferdinand Porsche, in poor conditions of detention, seriously undermined his health, and after leaving prison he limited himself to consulting his son, and gradually moved away from creating cars. The legendary designer passed away in 1951, and his son had to solve a number of problems, including looking for investors, due to the fact that the Austrian government seized not only all the property of the Porsche brand, and the personal accounts of father and son.
Thanks to financial support from advertising agency owners from Zurich, Blank and von Zenger, the re-established Porsche brand was able to move to Stuttgart, where the design headquarters and production facilities were located in the adjacent rooms of a small body repair shop for the Daimler brand.
In 1952, the lightweight model 1100 was presented in coupe and convertible body modifications, and under the hood was a Volkswagen power unit with a capacity of 40 horsepower. By 1956, 6 more modifications of this model were presented, each of which received an increasingly powerful engine, increasing in value and, gradually, gaining positions in the market. However, in 1959, after the launch of the Porsche B model range, engines of its own production were introduced, which had a revolutionary dual clutch, which allowed cars to lose a minimum of power when upshifting.
In 1963, the most famous model of the company was presented, in which Ferdinand Anton Porsche himself took part in the development, the rear-wheel drive rear-engined compact coupe Porsche 911. In addition, the first modifications of Porsche cars for racing in various classes were presented. A year later, the 912 was introduced as a cheaper version of the 911 for sale in the United States of America. Under the hood of the model was a 1.6-liter four-cylinder power unit with a capacity of 90 horsepower. By 1965, more than 76 thousand copies of the brand's models were produced.
In 1972, Porsche ceased to be a closed joint stock company, becoming a public company. After the placement of shares, the Porsche-Piëch family lost full control over the brand, thus retaining only a controlling stake. In the same years the sons of Ferdinand Anton Porsche founded the Porsche Design company in parallel. However, at the same time, he had a conflict with his eldest son Ferdinand, who left the family company, going to work in the Audi company, later becoming the general director of the Volkswagen concern. The conflict between the descendants of the founder of the company led to the fact that Ernst Fuhrmann became the new head of the Porsche company, the Porsche family retained seats on the board of directors.
In 1973, models of the brand with a classic layout were introduced, which led to the emergence of a new segment of sports cars, and a year later the second generation of the 911 model was introduced, which received an eight-cylinder power unit with two turbines. The engine power was 260 horsepower, but gradually sales of the model began to fall rapidly, especially against the background of the rest of the company's models, and in 1980 Ernst Fuermann was removed from his post, and with him the last Porsche 911 of the second generation left the assembly line.
In 1983, a new era in the history of the company began with the arrival of a new CEO, Peter Schutz, the former head of the American division of the brand. First of all, it was decided to actively promote the brand in motorsport, a platform for the best advertising of sports cars. An agreement was signed with the McLaren Formula 1 team, which began using Porsche TAG engines from 1984-1986. In three seasons, Niki Lauda and Alain Prost became world champions, and in 48 races, 22 wins were won. However, after the beginning of the conflict between Ron Dennis, the head of McLaren and Peter Schutz, the Porsche program in Formula 1 was curtailed.
In the same 1984, the third generation of the Porsche 911 received an off-road version, which took part in the Paris-Dakar rally, where turbocharged engines for Formula 1 cars produced twice as much horsepower as the motors of competitors, which led to the German brand led by racer Rene Metge to a convincing victory. The success was repeated in 1986, on a completely new Porsche 959. However, not everyone shared the fairness of the participation of light supercars with increased clearance in the heavy off-road class, as a result of which, Porsche received an official ban on participation in such competitions without a full-fledged SUV.
However, this did not bother the leadership of the Porsche brand, a new plan was outlined, according to which the production of cars for private teams that took part in the 24-hour Le Mans marathons will be phased out, and a new Porsche racing team will be founded. ... Driven by former Formula 1 drivers, the Porsche 962C won solid victories in 1986 and 1987.
1989 was a real year of change for the German brand Porsche. The front-engined cars of the company left the scene in turn, and a new generation of Porsche 911 came out, which also received the 996 Carrera modification. However, Ferdinand Anton Porsche left the company, retired and did not want to help his successors, remaining confident that the best years of the brand are already behind. There was a massive preparation of production facilities for the start of the production of a number of new models, but the economic crisis of the early 1990s made its own adjustments. By 1998, which was remembered not only for the death of the company's founder's son, but also for the fiftieth anniversary of the brand.
Porsche celebrated its anniversary with the release of a range of Gran Turismo models, completely redesigning the technical side of its technological developments. However, the long-term rivalry within the company of turbocharged and conventional engines somewhat lowered the brand's sales. However, this did not hit the firm's well-being hard.
Cooperation with the Volkswagen concern has reached the point that the companies began to use joint platforms, and the first model was the luxury SUV Porsche Cayenne, presented in 2002. Under the hood, the models were located as classic engines with a capacity of 300-405 horsepower, diesel engines from the Volkswagen brand with a capacity of 240 horsepower and a new generation of turbocharged power units with a capacity of 505 horsepower.
In 2003, the Porsche Carrera Gran Turismo was introduced, which remained the fastest production car for 4 years, losing its title to Pagani Zonda at the end of 2007. In 2004, the 987 Boxster entered the market, equipped with 2.9 and 3.4-liter engines with 255 and 310 horsepower, respectively. In addition, factories of the Porsche brand were opened in Finland, which made it possible to increase the number of cars produced to 190 thousand copies per year. A year later, a two-seater coupe based on Boxter was introduced, dubbed the Cayman.
In 2007, the Porsche SE family was founded by the Porsche family, which bought 100% of the shares of the Volkswagen concern, which in turn received full control over Porsche AG. This year can be considered the next stage in the start of the take-off of the company. Since 2009, more than 7 new models have been presented, in addition to the four-door Panamera sedan, a restyled version of the Porsche Cayenne, a new generation of the Porsche 911 was presented in 2011, which became the best-selling car in its class.
