Throughout history, numerous vehicles have earned the title of being iconic. However, consider this: How many of those are still being produced today?
It could take several years to achieve enough distance to use that term comfortably. However, I believe that very few would argue against the idea that if any car manufactured today merits an iconic designation, it would undoubtedly be the Porsche 911.
For more than six decades, the 911 has remained the iconic model. meaning of Porsche for car aficionados, As well as dentists, lawyers, and others who said "Porsche" in one syllable.
So why not? Not many sports cars matched the combination of performance, maneuverability, quality, and crucially, everyday practicality offered by the 911, which remains true even now. Although Porsche manufactures several different models currently, for quite some time the 911 was their sole offering. To many enthusiasts, this holds true even today.
In comparison to the initial version (901) The present (992.2) is precisely identical. , a rear-engine, performance-oriented 2+2, two-door sports car.
Except for this aspect, everything else varies.
The The development of the 911 has been extensively chronicled. So I won’t revisit it here. However, comparing them from the side reveals just how much has transformed while also highlighting elements that remain distinctly familiar from the original.
It seems like they started with the 901 and then applied every typical designer's technique such as oversized wheels and tires, lowering the vehicle, and compressing the roof—a process they indeed followed.
And the result is sensational. The car looks like a “sketch.” That’s a high designer compliment for a car that looks like the original (exaggerated) design sketch.
While the 901 was almost slab-sided, the current car has pronounced wheel flairs that not only provide some beautifully developed surfaces (especially the rear-quarter) but also give the car a wider, planted, road worthy presence.
Certainly, the vehicle is broader, accommodating significantly thicker tires compared to the initial design, and it also extends an additional 10 inches in length. and wider Rather than the 901, this piece reflects on how modern automobiles have expanded throughout the decades.
While other vehicles sharing the Porsche lineup, such as the Taycan and the updated Macan, exhibit a more distinctively sharp and contemporary design ethos, the 911 maintains its smooth, flowing contours with minimal angular elements.
It’s amazing that a car this old can still look completely modern and retain its fundamental distinctiveness.
Kudos to the Porsche Design team for nurturing and refining a car that in some ways should have been written off years ago. After all, how many rear-engine cars have you seen lately?
Actually, the roots of the 911 go further back than 1964, further than the 356 or even Ferdinand Porsche’s VW.
In the early ‘30s, European automotive designers were just beginning to embrace aerodynamic principles.
Those principles had largely been established a a decade earlier by Paul Jaray A previous Zeppelin employee specializing in aerodynamics, who post-WWI transferred these concepts to car design.
At around the same time, there was a revived interest in placing the engine at the rear. As a result, this era saw the creation of vehicles that incorporated early aerodynamic designs along with rear-mounted engines.
In 1931, Porsche created the Type 12 for Zundapp; this design resembled what we now know as the Volkswagen. Later, between 1932 and 1933, they produced a comparable prototype called the Type 32 for NSU, which looked akin to an enlarged early iteration of the Volkswagen. The actual production of the Volkswagen commenced more formally in 1934.
That same year, Czechoslovakia’s Tatra (utilizing Jaray patents) unveiled the T77, an upscale automobile featuring a rear-placed air-cooled V8 engine. Its prominent central tailfin gave it the appearance of something Flash Gordon might pilot. The model remained in production across multiple iterations over several years.
Dutch-born John Tjaarda’s design for a rear-engine streamliner was shown at the Ford exhibit at the 1933-34 Chicago’s World Fair. That vehicle, radically restyled and with a front engine, would provide the basis for the 1936 Lincoln Zephyr.
So, when Porsche began to build the car that would bear his name, it was very much a product of what he had learned and done before—that of a small, aerodynamically efficient vehicle with a rear engine, but this time designed specifically as a sporting machine.
In today’s environment it’s difficult to judge where Porsche will take the 911 next. Will there be an electric version? Hard to conceive of a car that’s built its reputation on rear-engine-biased road dynamics maintaining that with electric motors.
Then again, through oodles of development time and money, Porsche has tamed just about every negative dynamic trait inherent in a rear-engine chassis, making today’s version about as benign as possible—something that could not be said of its predecessors.
If they have the capability to do that, they probably can also adjust a chassis to fit your needs. feel Like a rear-engine design, even though there isn't an engine back there anymore. Nevertheless, some purists still haven't pardoned Porsche for switching to a water-cooled system in the 911.
No matter what decisions Porsche makes regarding the vehicle, one thing remains certain: It will consistently look like a 911.
If there’s anything Porsche has discovered throughout the years, it’s that you shouldn’t tamper with an iconic design.
Dave Rand was previously the executive director of Global Advanced Design at General Motors.
Interested in buying a car? Discover your perfect match on the MSN Autos Marketplace.
Post a Comment