Ofcourse I don’t need to present Porsche to you. I doubt there exist people in the civilized world that haven’t heard of Ferdinand Porsche yet.
Founder of the company that finally evoluated into what Porsche AG is nowadays, he is known to the world as the designer of the Volkswagen Beetle.
Just by that last fact, he’s probably one of the most import persons in the automotive industry. However, I’m pretty sure not everyone that knows Porsche, is familiar with all the cars and products thatbelong to the heritage of Ferdinand Porsche.
In 1900, at the age of 24, he designs and created his first electric car, The Lohner Porsche in which each front wheel was activated by an electric engine located in the centre of the wheel hubs. Soon this car evaluatedinto a full hybrid car, each of the wheels having a electric engine in the centre of the wheel hubs, with a fuel combustion engine generating the electricity.For Daimler-Benz he had a signicificant contribution in the design and development of tcompression engines, as well as the famous S, SS and SSK models which created an absolute sensation in competition.In the 30s Ferdinand Porsche, created his own design and engineering company, in which he could express his geniality. He designed 6 cylinder engines for Wanderer, the famous V16 real-wheel drive mid-enginedSilver Arrows for Auto Union, and ofcourse the Volkswagen Beetle and the prototype of the epic Berlin-Rome car.
His son, Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche, better known as Ferry, is the man who designed the first car bearing the name, the Porsche 356 , and created the Porsche make which he developed into one of the world’s mostrenowned sport car manufacturers. The Porsche 356 had different models, and grew into the Porsche 911, designed by Butzi Porsche, son of Ferry. Butzi designed the wonderfull Porsche 904 too . Later Butzi Porschestarted his own design company in Zell am See (Austria), with hundreds of designs on his record : from cars to watches, from egg-boilers to sunglasses…
The 4th Ferdinand is Ferdinand Karl Piëch, a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche and now CEO of the world most powerfull automative company : the Volkswagen group.Ferdinand Piëch was responsible for the development of many extremely powerfull cars, like the Porsche 917 to name just one of them. The 70’s were very successful for Porsche in motorsports, just because of an extraordinarymotorsports department and the vision of Ferdinand Piëch.
The exhibion at the Brussels Autoworld museum brings together over 40 cars that belong to that heritage of Ferdinand Porsche. From a replica of the first electric car, the Lohner Porsche up to the brandnew and evolutionary hybrid Porsche 918 Spyder, that holds the current lap-record on the Nürbrurgring. The cars that are on display in Brussels belong to important international collections and museums. The expo is divided into four sections, each section taking you to the world of each of the Ferdinandswho add their personal touch : the creative genius, the entrepreneur, the designer and the competitor.
The exhibition started December 6 2013 and can be visited to Januari 2014.
