Born : September 27 1943
Biography Roland Kussmaul
After his studies as Mechanical Engineer, Roland Kussmaul started his career at the Porsche Development Centre in Weissach in 1969. In 1974, Peter Falk, chief of the racing department at that time, recognised the talent of Kussmaul. Falk asked the transfer of Kussmaul. That was the start of a successful career.
The first job of Kussmaul in the race department was at the Rally Project of Kuhne+Nagel. There he worked – in cooperation with the suppliers – on the shock absorber development of the 911 rally car from Kühne+Nagel. Furthermore Kussmaul was involved in the development of the Porsche 911, Porsche 924 and Porsche 928.
To gather some rally experience, Roland Kussmaul was the co-pilot of Björn Waldegaard. They won the Rally of Monte-Carlo both in 1969 and 1970, in a Porsche 911. This experience helped him later in his job as a project manager for the Porsche 911 SC/RS. This car, also known as Typ 954 was only built in a limited number… Some years ago, a Belgian collector celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Porsche 911 SC/RS at a private event in Abbevile.
In the spring of 1979 Kussmaul, together with Jürgen Barth, entered a private Porsche 924 in the Monte Carlo Rally. In autumn 1979 they both drove in a Porsche 924 in a rally around Australia. In this rally they won their class, and that was the the first class victory of the Porsche 924 ever.
One of the stories Roland Kussmaul always likes to tell is about his experiences in the Paris-Dakar Rally. In 1986, Roland Kussmaul drove the service car for the duo Rene Metzge / Dominique Lemoine, and Jacky Ickx / Claude Brasseur. They all used the Porsche 959 Paris-Dakar. To everybody’s surprise, Roland Kussmaul managed to finish 6th overall, using the service car. Victory was for Metzge / Lemoine, 2nd place for Ickx/ Brasseur
Later Roland Kussmaul was part of the Le Mans 24H team, as engineer for the Porsche 956 and Porsche 962. In 1990 Roland Kussmail was ordered to develop a Cup Car based on the Porsche 911 Carrera 2. This resulted in the birth of the Porsche Carrera Cup, and later the Porsche Supercup.
The final steps in the career of Roland Kussmaul at Porsche was in the development of the Porsche Carrera GT. In 2008, Kussmaul retires. However, as an independent consultant, his services are still used by Porsche. So was Roland Kussmaul involved in the development of the 2016 Porsche 911 R.
Recently, Roland Kussmaul was a guest at different editions of the Porsche Sound Night.
Pictures copyright Wilfried Geerts , Vintage Race Photography and unknown.
