Porsche Celebrates 70-Years Of Sports Cars

70 years ago, on June 8th, 1948, the first vehicle to bear the Porsche name, a Type 356 Roadster (No: 1) was registered, which started a legacy of fast, puristic and emotive machines known the world over. The Type 356 turned founder Ferry Porsche’s dream of a sports car into a reality.

While kicking-off the anniversary year celebrations, Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG added, “Tradition is a commitment. Without our tradition and without our core values, we would not be where we are today. We plan to uphold the standard of technical excellence set by Ferry Porsche well into the future. Intelligent dynamic mobility has a great future ahead of it. And we have the solid technological expertise, creative employees and unique team spirit to be involved. We have what it takes to ensure that the Porsche brand continues to fascinate – even in another 70 years.”

The foundation of the sports car manufacturer is built upon the life’s work of Professor Ferdinand Porsche – work which his son Ferry then continued. Ferdinand Porsche had already designed pioneering innovations for the automotive industry as early as the start of the last century.

As early as 1900, he had already built an electric car with a wheel hub drive known as the Lohner-Porsche, a vehicle on which he would then base the world’s first all-wheel-drive passenger car.

In the same year, he created a template for hybrid vehicles with the development of a mixed petrol-electric powertrain. In 1931, Ferdinand Porsche founded his own engineering office. The “Berlin-Rome Car” showcased in 1939 was the beginning of his idea for a sports car bearing the Porsche name, although this dream was only realised by his son Ferry in 1948 with the Type 356.

The Type 356 was succeeded by the prolific 911, presented to the global public for the first time in 1963 (initially known as the 901), which finally gave the company its breakthrough as one of the leading manufacturers of sports cars in the world, both from a technical and a design perspective.

Perhaps the best indicator of the brand’s future from a design, technology and manufacturing standpoint is the upcoming Mission E all-electric sports car.

Expected to go into production in 2019 - this four-door model with four individual seats will deliver a total system output of over 600 hp and a 500 km driving range. The Mission E will accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in roughly 3.5 seconds. Porsche even claims that it only takes a charging time of around 15 minutes to recharge up to 80 percent of the battery's capacity.

Porsche has invested around one billion euro in this futuristic project, which also includes a new production facility at its headquarters in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. The project is also expected to create more than 1,200 additional jobs.

Porsche is its anniversary year with numerous activities around the world. On February 3rd, “The Porsche Effect” will open at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. In Germany, the first “70 years of the Porsche sports car” exhibition will open from March 20th–31st, at “Drive", the Volkswagen Group Forum” in Berlin. The Porsche Museum will also be holding its own anniversary celebrations with a comprehensive special exhibition opening on June 9th.

The “Festival of Speed” held from July 12th–15th, at the Goodwood race track in the UK, will also celebrate the anniversary, as will the “Rennsport Reunion” in California from September 27th–30th. 

During the June 16th–17th weekend, the sports car manufacturer will host employees, residents of the Zuffenhausen district and prospective customers to a public celebration in and around the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. The celebrations will conclude with the “Sound Night” event to be held for the first time in the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart on October 13.