Porsche, and in particular the 911 and its predecessor, the 356, is the embodiment of a sports car. To illustrate the evolution of the “Elevens”, I have selected some milestones, each of which was unique and representative of its time:

The 356-1500 from 1954
The 356 B from 1960
The 911 RS 2.7 from 1973 with its ducktail
The 911 Turbo 3.8 from 2009

The origins of the automotive firm can be traced back to the design office established in 1931 in Stuttgart by Ferdinand Porsche which produced vehicles after the war, primarily sports cars. Porsche’s son-inlaw, the Viennese lawyer Anton Piëch, held 15 % of the shares in the company when it was founded. The economic basis for the design office was the development of a car for the Reichsverband der Automobilindustrie, the forerunner of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). The office designed the new car on behalf of the Reichsverband from 1934, and this car would later go down in history as the VW Beetle. Ferdinand Porsche was the Managing Director and a member of the supervisory board of the newly founded Volkswagenwerk G.m.b.H.

Part of production was transferred to Gmünd, Austria in 1944 where, under the direction of Ferdinand Porsche’s son Ferry, the first car bearing the Porsche name, the 356/1 Roadster, and its series version, the 356, were developed. Ferry took over the chairmanship of the company in Stuttgart in 1947, as his father had been imprisoned by the French authorities.