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The Ultimate History of Porsche

Part of the '8 DVD Box Set – Classic Cars' reviewed by John Cooper Running Time - 92 minutes www.greenumbrella.co.uk

I must admit that I’m not really a Porsche fan and so had quite low expectations of this DVD. I think my problem is that I see them as being a bit of a one trick pony – the 911. Everything since just seems, externally at least, to be a variation on a theme. Don’t get me wrong; it is a great trick, but the prospect of a 92-minute documentary about it didn’t fill me with excitement.

Anyway, having alienated and probably lost the Porsche fraternity by now we’ll turn to the actual DVD. The running order is as follows:

1. Introduction
2. The Early Years
3. The Incredible 911
4. Daring to be different
5. Porsche and 4WD
6. The awesome 917
7. The all-conquering 956/962
8. The ultimate 911
9. Porsche’s 21st Century Supercar

• Bonus material – Cayenne test drive

The story starts back in 1899 with Ferdinand Porsche designing an electric car and continues with him rising within Daimler Benz. Around the same time he set himself up as independently and had a number of competition successes with AutoUnion. Key to his designs here was the fact that his cars were the only ones to be rear-engined, an approach adopted by all current Formula 1 teams and an obvious design feature of Porsche’s for many years to follow.

Ferdinand Porsche’s greatest achievement was undoubtedly in 1938 when he laid down the designs for the Volkswagen and assured himself a place in automotive history.

An additional legacy he also left was Ferdinand Jr, more commonly known as Ferry. Ferry spotted a niche for an affordable sports car and the 356 was born in 1947. This had some early racing successes thanks to a new engine called the Carrera – a name linked to flagship road cars ever since.

In 1960 Porsche started a brief flirtation with Grand Prix racing and achieved some good results in Formula 2. Based on this they entered Formula 1 for the 1961 season but only achieved a single win in 2 seasons.

The story then moves onto the infamous 911 explaining how it ended up with this name after being revealed to the world at the 1963 Frankfurt Motorshow as the 901.

This is the point where the DVD started to lose me with a long series of model numbers all with subtle differences. They do make reference to Porsche trying to avoid the one model tag, but to be honest didn’t really convince me.

The ‘Daring to be Different’ chapter introduces the 914, 944 and 968, though admits that the front-engined cars never really captured the hearts and minds of the true aficionados.

The redeeming aspects of the DVD are however some great coverage of Porsche’s Le Mans years and interviews with those involved in the evolution of some of the cars. There is also extensive in-car footage of a lap around the Nürburgring, though this probably goes on longer than is required to achieve the effect.

It closes with the Cayene, which in my humble opinion is probably the one car that is genuinely different though it obviously builds upon Porsche’s extensive 4WD rallying experience.

I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy this DVD, because I did enjoy it. What I would say however is that it didn’t grip me like the others in the set have. Having said that, I don’t doubt for a minute that Porsche fans and owners would get much more out of it than I did, but never having driven one I don’t fall into either category. In the interest of offering balanced opinions, I’m always willing to be open-minded about these matters so if anyone ever wishes to convert me then you know how to get in touch!