LeRox

Very, very sad....

Rich9928p

I second Dan's statements - Tony was very pleased to talk 928 with us, he spent as much time as we wanted.

Tony was asked the question did Porsche view the 928 as a success? He answered, "Yes, it outsold the Mercedes SL and won Car of the year - this was a great success for such a small company."

I'm pleased to share photos and some of the notes that I took from the banquet meeting. I included a photo of Wolfgang Möbius, who designed the exterior of the 928.

Wolfhelm Gorrisen opened the evening’s discussions and provided the background for the 928 project:

- World requirements for active and passive security and safety grew from 60 to over 250 from 1960 to 1965
- Ferdinand Piëch pushed for a large engine - this was in the early going and emissions regulations were not yet very restrictive. At this time, the 917 race car was dominant. Thus there was a decision to move from 6 cylinders to a V8.
- World regulations conspired to force the development of revised 928 specifications practically overnight, leading Porsche to also believe that the 911 might not be exportable in the future. The US imposed a 5 mph front and rear crash test requirement.

Tony Lapine joined Porsche in mid-1969 after working seventeen years at General Motors. He had worked in the U.S. in Bill Mitchell’s design team on projects such as the Q-Corvette and the Monza GT and SS. After moving to Opel, he was discovered by Porsche and replaced Ferry Porsche’s son Ferdinand “Butzi” as the chief stylist following Ferry’s decision to remove family members from the company’s management structure. During our parking lot discussion, Tony admitted that he chose Porsche because he wanted to work for a company where he would be recognized and could make a difference, GM was just too big for him. He worked on the 914, desiring to develop the successor to the VW Beetle with a mid-motor layout. Mr. Leiding of VW was behind the 914. Then came the VW Golf so that opportunity ended. Tony remembered Ferry Porsche as a soft spoken man that never raised his voice, even during lively discussions.

Tony told me that the picture in Project 928 where Tony with Ferry and Dorothy Porsche were celebrating the first design presentation with Champagne brought back a very fond memory. The full scale 928 model was made of clay and only the wheels were metal. After the toast, Ferry took Tony’s Champagne glass, bent over and broke it over the model’s wheel to christen the design.

Tony gives total credit for the 928 to his design team, Wolfgang Möbius and others. Tony feels the stability of the 928 is far superior to other cars of its time, the placement of the engine and transaxle provide for a high polar moment of inertia, ideal for smooth high speed driving. He likened the 911 to an arrow being shot backwards .. feathers to the front and lead to the rear, with credit to Porsche’s designers for its ability to work that way at all. But, if pushed to far it would revert to nature’s intended ways.

Tony explained that a deviation of 15 degrees is the maximum deviation for laminar air flow and even the short spoiler of the 928S was enough for this purpose. The minimalist 928S spoiler wasn’t Wolfgang Möbius’ preference. He stated that the 928 S4’s spoiler is a much more effective and aesthetically pleasing design.

Tony explained to the banquet audience that he was given the directive; "It (the 928) should look like a Porsche and have the Porsche silhouette.” He stated that Porsche decided to develop a water-cooled car and a major task was to cool a 300 HP motor, but without a big mouth. This resulted in a lot of discussions between the styling and engine group. The door shape came from occupant survivability requirements in the U.S. Roof compression was to equal 1.5 times the weight of the car. He said that Porsches should have large wheels, and the 928 had the largest of the time. The front and rear sections of the 928 were beveled to give the appearance of less width. Porsche management was very trusting of their teams. He had an agreement that management wouldn’t see the 928 until the design was completed. With the 928S model, a spoiler was added to the rear of original design to keep laminar flow from the roof and over the rear hatch.

Frank Wiesner, moderator, brought up topics that brought chuckles to the audience and set-up a lively exchange between Tony and Wolfhelm. It seems that later in the project, several problems discovered. Tony Lapine remembered that management was critical of the car's width, issuing a mandate "reduce it by 15 cm." This lead to the solution to chamfer the corners to reduce the apparent width. The 928 was wide, actually the initial design was too wide to fit the Waschstrasse (German car wash). Wolfhelm Gorrisen said “No, Tony was too pessimistic, it was only narrowed by 7 cm (nearly 3 inches).” The design team also forgot to accommodate the wide automatic transmission torque converter, so a quick redesign of the rear section and rear seats had to be made. Seat belts were added and that also required design changes.

Andy E.

Thanks for sharing your images with us Rich. Mr.Lapine will always be remembered but will never be forgotten. His contribution to the automotive industry and design world will live on for quite a long time.

My sympathies go out to the Lapine family.

Shown below is a prime example of what Mr.Lapine and his design team came up with. The story behind the 917 scheme is even more interesting...

kundensport

i just want to say thank you for all the kind words my family and i have received over the last week. thank you also for recognizing what he was able to create with his team to for us to enjoy,

Hans

SeanR

Thanks for posting Hans, his creation is the reason we are all here and loving what we do, share, and have fun with. His visions are living on and are passionately looked after.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Chuck Z

RIP Tony. A timeless design that has endured the test of time. Godspeed.

bronto

And now Shelby is gone too.

hacker-pschorr

RIP Mr. Lapine

Melo928

Btw. Has original wide design ever been published? I'd love to see how it was drawn in the first place.