Why is ignition switch to the left of the steering wheel?
03-31-2019, 03:47 PM
#2
Three Wheelin'
03-31-2019, 03:48 PM
#3
Nordschleife Master
Because Ferdinand Porsche was left handed.
03-31-2019, 04:21 PM
#6
Addict
Rennlist Member
Rennlist Member
During a 2017 factory tour, this question was posed to our guide. She had a laugh and told us that the LeMans start story is a good story, but it’s just that, a story. The real reason was than when the first cars were under development, materials were in short supply and expensive. The switch was located on the left simply because it made the wiring loom shorter and required less copper wire. Not as good a story but sometimes reality is not as interesting as a myth.
03-31-2019, 04:57 PM
#7
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: S Carolina coast & N Carolina mountains
Posts: 1,785
Received 158 Likes
on
113 Posts
Dan Neil -
"But that’s not quite how it went down. My source in this matter is unusually good. In August 2008 I drove the Porsche 356-001 (1948), a tube-frame, mid-engine prototype built by Ferry Porsche—son of Ferdinand Porsche—during the company’s postwar exile in Gmund, Austria. The Ur-Porsche’s ignition switch, cannibalized from a VW, is indeed on the left of the cockpit; but as then-Porsche Museum curator and keeper of keys Klaus Bischof explained, its placement had nothing to do with racing. In the early Postwar period, when the company amounted to a mere handful of men hammering and welding in an old sawmill, electrical wire was scarce. Putting the switch on the left “saved a little bit of wire, a little bit of money,” Mr. Bischof said, “and maybe 200 grams.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-rea...s&page=1&pos=2
"But that’s not quite how it went down. My source in this matter is unusually good. In August 2008 I drove the Porsche 356-001 (1948), a tube-frame, mid-engine prototype built by Ferry Porsche—son of Ferdinand Porsche—during the company’s postwar exile in Gmund, Austria. The Ur-Porsche’s ignition switch, cannibalized from a VW, is indeed on the left of the cockpit; but as then-Porsche Museum curator and keeper of keys Klaus Bischof explained, its placement had nothing to do with racing. In the early Postwar period, when the company amounted to a mere handful of men hammering and welding in an old sawmill, electrical wire was scarce. Putting the switch on the left “saved a little bit of wire, a little bit of money,” Mr. Bischof said, “and maybe 200 grams.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-rea...s&page=1&pos=2
Trending Topics
03-31-2019, 05:03 PM
#8
Three Wheelin'
That story is lame. The racing story is far more sexy. Sexy always beats lame.
03-31-2019, 05:09 PM
#9
Never knew the real story, always heard the racing story, thanks for sharing.
03-31-2019, 05:20 PM
#11
Three Wheelin'
03-31-2019, 05:24 PM
#13
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: S Carolina coast & N Carolina mountains
Posts: 1,785
Received 158 Likes
on
113 Posts
Dan goes on...
"Another untidy fact is that many of the company’s most famous sports-racers, including James Dean’s ill-fated 550 Spyder (1955) and the 904/6 Carrera GTS (1965), have their key-switches inboard of the steering wheel. The outboard position hasn’t always been canon law.
It is now. Call it brand narrative, design DNA, provenance, echt. If Porsche were to build a car with an inboard ignition switch now, enthusiasts’ heads would explode in righteous, albeit misguided indignation.
Most probably see the left-side ignition as tribute to the motorsports legend Porsche became. I prefer to let it remind me of the sawmill days, when all that stood between Porsche and oblivion was a little length of wire."
"Another untidy fact is that many of the company’s most famous sports-racers, including James Dean’s ill-fated 550 Spyder (1955) and the 904/6 Carrera GTS (1965), have their key-switches inboard of the steering wheel. The outboard position hasn’t always been canon law.
Most probably see the left-side ignition as tribute to the motorsports legend Porsche became. I prefer to let it remind me of the sawmill days, when all that stood between Porsche and oblivion was a little length of wire."
03-31-2019, 05:24 PM
#14
Three Wheelin'