Dumb Q: Is Porsche fully independent?
03-29-2003, 01:53 AM
#16
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I think Dr. Piech left Porsche when the big shakeup came resulting in no Porsche family member could run the day to day business because factions of the family were fighting and attempting to gain control.
BTW, remember those old dealer signs and advertising that said:
PORSCHE+Audi
Not related to this thread, but an interesting piece of history related to the Porsche family was the fact that Porsche AG was sued by a Czech automobile company called Tatra because Dr. Porsche "stole" some blueprints or something from Hans Ledwinka because Hans and Tatra developed the first air-cooled, rear engine automobile in 1933. In fact Tatra and Porsche were competing for Hitler's "peoples car" design. When Germany invaded Czechoslavakia (sp?) Hitler and Porsche collaborated and Tatra was forced out of the competition. Thus was born the Beetle. It was much later proven that Porsche copied some of the design of the competing Tatra. Hans Ledwinka was the Ferdinand Porsche of the Tatra organization. They knew each other, and they were developing their engineering skills in their companys. Tatra got slammed by Germany and then Britain before, during, and after the war and thus got a late start on their auto development. It is a fascinating story and not usually told in Porsche history...the fact that Porsche was sued for copyright infringement on their basic design and eventually had to pay handsomely for the "opportunistic" Dr. Porsche.
BTW, remember those old dealer signs and advertising that said:
PORSCHE+Audi
Not related to this thread, but an interesting piece of history related to the Porsche family was the fact that Porsche AG was sued by a Czech automobile company called Tatra because Dr. Porsche "stole" some blueprints or something from Hans Ledwinka because Hans and Tatra developed the first air-cooled, rear engine automobile in 1933. In fact Tatra and Porsche were competing for Hitler's "peoples car" design. When Germany invaded Czechoslavakia (sp?) Hitler and Porsche collaborated and Tatra was forced out of the competition. Thus was born the Beetle. It was much later proven that Porsche copied some of the design of the competing Tatra. Hans Ledwinka was the Ferdinand Porsche of the Tatra organization. They knew each other, and they were developing their engineering skills in their companys. Tatra got slammed by Germany and then Britain before, during, and after the war and thus got a late start on their auto development. It is a fascinating story and not usually told in Porsche history...the fact that Porsche was sued for copyright infringement on their basic design and eventually had to pay handsomely for the "opportunistic" Dr. Porsche.
