VW is buying the remaining shares of Porsche
07-11-2012, 01:12 AM
#18
Rennlist Member
I agree with elporsche. VW head Piech will have saved Porsche's soul from Wiedking who would have turned Porsche into another BMW with cars in every conceivable niche. I read that he hates the Panamera and there may not be a reboot regardless of the robust sales. Any owner that would fund the Veyron has to be better for Porsche than any bean counter. If anything I believe he will step up the motorsports connection. Competition with Audi will improve the breed. Hopefully the VW board will see there is room for both of them in the highest ranks of motorsport. When VW becomes the largest automaker in the world later this decade F1 is a natural for Audi (Silver Arrows) thus leaving LeMans open for Porsche prototypes.
07-11-2012, 07:13 AM
#19
Drifting
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Munich
Posts: 2,722
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I agree with elporsche. VW head Piech will have saved Porsche's soul from Wiedking who would have turned Porsche into another BMW with cars in every conceivable niche. I read that he hates the Panamera and there may not be a reboot regardless of the robust sales. Any owner that would fund the Veyron has to be better for Porsche than any bean counter. If anything I believe he will step up the motorsports connection. Competition with Audi will improve the breed. Hopefully the VW board will see there is room for both of them in the highest ranks of motorsport. When VW becomes the largest automaker in the world later this decade F1 is a natural for Audi (Silver Arrows) thus leaving LeMans open for Porsche prototypes.
, but I couldn't disagree more with much of this post.Ferdinand Piëch, the head of the VAG Supervisory Board, cut his teeth on the 917 program and was an enthusiastic supporter of the 5 cylinder engine amongst his other eccentricities, but he was not so nuts as to allow his family company's Supervisory Board to give Wendelin Wiedeking untrammelled freedom in his buccaneering. Anything WW did was with the tacit approval of key Porsche and Piëch family members with seats on the Super Board (or their trustees). Germans in general and PAG in particular play a very long game, at the end of the day a Porsche / Piëch family member will have a hand on the levers that operate an enlarged VAG.
Sadly the Veyron, a monument to the 'little Emperor's' overweening ego destroyed the careers of several outstanding professional engineers and finally had to be brought to fruition under the aegis of a rich retired banker who was doing it for fun, so poisoned was the cup on offer. We are dealing with complex personalities here.
Piëch himself is opposed to F1 involvement for several good reasons, most importantly he does not believe that VAG can afford to tie up so many of their best engineers in a F1 programme and that the returns are poor compared to Le Mans.
Winterkorn is as avid a Motorsports enthusiast as his mentor FP, the larger VAG enterprise will continue to look after its brands, ask the folk at Lamborghini.
R+C
