Today the Porsche car company celebrates its 70th birthday. The above wording is deliberately chosen, as the name Porsche was already well-known in various sectors of the industry for decades. In 1900 Ferdinand Porsche kicked the door to the Vienna industry scene when he designed a plug-in hybrid vehicle at the well established coachbuilder Lohner company. He later became one of the technical mastermind of Germany, the “Tony Stark” of the early 20th century. From Tiger tanks through “the car for the people” and luxury Mercedes to agricultural vehicles, his genius shed light on many things, but none of those carried his name.
The first sports car to bear the Porsche name was registered on June 8, 1948: It was the 356 “No.1” Roadster. The 356 turned Ferdinand’s son, Ferry Porsche’s dream of a sports car into a reality. This is the day on which the Porsche brand was born, and the date marks an official anniversary year with the slogan “70 years of the Porsche sports car”.
We’re talking about THE car brand with the strongest presence on classic car scene, 911s of various generations constitute the very backbone of every important classic cars show and are featured high in many classic car series.
The Porsche company runs a worldwide network of classic car service centres and upkeeps museums that are noted among the best car museums in the world.
So far I had the opportunity to attend the Porsche stands at Retromobile Paris and Essen Techno Classica, and admired the enthusiasm of owners who restore or race their cars, in manner worthy to the fame of the brand.
In addition to the factory presence at classic car shows, and activities at the Porsche Museums (including the Porsche Pavillon in VW’s Autocity), many other players join the celebrations on several continents (like the American Petersen Automotive Museum, the Goodwood Festival of Speed or the Belgian Autoworld).
Update
The anniversary year proved to be a truly great thematic, with several occasions to witness the celebrations organised for or by the Porsche car company. By the time of the drafting of this article I already saw the Porsche stages at 2018 Rétromobile paris and Essen Techno Classica exhibitions. In the memorial year, Porsche organised dedicated programs at the factory’s own museum and a thematic exhibition in Porsche Pavilion at VW’s Autostadt). The first major exhibition I visited Stuttgart last summer during my ultimate road trip in a European automotive nirvana.
The Porsche Museum is the right place to celebrate the brand’s 70th anniversary
The trip also included a visit to the Cité de l’Automobile that honoured Porsche with a dedicated anniversary exhibition.
The final chambers of the Cité host some of the greatest automotive treasures
Also during the summer, I paid another visit to the private collection of the Porsche family near Salzburg. While Fahrtraum is much more about Ferdinand Sr’s life before the establishment of his car company, the visit is a must for all fans of the brand, and a great addition to a visit to the Stuttgart site.
Porsche Fahrtraum August update – the most child-friendly museum got even better
Another factory level event I saw was the Porsche stage at the Paris Motor Show with a lively retrospective on hypercars.
Impressions from the Paris Car Show – Palais 4 – VW Group and Japanese manufacturers
The next few occasions were delivered by a second European road trip, whose strategical objective was Wolfsburg, just in time to see the Porsche Pavilion’s anniversary exhibition.
Another major Porsche exhibition was organised for the Interclassics Brussels. In addition to a dedicated 356 stage, the whole event seems like a supersized Porsche exhibition.
Finally, Autoworld concluded the year with a mega-exhibition that could easily reach the top spot of the whole list:
