Porsche 911 50 Years
THE WENDELIN WIEDEKING ERA In a now-legendary confrontation with Porsche tradition, Wiedeking enticed two former Toyota executives to bring the philosophy of kaizen, or continuous improvement, to company manufacturing and to teach them efficiency in production. Calling the existing factory facilities “warehouses” because stockpiled parts occupied as much floor space as assembly lines, the Japanese inspired Wiedeking, who eventually reduced assembly floor inventories from 28 days on hand to 30 minutes, forcing Porsche’s outside vendors to adapt or fall off the preferred suppliers list. The streamlined Zuffenhausen operation manufactured 2,374 of the new 993 coupes—and 221 pilot production cabriolets—by the time Porsche closed for its Christmas/New Year holiday break at the end of 1993. Labeled as 1994 model cars, they began deliveries to European customers in April. The first American buyers saw 1995 models in September 1994. The cabriolet roof presented challenges to Tony Hatter and the design engineers he worked with. Gerhard Schröder’s top system designed for the 1983 SC passed largely unchanged through the 964 models. Hatter was not a fan. “I never liked the look of the early cabriolets. The classical 911 shape is the coupe. With the 993, we tried to get some of that form into the roof.” The 993 was the first time designers or engineers had been allowed to revise the cloth top. Production for the first year reached 7,865 coupes and 7,074 cabriolets. For all of their dramatics, the efforts of Ulrich Bez and Wendelin Wiedeking delivered benefits to customers—with a base price $5,000 less than the 964—and profits to the company, incredibly. The new car helped rewrite Porsche’s financial statement as the economy finally returned to solid footing in 1995. By this time, Porsche had begun delivering all-wheel-drive Carrera 4s. Weissach updated and revised the Tiptronic transmission, renaming it the Tiptronic S; however, it was available only for rear-drive models..jpeg)
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EVOLUTION VERSION 2.0
FROM AIR TO WATER THE FIFTH GENERATION: 996 ”In 1991, we had one big problem in the company,” Horst Marchart recalled in an interview in 2012. Marchart had just joined the Porsche board. He had started as a design engineer in the engine department in 1960, and from 1972 till 1988, he served as a leader for external projects at Weissach. In 1988, after Helmuth Bott left, Ulrich Bez pulled Marchart back into Porsche’s mainstream, making him responsible for the complete development for cars. He supervised 350 people. He had watched this “one problem” as it emerged, sometimes seeing it from the perspectives of Porsche’s outside clients. “The 944/968 was an excellent car,” Marchart acknowledged, “but no one said it was a true Porsche. Next was the 928—the original concept to replace the 911. This split the company—one side was for the 911. The other side was for the 928/924/944. It always made a competition inside the company. And outside the company, it was a competition of appearance—the 911 was the true Porsche and the 928 was a Porsche, but not the true Porsche.” When Marchart joined the board, Wendelin Wiedeking gave him the task of solving the one big problem, and the others that grew from it. “We had three products with no common parts,” Marchart said. “My job was to reduce the company to two products with a lot of parts similarities. And it was my idea to use the same face for both cars to give the identification equally. And with the Boxster and the 911, nearly the same from the nose to the front of the doors, we show it is possible for Porsche to build two cars that are both true Porsches.” One more issue had been present from the start. Fuhrmann had attempted to resolve it with his 924 and 928, but it eventually became clear these were not the best solutions to a real problem. “Our next big situation was to stop the air-cooled engine. Nobody in the world had air-cooled engines except us. With all the regulations in the various countries, all that we had to respect, we had these special engines that needed special parts unlike any other manufacturer. We could only have two valves. We needed a special cooling and heating system, different from everyone else in the world. It took a lot of money to make special systems since we could not share technology with anyone else,” Marchart said. He considered making immediate changes. The 964 was ready for release, but among the gasps heard during finance man Branitzki’s suggestion to keep that car around forever were Marchart’s 350 engineers with a much clearer view of coming safety and emissions standards. The development of 993 began even before Branitzki spoke those words. “We made studies and investigations to make the 993 water-cooled. But we had special conditions. We would have needed a new heating and cooling system for a water-cooled engine, and we didn’t have the room in the car body. So we decided to let the 993 stay with the air-cooling and we would start fresh with the next car, the 996. “In the meanwhile, we also had made the studies for a four-wheel steering system, which we liked. But we could find no partners for it. Bosch asked for 60,000,000 DM at that time (about $40 million) to develop the electronics and cooperate with us in development. At that time we had no money in our pockets, so that made the decision to stop that project easy but disappointing. But that was the reason why, in the 993, we had the subframe. We had started to develop the system, and it required the subframe. Then Bosch needed too much. The comfort was excellent. We decided we will stay with the subframe and stabilize the rear axle. And I think it made us the most comfortable 911 ever, in the 993.
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