Porsche 911 50 Years
PORSCHE AND KOMENDA: THE HORIZONTAL AND THE VERTICAL LINE Ferry’s philosophy was concise. Body engineer Eugen Kolb recited it in an interview in late November 2012: “Make a car that will sell. Then think of a new variation.” Komenda’s job included offering proposals for the variations. Since the boss had not yet signaled a direction, he followed his own instincts. As Porsche historian Tobias Aichele put it, Komenda “gave more thought to a four-seat body based on the 356, to expand the model line upwards, possibly with a more powerful engine, rather than a replacement for the successful four-cylinder.” With that as Komenda’s philosophy, later in 1952 he delivered the Typ 534, and then the Typ 555 appeared in 1953. These were new fourseaters to which modeler Klie gave alternate rooflines and rear window treatments. Aichele assessed Komenda’s results: “The external body could be given enormous strength by means of strong curvature. This led to a somewhat plump variant.” These zaftig bodies were a little surprising from a team whose slimmer versions appeared in production as the 356A. Still, with sellable 356 models emerging from drawing boards and model shops, and a continual flurry of technical advances and updates from his engineering staff, Ferry didn’t protest too loudly against the bigger cars his design engineer offered. Both men had expressed an interest in—and marvel of—American cars of the period. According to Kolb, however, in retrospect, the concepts Komenda presented weren’t exactly what he had in mind. Or perhaps they weren’t what he felt he could get away with. That never deterred Komenda. Both Kolb and Gerhard Schröder (in separate interviews in 2012) described Komenda as a rebel. “There was a conversation with Ferry,” Schröder recalled, “and he said, ‘When I say to him to make a horizontal line, Komenda in general makes a vertical.’ He always made the opposite to what Ferry said. He was always so. . . . It was his character.” Whether this was Komenda’s modus operandi, few people had real cause to complain. Although additional four-seat proposals emerged from Komenda’s imagination as the Typ 656 in early 1955, he and Klie also had delivered the Typ 550 Spyder in 1953. If that was a “vertical line,” it may be gilding the lily to imagine the horizontal line Ferry had in mind instead for his racer.











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