THE STORY OF MAX HOFFMAN

When it comes to brands and breaking America – and that means really breaking America – there’s usually some little-known individual who, if it weren’t for them, the house of cards and the millions that followed would never truly have been built. For the Beatles it was Sid Bernstein, a promoter who, having seen the Fab Four’s manager Brian Epstein deterred by low US record sales, decided to book two Carnegie Hall gigs in New York himself. He paid the band $6,500 to come over from England and perform in an event that followed a promotional TV appearance, reaching 73 million.

For Porsche and its American enterprise there was no Ed Sullivan Show moment per se, but there was still that individual who is widely acknowledged with envisioning it all: what European sports cars could offer an American audience, and who had the contacts necessary to build a pipeline that meant the likes of Porsche, Mercedes-Benz,