STARTING SIX
NEW SERIES ICONIC PORSCHE ENGINES
Frankfurt Motor Show, Autumn 1963. The covers were whipped off the 901, a pretty two-door coupe previewing Porsche’s replacement for the highly successful 356. This sensational show car was the precursor to the 911 (a name change was required following Peugeot’s challenge to Porsche, when the French car maker claimed rights to three-digit nomenclature with a zero in the middle). The rest, as they say, is storied history, but just as interesting as the svelte new 2+2’s slippery lines was its engine. Carrying on where the design of the 356 left off, the allnew flat-six was mounted behind the rear axle, setting the template for the 911 and one which hasn’t changed dramatically over the course of fifty-seven years
The story of the then new Porsche engine (retaining 901 designation until 1970) began some time earlier. Ferdinand ‘Ferry’ Porsche was convinced the replacement for the 356 shouldn’t stray too far from the earlier car’s rear-mounted powertrain layout, continuing to make use of an air-cooled ‘boxer’. His faith in the effectiveness of this design undoubtedly came from his father, Ferdinand Porsche, an engineering genius responsible for the 356’s parts donor, the Volkswagen Beetle (and a lot more besides), even though air-cooling doesn’t
