For six decades, the Porsche brand has been defined by the iconic silhouette of the 911 and despite an ancient Beetle-era design philosophy which persists today, it’s proved pretty much impossible to replace.
Not that Porsche didn’t try of course. As early as 1977 the wraps came off the 928 which with its futuristic styling, front engine/rear transaxle layout and all-alloy V8 was as modern as the 911 was dated. It was, of course, very different though and the Porsche faithful largely stayed away, a problem not helped by the 928 being even more costly than the 911. The result was that the 911 stayed on... and on... and on.
The alternative solution was to improve the firm’s offering at the other end of the range in order to bolster cashflow with a more affordable model. The 914, developed and marketed as a joint-venture with VW had already shown that the idea of a junior Porsche model had some merit and the eventual solution for its replacement would also come courtesy of the VW group.
A longstanding arrangement between VW and Porsche meant that the Stuttgart firm had traditionally been providing the bulk of the R&D work for Volkswagen and had been
