A bloody conflict between foreign nations, rising inflation and a worldwide energy crisis. While this might all sound depressingly familiar, we aren’t talking about 2023, but rather some 50 years prior. The Arab-Israeli war of 1973 led to what historians now term the first oil crisis, and a time that called for change to global energy policies and fast-paced advances in automotive efficiency.
With spiralling fuel, food and household bills in countries all around the world, the striking similarities between that period and the present day shouldn’t be lost on any of us. Then, as now, turbulent times demanded change – some of it radical, but for Porsche during this period, the oil crisis wasn’t the sole concern.
Since the formation of the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 1966, automotive safety standards in North America had begun to take a real step forward. A new set of Federal rules appeared in 1973 that would forever change the shape of the 911 – literally. The 1973 regulations required cars to withstand a frontal impact at 5mph and a rear knock at 2.5mph, without damaging the body of the vehicle. Most manufacturers absorbed the requirements (no pun intended) without too much trouble, by fitting larger bumpers and robust assembly brackets both front and rear, but Porsche had a problem. How would the svelte lines of the 911 adapt? Some presumed it wouldn’t, or worse still that it couldn’t. Perhaps now, in its 10th year, the 911 was at the end of the road?
It looked as though the rear-engined sports car, the 911 in particular, was not long for this world. Amid this mounting pressure, Porsche began to develop a
