Thanks a lot! I'm very happy with this provenance and as an admirer of his life's work i'm thankfull owning one of his former cars and especially a Speciale.
Christian he has a life long interest in building light cars. I believe he developed the 1967 911R idea of a light weight model. There was resistance to some of the lightweight metal materials he wanted to use in racing because of their high cost. He was correct in his thinking of course but was eventually forced out of the Porsche company...
Yes, he was obsessed about lightweight and also about perfect gaps! But there is so much more about him. The most important, if it comes to racing, he is Mr. 917... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ferdinand Piech was obsessed with reducing weight, and no new component could be introduced before being weighed on the bathroom scales which sat on his desk. He applied this dictum to the 911 to produce the 820 kilogram (1,808 pound) 911R. The model 911R became the template for the 2.7RS and future RS lightweights. Porsche won at LeMans in 1970 but with Ferdinand Piech's win at any cost attitude being his eventual downfall in the company. He left Porsche in early 1972. Many years later in an ironic twist he became the chairman of the board of the VW group in 2002. Thirteen more years would pass before he eventually retired.
the titanium tyrant... The Porsche drivers refused to drive the 917 without downforce. Helmut Flegl sold him on the idea of drag being necessary and the rest is history.
btw his nickname is "Fugen-Ferdl", because of his obsession about small and perfect gaps and so my Speciale is called Ferdl...
For those who are interested in the history, two very good books: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
