The designer of the Porsche 911 has passed away. FA “Butzi” Porsche was the grandson of the founder of the Porsche company and led the Porsche design studio in the early 1960s. His iconic 911 will celebrate its 50th year on sale in 2013. FA Porsche also designed the 904 GTS racing car and countless non-automotive products as an industrial designer.
The 911 is his legacy. Its shape is instantly recognizable by most everyone with even a slight familiarity of Western culture. Thank you Mr. Porsche for your contributions to automotive culture. A few pictures of my favorite 911 variants follow.
The 935 is a racing version of the 911 turbo. The 935 is weapons grade 911 awesomeness in a swoopy body that made teenage gearheads drool and dream of the mischief possible with up to 800 horsepower.
In the 60s the 911 was a regular competitor in the SCCA’s C Production class. Some of the cars had unique paint jobs like this one. Modern race cars aren’t able to pull off cool graphics like this due to the need to show sponsor stickers.
This is another IMSA 935, I love these cars, they were so raw and visceral. I attended my first IMSA race in the mid 1980s and the flash of flame that would shoot from the exhaust of the 935s as the drivers would shift gears is burned in my memory as a tipping point in my life. From then on I was irreversibly bitten with the racing bug.
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