Porsche Faces Reality

West Germany's lithe and lively Porsche is the rich man's Volkswagen. Like Volkswagen, Porsche (pronounced Portia) had not altered its size or appearance since it was founded 16 years ago, had nonetheless thrived on constant engineering change and a mystical appeal to buyers, who pay up to $6,300 for the privilege of owning one. Like Rolls-Royce and Mercedes, however, the Porsche has been over taken by the times. It has just brought out two new models that radically de part from the upside-down soupspoon look that has made the Porsche one of the most popular sports cars. The new cars, one of which will also have almost a 40% boost in horsepower, are distinguished by a straighter, less sloping front and a fastback, built around a brand-new chassis.

Brooding Boss. The similarity between Porsche and Volkswagen is not accidental. Porsche got its name from the late Ferdinand Porsche, who built his first car in 1899, went on to design the first Volkswagen in 1936. He also had a hand in designing the Panther, Elefant and Tiger tanks that terrorized Europe in World War II, spent two years in a French prison as a war criminal. Porsche's postwar success is a product of his son, Ferry Porsche, 56, a cautious, brooding engineer. Ferry brought Porsche from a garage in Gmuend, Austria to a glass-and-concrete factory outside Stuttgart, where 2,400 workers now turn out 56 cars a day--every one handmade and every engine stamped with the initials of the master mechanic who assembled it. Porsche sales last year reached $40 million, a 350-fold increase over 1949.

Porsche pulls in as much as $10 million a year from the licenses (mostly for its patented synchromesh gear box) that it sells to such automakers as Italy's Ferrari and Germany's BMW. Its closest ties are still with Volkswagen. Besides a royalty of 250 for every Volkswagen that rolls off the assembly line, Porsche reaps from VW an additional research-and-development fee.

Flick, Flick. Ferry Porsche doggedly refuses to tie himself more closely to Volkswagen, just as doggedly refuses to go after the mass market. Porsche owners are such as Elke Sommer, Herbert von Karajan, Prince Rainier, Ingemar Johansson, Juan Carlos of Spain and Krupp Heir Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. Like Porsche owners everywhere, they flick their headlights in salute as they pass on the highway, even at 100 m.p.h. U.S. highways now boast 29,000 Porsches, and half of Porsche's production is sold in the U.S.; demand is so strong that U.S. buyers must now wait two to three months for delivery.

Some Porsche addicts even go in for a form of reverse snobbery, put Porsche engines in Volkswagens. One such car is owned by Actor Paul Newman, three more by Racing Buff Art Sparks of Pasadena. "It's a great satisfaction," says Sparks, "to come up behind a Cadillac on a hill on the way to Las Vegas, let him have the horn and go breezing by. They wonder what happened."

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