Ferdinand Porsche - A Man ahead of His Time 

The VAG conglomerate (Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Seat, Skoda, Bugatti and a couple of other brands) is STILL firmly in the hands of the Porsche and Piech families.

14:25 not the Ferdinand. That image is fake, made of a Jagdtiger using Porsche suspension (which is historically accurate) however the superstructure wasn't rear mounted, it was mid mounted

Your narration is absolutely fantastic. Could listen to you all day.

That first electric Porsche had some damn good specs.

Ferdinand Porsche is always an interesting subject to cover, from many angles. Definitely a skilled engineer. However, as for the controversy over the VW design, "Porsche himself sheepishly admitted to having 'looked over Ledwinka's shoulders' while designing the 'people's car,' and in 1961 Volkswagen finally paid 3 million Deutschmarks in settlement to Tatra's successor." (pages 122 and 123 of "The Life of the Automobile"). Then there is the case of Josef Ganz, which was less clear: "The low-cost Standard Superior, which Hitler admired at the 1933 Berlin Motor Show, and which was designed by German-Hungarian engineer Josef Ganz, not only looked suspiciously like Porsche's later design for the KdF-Wagon (particularly in its more curvaceous, production form), but Standard Fahrzeugfabrik of Berlin subsequently promoted it as the 'Deutsche Volkswagen,' the 'people car.' As a Jew, however, Ganz was easily sidelined; he was arrested in 1933 and fled to Switzerland the following year" (page 123 of "The Life of the Automobile"). As for the Stadt des KdF-Wagens plant that would become the Volkswagen's signature Wolfsburg plant, it was based on Ford's Rouge River plant, and believe that considerable advice, knowledge transfer as well as substantive technology transfer from Ford was needed (or desired) to make the project viable. For example, from the Volkswagen site on the corporate history: "The three directors of Volkswagenwerk GmbH and staff from Porsche KG set off on a four-week trip to Detroit in order to broaden their knowledge of Ford’s mass production methods and to buy specialist American machinery. They also recruit a number of German-American experts employed at Ford." "Fritz Kuntze, the former power plant manager at Ford’s River Rouge factory recruited by Ferdinand Porsche, sketches out initial plans for the complex,"

Aw yes the Kubelwagen. Which resurfaced in the mid-1970s as the Volkswagen Thing. And don't forget the amphibious version, the Schwimmwagen. It is interesting to hear you call the car the Nine One One, when in Canada we say Nine Eleven.

12:22 Correction: The Germans had not developed a diesel engine that could power the Tiger 1 tank. Instead a petrol (gasoline) engine the 21.35-litre (1303 cu.in.) 12-cylinder Maybach HL210 P45 developing 485 kW (650 hp) at 3,000 rpm was used instead.

That's one hell of a barn find...

In fact the Maus section has issues. Porsche as a company was also involved heavily with the German side of the MBT 70 through numerous subsidiaries most of which carried the Porsche name.

Great to see video of my favourite car designer and the early days of his company. When everyone else is gasping and drooling over Ferraris or Lamborghinis , it was always a Porsche in my eyes that was the best.

first vehicle my mother ever drove, back in the 50"s was a Porsche 111K Diesel Cabriolet. While my grandparents where not rich, that particular Porsche happened to be quite affordable and a lot more practical than your usual Porsche.

Ferdinand Porsche did what good musicians also do- "pinch" good ideas from other artists as John Lennon put it so he's in good company. I think the real legacy was that the principle of a rear mounted flat air cooled engine, torsion bar independent suspension, light weight, durable, user serviceable, practical, and high quality automobile built by a pool of skilled craftsmen had a incredible run. The air cooled beetle was produced until 2003 of course and the 356 when refined and developed into the original 901/911 under his son had an incredible 25 year run- incredible for a sports car while adhering to the blueprint established in the 1930's.

Slight corrections: Anton Piechs name is pronounced "Pee-ech". Those little dots over the E means the E is pronounces separately. One of his sons took over as manager for VW in the 90s and was responsible for the scandal surrounding faked co2 emission test values. The russians captured both Maus protoypes, only that one of them was broken and the other one only had a mock up turret. so they removed the turret from the broken Maus and put it on the one with the fake turret for testing

The pic at 14:28 could be a precursor of the later Jagdtiger. But it could also be photoshoped since the turret covers the rear engine and there is no sense in having the long bow unit.

I knew a good deal about Ferdinand Porsche about his cars. They are my favorite

Ferdinand Porsche had an assignment from one of his employers to make their current auto engines easy to start in freezing mornings seven days in a row which he failed to do. He said it couldn't be done and eventually left the company in a huff. However, another employee managed to do it.

Thank you for making this video , I appreciate your version of the information , I would love more of these.

At 14:26 , that seems to be a photoshopped picture. Looks like a Tiger II hull (you can see where the turret and barrel are shopped out) with a Jagdtiger superstructure.

A truly fascinating talk. One of your best. There was so much there that I didn't know and was very surprised to hear it all.

Really feels like you glossed over the whole "borrowing/copying/stealing" he did from Hans Ledwinka, but props to him for those early electric and hybrid vehicles!

You make some of the best science related content on RU-vid in my opinion. Well researched, awesome topics and great presentation. The only problem (when finished binging): i want more!

Seeing how material dense Porsche’s tanks were I definitely believe he was doing that on purpose to accelerate the end of the war. No way someone as smart as Porsche saw how little resources Germany had and thought these extremely heavy tanks could be a good idea.

Good to see you back on work Paul! Hopefully you doing much better now! Have been a keen fan of your content for many years. Keep up the great work. Always a gem to see new video from you and now therr has been a bunch! Candy day! Greetings from Finland.

Great topic. Being a 911 owner and enthusiast, I would love to see a sequel about the history of the 901/911 and how PORSCHE has completed a "360" back to hybrid performance technology starting with the awesome 919 and its record at Le Mans AND culminating with the new hyper prototypes that will be racing for the first time next year at Le Mans 100 year anniversary. Porsche has deep roots in electric powered automobiles and is the only manufacturer taking on Tesla in the electric performance. Again, great topic Paul!

was on a Porsche racing team in 78. 911 GT/U. then had a job taking them apart, wrecks. for a guy who sold the parts. friend bought a 930 turbo, fast car back then. and had a few VWs while in Germany. cool cars.

Since I started playing certain computer games Porsche triggers images of cars and tanks in equal measures for me.

With a range of 79 kilos the Ferdinand Porsche could do the Kessel run in 3 parsecs.

This was amazing, thanks for making this

For aviation I would pick Kelly Johnson for military plane design and Dick Rutan for all others for designer of the century.

Ferdinand Porsche didn't design the 911 or the 356, which was his son Ferry. Ferdinand sadly died in 1951.

Normally i dont like adverts but understand, however i like the depth you go into all things. Maybe a mini covering in depth the motor for example as part of the ad.

Amazing. Thank you and never stop.

I had a Volkswagen 'Thing' (Postwar Kubelwagen) when I was in High School in the 1970s. My friends and I used to run around the New Mexico hills with it. Once I slid off into an arroyo and bent one of the front wheels about 30 degrees (Leaned out). I drove it like that for over a year and it barely wore the tire! There was very little weight on the front end in those things and they easily oversteered. It was a rugged little car though.

The Wernher von Braun of the car industry.

Some excellent ideas from Porsche that tried to push the envelope, although he couldn't help but cause his fair share of issues for German procurement.

Nice, thanks for the video. Was very enjoyable to watch.

Just a comment on the sponsorship. A lowered performance car, particularly on 21 inch rims, would be absolutely useless for me, except on a race track. Given the state of the roads in the UK (particularly around me), I may end up with a spine injury before the suspension gives out, or the rims are completely busted. --edit plus it cannot tow. I'm not sure why these competitions insist on performance cars. I would be more likely to get involved if it was something that was practical but expensive to buy.

the Maus was more like a protection sheme for Porches group of engineers. they were busy with the prestigue project Maus so they couldn't be drafted to fight in some needless final battle late into the war like many others.

Makes you wonder if they'd kept at electric cars if the price, energy density, and long-term viability of such cars/batteries would be affordable today, or just as troublesome and just as expensive, with batteries that wear out so fast, don't work well at many temperatures.....

Christian Lindner gefällt das!

I am still waiting on my vw beetle I collected all the stamps for the car. But have not heard back

Love the background music. Ode to Joy by Beethoven is my alltime favorite piece of music to whistle and has been for years.

Semiunrelated anecdote - Gigantic German tanks were and expression of WunderWaffen-ism and the American tanks were smaller essentially due the need to ferry a lot of then in ship across the Atlantic.

You dug deep on this one, extremally interesting thaks

I visited the museum in Kubinka. Maus is truly massive. There is an indentation in the front armor plate from what I believe was armor penetration test. You can fit your fist in there and it still doesn't go all the way through the armor.

Maybe but just remember the internal combustion engine was a proven concept 12 years earlier thanks to Karl Benz

the beetle rounded shape was for strength and easy manufacturing of pressings

10:50 The VW Beetle doesn’t have a chassis. It relies on the body of the vehicle.

Great historical video! Thanks...

Great vid! The porsche history after this is also really interesting altho its more about economics and corporate finance.

This was a very good video and a very interesting subject to cover! As a car nerd, this tickled my nerd fancies! :D

I always wish i could be in the room, where we show a modern varint of a car (Porsche, Bugatti, Ford... any big one) to the creator of the brand itself. And then see the test-drive footage, for fun :) Similar idea would stand with Leonardo Da Vinchi with a Heli ride, and an MR/PET scan... also a flight of the Wrights to a modern airshow, and Aerobatics presentation... Would be so awsome!

I'm disappointed you didn't cover the Audi/Autounion grand prix cars along with the top speed record cars he designed!

Thanks for the video. Some coverage of Porsche and the Auto Union racing effort would be a good addition.

Superb production, well researched and very interesting and accurate content. CD you have done it again...! Cheers.....yeah @djjurky agree Mr Paul Shillito's narration is smooth...!

Hitler never said/thought the Czechs were sub-human.

So happy to see more of this amazing content Paul. Hopefully your feeling better too!

Omaze is a for profit organization and gives around 15% to charities, has anyone even heard abt these charities? Would have appreciated if a channel like this one who usually presents content that is very well researched and based on facts and science would not use sponsors like Omaze, what's next, raycon?

When I hear Porsche I hear Tanks near my country border :D

Wow, thanks for putting this in perspective, I still don't like expensive sports cars, unless you're the classic Corvette then I drool.

Great video again, thank you.

1 million subs. You earned it 💟

Fascinating, thanks

1st class.....thanks. for sharing

Many thanks Curious Droid

Great video again Surprised to hear that and early tiger tank was diesel powered Also would love to hear more about that early electric or hybrid car Cheers

It would be so fascinating to give the likes of Porsche, Messerschmitt, von Braun, Dornier, Heisenberg 10 minutes where they could talk without being judged, but being asked to be completely honest and explain their proximity to the Nazi party, what they liked, what they believed, what they were convinced of, what they hated, whether it was for the money. I think if money was invested into a project like this, it could make up a nice documentary series "Hitlers, his Scientists and Engineers".

Porsche was a genius growing up in special times: he had talent that could both be used and misused. I hope your sponsors use their money as creatively as Porsche, and do not squander it on flights of fancy...

I had a couple of VW type 3s. Nice looking cars but damn they were a pain and also very slow. But they had IRS, disk brakes and EFI for late 60s and early 70s so there is that.

Tiger used gasoline engine. When talking about the Porsche Tiger TD names there was shown a Jagdtiger, not the Ferdinand.

What a treat!

Not even a word about role of Adolf Rosenberger in early 1930s, who played a huge role (funding) in starting Porsche company. Not to mention what happened to him afterwards.

Between your narrations and those of Dr. Feldon’s and also, Mr. Neidell and Mr. Olsson, you cats have a stranglehold on the relaying of our history. 🤘🏼

Wow. That's was a good one.

Great episode. Tks.

Awesome video as always

Droid!...Superb.

Hi Paul, another great video, just thought you ought to know that the sponsor link isn't valid for UK. Hope you're keeping well.

Thank you Paul for another informative video.

fantastic backgroud music!

Well that "maus" tank.... beast mode on I would say

Love your work 👍

Good video, thank you!

Porsches are like the Terminator 2 of cars. Concise, enduring, well -put together. A timeless classic.

What always baffles me, in only 6 years of war there were so many new designs\and or inventions made, so many new factories had to be at least modified to fit the new productions. Maybe I'm to detached but today it seems we are all but faster with these processes (from planning to full on production) despite all our tech

What a busy man

"FERRY" interesting. I never purchased a Porsche, but I did buy a Beetle.; one of my favorite cars I've owned.

Fascinating

Did I just hear "Vegan Leather interior" at 2:48? :"D Oh, the world...

wow that guy was a bless from God he was so smart his smart ideas and good things he made it is one of kind 😔🙏 unbelievable

Every time I see a "Porsche" on the road I say out loud "Our Fuhrer would be proud to see his Porsche and BMW and his people's car Volkswagen roaming on the entire world! even though on wheels instead of armored vehicle tracks..." Now excuse me but I have to go buy a present for my baby girl, probably a Klaus Barbie doll with a nice Arian Ken companion with blonde eyes and blue hair or some combination

TBH I was waiting for the history of the 911 to be explored... Guess I'll just keep tuning in!

Paul and I definitely share the same curiosity and interests. And love for shirts 🙂

I remember an auto writer back in the 1980s stating that if you let off the throttle, or worse, hit the brakes, of a 911 in a high speed turn, the car will dig your grave. It was not a car for unskilled drivers.

What a deal....Thanks Paul 🙏....Shoe🇺🇸

Nope, Germany did not use Diesel engines in WW2 tanks, mainly for supply reasons. The Tiger used a 12cyl. Maybach engine.

Great video, but the photo at 14:36 is absolutely a fake! That is not a Ferdinand / Elephant but a Jagdtiger (a similiar Tank Destroyer, but on a chasis of Heschel's Tiger II - Königs Tiger) and the gun / superstructure is photoshopped to the back of the tank destroyer!

A great story :)

good video. The Porsche and Piech families control VW and its subsidiaries to this day.

What a story!