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PorscheOct 5, 09 thru Jan 31, 10Over the past 60 years, the Porsche has emerged as the world’s most prestigious high-performance sports car. A new exhibition at the San Diego Automotive Museum gives visitors a chance to get up close with over a dozen of these finely crafted machines that span the history of Porsche’s manufacturing line. Like its compatriot the Volkswagen, the Porsche (pronounced por-sha)—with its compact sleek design and air-cooled rear-engine—embodies the concept of German engineering in auto-making. So it’s no surprise to learn that Porsche’s founder, Ferdinand Porsche, played a major role in the development of the first Volkswagen Beetle during the Nazi era. In fact, the first Porsches made in the late 1940s to early 1950s by Ferdinand’s son, Ferry, incorporated many Volkswagen components and concepts. The San Diego Automotive Museum’s exhibition includes examples of these early “356” models, which bear signs of their “people’s car” origins. Also on display, at the opposite end of the spectrum, is a bright yellow 917 Le Mans-style race car, a model made famous by the 1971 Steve McQueen movie, Le Mans.
In addition, the exhibition presents such iconic examples as a 1970 911 “E” Targa (which has logged over 400,000 miles), a 1965 356 “C” (which places in many car shows around the country), and an “entry-level” 912 model from 1968. Rounding out the survey is a root beer-colored 2008 Cayman 987c Coupe. Reading some of the quotes in the exhibition text panels, one gets the sense that Porsche owners are as passionate about their cars as the company’s founders were themselves. San Diego Automotive Museum
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