It all started in the summer of 1968 with a top secret project which would result in the famous 917. Marcel Haan reviews the book: Porsche Turbo by author Randy Leffingwell.
Porsche was going to use a Turbocharger and bring it into the racing world. The first person that came up with the Turbo was Alfred Büchi and although the invention was made in 1905, it took many years before it was used in cars.
Porsche Turbo by Randy Leffingwell
Porsche used this technique for the 917 and we are all familiar with the impressive results. Of course the next step was to use the turbo technique for the 911. As it has always been the philosophy of Porsche to connect their racing technology to street cars. A first attempt in 1969 failed because there just wasn’t enough space to house the turbo charger. Many engineers would have given up but for the team at Porsche, this was a challenge.
Porsche 928
Keeping these fast cars on the road by providing enough downforce became the task of the aerodynamics designers. But it wasn’t only the downforce they had to work on as it had the air-cooling, and air inlet became critical. Hundreds of hours of testing different configurations in the windtunnel helped to get the design perfect. The result was the impressive Turbo’s rear wing.
50 years later this book documents the history of the Porsche design describing all the challenges and solutions which the Porsche teams had to face. And the wonderful results covering all the racing cars and the turbo charged street cars.
Porsche Turbo by Randy Leffingwell
Randy Leffingwell, author of this book, combines his skills as an entertaining writer with his passion for the automotive history. Since 1989 he has been writing books and to date more than 50 books by his hand have been published. For this book he travelled through Germany to interview retired Porsche designers, spent time in the Porsche archives and combined it with the memories and stories of famous drivers like Dereck Bell and Jacky Ickx. The result is a remarkable book which is a 'must have' for any Porsche owner, as it provides an even deeper appreciation for their beloved Porsche.
Porsche 917
Porsche Turbo by Randy Leffingwell
Porsche Turbo by Randy Leffingwell
This book was originally published in 2015 by Quarto Publishing and the German translation is published Delius Klasing both versions are available here.
(this review was done on the German version)
