In a time when a dollar keeps getting shorter and prices keep growing, automotive enthusiasts and even just people who need cars are prioritizing reliability in a vehicle above all else, no matter what tax bracket they're shopping in. While brands like Toyota and Honda are known for offering nearly indestructible vehicles at entry-level pricing, they aren't exactly what get self-proclaimed gearheads up in the morning. This is the niche that Porsche has filled over its rich 93-year history, cementing itself as a brand synonymous with reliability, trustworthiness, performance, and greatness. But despite being fawned over for its spectacular sports cars, Porsche has made several great contributions to the automotive world that have shaped it for not just enthusiasts but mass-market car shoppers, too, and we're not just talking about how the GT3 RS continuously proves that 500 horsepower is all the power you need.
Two of the most notable and unbelievable include Ferdinand Porsche, the company's founder, being credited with inventing both the first all-wheel drive vehicle and the first hybrid vehicle in history. While these may be two of the most incredible, there are many other contributions Ferdinand's company has made over the years with equally palpable contributions to the automotive industry at large.
1 Internally Ventilated Disc Brakes
Arguably Porsche's single greatest contribution to the automotive industry, the company introduced ventilated brake discs via the 911 S in 1966. Sold disc brakes had been utilized for some time and were a massive improvement over drum brakes, but they still had a tendency to overheat when used too frequently, as their only areas for heat dispersion were the faces with which the pads contacted. Porsche introduced double-walled rotors in order to allow air to circulate between them, reducing frictional heat from a much larger surface area than had ever been done prior to that point. Porsche's addition of surfaces not burdened by friction, and with the ability to have air flow through, added an extra layer of resistance to brake fade, and these ventilated channels also helped disperse moisture. Later 911 platforms even had ram air ducts that guided fresh air to the rotor via channels on the vehicle's bodywork.
This was one of many motorsport-derived technological developments Porsche has made, but it's had a massive knock-on effect on mass-market automobiles, and today, ventilated brake discs have become a staple in the automotive world, found on sports cars and family crossovers alike.
2 Inventing The Modern Dual-Clutch Transmission
Wait, wasn't the first series production dual-clutch in the Mk IV Golf R32? Yes, and while the concept of a dual-clutch transmission has existed since the early 1900s, the modern dual-clutch automatic was pioneered by Porsche. Known as the PDK (Porsche Doppelkupplung), the design was initially introduced in the 1980s for motorsport purposes in the Porsche 962 C and has since become a staple in almost every vehicle the company offers, albeit only several decades later.
The premise behind the PDK was a gearbox that could mitigate a loss of boost pressure in motorsport when shifting gears, by effectively erasing the time between shifts when an engine wasn't on throttle. To that end, the next gear would already be engaged through a second clutch, so when shifting up, one clutch would simply engage at the same time as another disengaged, and you'd have no gap in acceleration.
This would later be applied to road cars, starting with the Golf R32, and then find its way into everything from a Bugatti Veyron to a BMW M3. Today, more Porsches are sold with a PDK than with a manual.
3 The World's First Series Production Turbocharged Car
Porsche didn't invent the exhaust gas turbocharger, and it wasn't the first to try using one in a car, but it was the first manufacturer to make the technology viable for series production when it launched the 911 Turbo in 1974. The turbocharger was invented on 16 November 1905 by Swiss engineer Dr. Alfred Büchi, but would only find use in automobiles in the 1950s. However, prototypes were fought with problems, and turbo lag - known at the time as 'turbo gap - and excess boost with no means of managing it made the technology unusable on a mass scale. Porsche corrected this with the 911 Turbo, adding pressure regulators to prevent excess boost from damaging engines. This was, yet again, pioneered through motorsport when Porsche developed the 1,100-horsepower 917/30 for the US CanAm series, which was so dominant it was almost immediately banned from competition.
Porsche didn't stop with turbo innovations, though, and it pioneered the world's first variable turning geometry (VTG) turbo for the Type 996 911 Turbo.
4 Sequential Turbocharging In A Road Car
Not content with simply mass-producing turbocharging as no one else had ever done, Porsche took it a step further when the 959 was introduced as the first roadgoing car with sequential turbochargers. Again, Porsche didn't invent this technology, which had been used decades prior on airplane engines as a means of condensing thin air at high altitudes, but it did patent its own version in the 1970s as an advancement of its turbocharger development for the 911 Turbo.
When the tech debuted in the 959, it enabled the 2.85-liter flat six to generate 444 hp and 369 lb-ft, with better responsiveness throughout the rev range thanks to a staggered activation, which saw only a single turbo active at low engine speeds with the second kicking in at higher rpm to deliver all of the boost. Other automakers followed in Porsche's footsteps, but interestingly, Porsche hasn't used the design since and is now trialing a vast array of other turbocharging designs.
5 Rear-Axle Steering Was Pioneered On The Porsche 928
It's now commonplace on high-end cars with long wheelbases that need to be made more nimble, but once upon a time, Porsche invented the first form of rear-axle steering. The 928 was a car of many firsts for Porsche, as it was the first front-engined Porsche and the first fully in-house-designed Porsche, but it also had something unique called the Weissach Axle. It wasn't rear axle steering as we know it today, as it was a passive system rather than an active one. Weissach, in this instance, did not refer to the town in Germany but rather stood for 'Winkel einstellende, selbst stabilisierende Ausgleichs-Charakteristik' translated as "angle-adjusting, self-stabilizing equalization characteristic" suspension.
What it did was more intricate and fascinating than how its name was devised, though, as the Weissach Axle sought to end allegations of Porsches cars being labeled as "widow makers" by virtue of their tricky handling at high speeds and tendency to snap oversteer when lifting off the throttle mid-corner. What the axle effectively did was passively change the toe-in properties of the rear wheels based on the rear-axle load, making the 928 both better handling and safer than Porsches before it. It also laid the groundwork for Porsche's modern axle kinematics.
6 Giving The World A Brand New Body Style: Targa
It's not very often that the automotive world is introduced to an entirely new body style, but that's exactly what happened when Porsche launched the 911 Targa and created the targa top motorcar. Again, Porsche didn't design the first car to look like this - that honor went to coachbuilder Vignale for the Fiat 1200 Wonderful, and the Triumph TR50 had a similar design - but Porsche made it viable in the mainstream. In the United States, safety legislation threatened to end the sales of convertibles amidst fears of what would happen to the occupants in the event of a rollover. To retain the open-air experience, Porsche developed a 911 with a removable roof and a built-in roll-over hoop. The Porsche's targa hoop meant that even if you rolled the car, you'd still be able to crawl out of the experience with your head on your shoulders. The planned legislation to ban convertibles never actually passed, but customer demand led to the continuation of the targa, which lives on today.
7 The First True Performance SUV That Could Still Go Off-Road
Ever the revolutionaries, Porsche began the new millennia with a seemingly unachievable goal in mind: create a sports SUV that could go off-road as capably as a Toyota 4Runner. Thus, the Cayenne was born, a luxury crossover SUV that was as capable off-road as it was on.
While the initial reception was mixed, the vehicle quickly became a hit for offering excellent in-class performance, thanks to mixing comfortably good handling with powerful V8 engines, which could also come turbocharged. While the first generation from 2002 was already suitable for offroading with a low-range case, locking differential, and height-adjustable off-road suspension, even more improvements have come in the years since, such as an off-road package and improvements to the frame and body with off-roading in mind.
"This much is certain: Porsche has been and will continue to be innovative [...] The Targa design, the exhaust gas turbocharger in the 911, rear-axle steering in the 928, transaxle transmission in the 924, sequential turbocharging in the 959, and the active front spoiler in the current 991 are technological highlights. Porsche invented the hybrid drive."
- Oliver Blume, Porsche CEO
Comments