RE: Making Audi A Player

[Mark Nelson <mnelson@brls.com>]

I would like to clarify some points here.

1. VWAG had a controlling interest at Porsche from late 1968 to 1977.
They still have 1/3 of the company under their control.  The family has
always been involved, but they have not always been in control.

2. The 2.0L Horizontally Opposed six concept was created in late 1960,
the first prototype cars were developed in late '61/early '62.  My
father had 911 chassis #17, the oldest known 911 in existance (was used
on the European automotive show circuit by Porsche).  He sold the car ~4
years ago to a man in the Netherlands who is currently restoring it.

3. As far as the Quattro Drive System was concerned, the system was
originally developed at Weissach.  Audi contracted out a lot of the work
to Porsche, and it was rumored Audi also helped Porsche in their
drivetrain developments (anyone remember the Rothmans 911 driven by S.
Al Hajri, co-driven by John Spiller, which won Paris-Dakar in '84).

4. Getting the Quattro System to work on a Porsche is NOT as difficult
as you think.  All it requires is swapping the differentials upside
down, and you essentially have system that works on a rear powered car.
Torque split has very little to do with it.

This is all information relayed from someone who has owned in excess of
200 Porsches (used to be in the restoration and racing business) over
the past 30 years, and is very good friends with Jurgen Barth (head of
Porsche Racing), and Vic Elford (who was one of Porsche's most succesful
drivers of all time).

I don't know the full extent of your knowledge or the FULL Porsche
history, but if you don't believe me I have the FULL documentary videos
created by the Porsche factory, to go along with what I have just
stated.

If you have questions, please feel free to email me.

Best Regards,

Mark Nelson
mnelson@brls.com

>From: ATTDCS!TMBWPO1!sjagernaut@dcstm1.attmail.com (Stephen Jagernauth)
>Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 18:46:00 +0000
>Subject: Making Audi A Player
>
>Mark Nelson <mnelson@brls.com> wrote on Thu, 16 Jan 1997 08:11:24 -0800:
>
><snip>
>
>>To jump ahead in time, the Piech family who owns VW bought Porsche in
>>the mid/late seventies and they were really the ones that helped Porsche
>
>Dr. Ferdinand Piech is the son of Louise Piech, Ferry Porsche's sister, and 
>that makes his grandfather
>the original Dr. Ferdinand Porsche so the family ties are there.   Piech 
>worked at Porsche in the '60s and avidly supported racing as the way of 
>improving the breed.     One of his accomplishments is his design of the 
>original 2.0L 911 6cyl boxer.   Never heard of VW owning Porsche.   Porsche 
>has always been
>family-owned.
>
>>be successful during the seventies and early eighties, until the Porsche
>>family bought back Porsche in the late '80's.
>
>1/3 of Porsche's stock is publicly traded.  The rest is owned by the 
>Porsche/Piech families.
>
>>The Porsche Horizontally
>>opposed 4-cylinder (used in the 356, 912, 914, 924) is very similar to
>>he 4-cylinder that was put in the VW beetle.  Many of the components
>>used between VW and Porsche were common to both cars.
>
>The 356 used a VW aircooled engine, the 912 the same motor as the  356SC. 
>The 914 used a VW Type IV engine.   The 924 had a VW-designed block with 
>Porsche-designed head and built by Audi and is an inline 4cyl.   It was 
>basically the same engine used in the Audi 100 and VW van in the 70s. The 
>914 was a joint venture between VW and Porsche and was marketed in Europe as 
>a VW and in the US as a Porsche.
>
>>There has been a lot of development that each company shares, and Audi
>>actually was the one to help Porsche most recently in the development of
>>the 959 drivetrain, Carrera 4 drivetrain, and the '96 + turbo
>>drivetrain.  VW was actually the company that built the Porsche 924 and
>>944 for Porsche.
>
>This is absurd!    VW was not involved at all and Audi's involvement was 
>limited to assembling the PORSCHE-DESIGNED 924/944 in their Neckarsulm 
>assembly plant.  The various drivetrains used in the AWD Porsches are very 
>different from Audi's Quattro system and were designed in-house at Weissach. 
> I have an article written by the chief Porsche designer for their 959/C4. 
>  Audis awd have a fwd-bias, Porsches have a rwd-bias, in terms of 
>torque-split front-to-rear.
>
>Hope this clears up some confusion.
>
>Regards,
>
>Steve Jagernauth  ---------->  sjagernauth@attmail.com
>Audi 5k X 3 and 1 Porsche,
>2 ex-Porsches, 2  ex-VWs