Craftsmanship: Conventional Cars Designed By Porsche Engineers

In a new video from the cycle we watched what we found, we talked about the iconic Mercedes-Benz 500 E - the very "Volchka", which became the ultimate answer to the BMW M5, one of the fastest road sedans of its time and just a threat to the German autobahns of the early nineties. And this particular car can be considered something like Panamera's grandfather, because it was produced … at the Porsche plant in Zuffenhausen!

You will learn about why this happened, what else is interesting about the 500 E and what emotions a 326-horsepower super sedan of 1992 release today gives you from the video - turn on and immerse yourself in the atmosphere that we tried to convey. And after watching, we suggest reading about other cars that did not wear the Porsche nameplate, but were created with the direct participation of the specialists of this company.

Audi RS2

Okay, this is not an ordinary machine - forgive us the slight inconsistency in the title. The Audi RS2 has founded a whole class of rabid sheds, with and without four rings on the grille. Today we are more interested in this: this car was assembled in the same place where the Mercedes-Benz 500 E, in fact, replacing the "Volchka" on the assembly line in Zuffenhausen. True, the amount of engineering intervention here was already much greater.

The magicians from Porsche took the 2.2-liter five-cylinder turbo engine, already familiar to us from the test of the first Audi Quattro, as a basis, and pretty much conjured over it. A more powerful turbine, new camshafts, a more efficient injection system, different intake and exhaust, special control electronics - as a result, the power has increased almost one and a half times, from 200 to 315 horsepower! And taking into account the fact that the RS2 was (of course) all-wheel drive, the acceleration to hundreds was 4.8 seconds for supercars at that time.

Porsche experts have conjured up the suspension and brakes and did not hesitate, for example, to put their own logo on the powerful mechanisms produced by Brembo. And if you look closely at the wheels and mirrors, you will find that they are exactly the same as those of the 911 Turbo 964! All in all, the RS2 really turned out to be the brainchild of Porsche and deservedly bore the appropriate nameplates. In just a short period from March 1994 to July 1995, almost three thousand station wagons left the factory, although it was planned to make a little over two thousand. But you can’t trample against the rush demand.

Lad2103 and 2108

Let's take a look at the most famous and iconic partnership for us, Russians, between Porsche and our native AvtoVAZ. Its first result was the project of restyling of the "classic" - sedan 2103. The car transformed by the Germans almost completely lost the chrome decor: it turned out, maybe, and is relevant for the late seventies, but not to say what is beautiful or at least harmonious.

But the modified interior turned out to be very worthy - and only for this reason we are sorry that the Porsche project was rejected by the Soviet side. The famous "six", made by the efforts of domestic specialists, then went into the series, but the cooperation between Togliatti and Zuffenhausen did not end there.

Perhaps every domestic motorist knows about the next project - of course, we are talking about the G8. What is actually done here by the Germans? A little bit of everything and at the same time … formally nothing! It is widely known that the Porsche specialists were working on handling, but in parallel with this, they were engaged in aerodynamics, suspension layout and design, body structure, improvement of the 1.3-liter engine and a lot of other points.

The subtlety consisted in the fact that the Germans acted not so much as a contractor, but as mentors for Soviet designers: instead of "hold on, we have done" they proposed certain technical solutions, and the VAZ employees accepted and introduced them into the project. Here's an elegant way to keep engineering pride. Cool car? Cool! Our? But how! And without the System Porsche inscription under the hood - in Soviet realities, it would raise unnecessary questions. But another compact hatch, created at the same time, bore such an inscription with pride.

Seat Ibiza

Spanish Ibiz entered the assembly line at the same time as our "eight", in 1984, and was also a breakthrough for the company that released it. But its creators were not shy about collaborating with eminent experts, but on the contrary, they were proud of them and used them in advertising. Ibiz was promoted under the slogan "Italian Design, German Engines" and that was pure truth. Italdesign was responsible for the exterior: the appearance of the compact Seat is based on the rejected second-generation Volkswagen Golf project. The German company Karmann helped the Spaniards with the preparation for production, but the power units were created - rightly so! - with the participation of Porsche.

For Ibiza, Zuffenhausen developed three engines with a volume of 1.2 to 1.7 liters, both carbureted and distributed fuel injection. The most powerful of them developed as much as 109 horsepower, and this despite the fact that the car itself weighed like an "eight" - only 920 kilograms! By the way, the Spaniards also paid for the right to use the very System Porsche inscription - seven German marks from each sold car. But it was worth it: Ibiza was in for a great success, making SEAT a very attractive asset. Two years later, she will become part of the Volkswagen concern, where she lives and lives to this day.

Volvo 850 T-5R

Another charged station wagon with a turbocharged five-cylinder engine - though not as evil as the Audi RS2. And the involvement of Porsche here was not at all that extensive. Oddly enough, the Swedes did the bulk of the work of pumping the animal into a spacious family station wagon - the 225-horsepower version of the 850 T5 from 1994 was a completely independent development.

In parallel with this, Volvo, with the help of renowned racing specialist Tom Walkinshaw, prepared a couple of station wagons for the British BTCC championship - and hit the heart of the public. You can endlessly watch how gracefully these cabinets soared above the asphalt of race tracks, but then this move turned out to be absolutely brilliant from the point of view of marketing: the whole world fell in love with the Swedish "flying sheds".

On this occasion, an even more evil version with the R index appeared, and it was precisely in its creation that Porsche specialists took part. I must say, rather limited and rather for the sake of solving purely marketing problems: they conjured up the intake and exhaust, rewrote the engine control program, raising the boost pressure by 0.1 bar - and as a result, they removed an additional 18 horsepower, bringing the power to 243 hp. and putting the acceleration to hundreds in 6.9 tenths of a second. Not bad for a shed, huh? And in addition, the Germans left a curious touch in the Volvo 850 T-5R's cabin: the leather and Alcantara seats were exactly the same as the Porsche 911 Turbo of those years.

Opel zafira

Stylish, compact, spacious, with a superbly thought out and easily transformable interior, the first generation Zafir has become a real hit among compact vans. But it was developed almost entirely by Porsche engineers! The order came to Zuffenhausen in 1994: as you can see, in the mid-nineties the Germans outsourced everything they needed. The official version says that Opel at that moment simply did not have enough of its engineers - but maybe the project simply required a special combination of professionalism, imagination and ingenuity?

Be that as it may, the layout solutions of Porsche "married" with the Astra platform of the new generation G at that time - and in 1999 they were sent on a successful serial voyage. It is noteworthy that Opel still does not like to advertise the fact of this cooperation - what kind of plates and nameplates are there! But Porsche is proud of the project and even exhibited Zafira in 2011 at an exposition dedicated to the 80th anniversary of its engineering projects.

And many more different things

In fact, Porsche has so many different engineering "on the side" that it is simply impossible to describe all the projects in detail in one article. Therefore, we will briefly walk through a few of the brightest ones - automobile and not only - and for now we will finish this.

Кабины грузовиков Scania

Последние 10 лет кабины шведских грузовиков разрабатываются при непосредственном участии Porsche Engineering. Немцы помогают с аэродинамикой, снижением веса и оптимизацией производственных процессов " style="width: 823px; margin-right: 8px;">

Двигатель для Harley-Davidson

В 2001 году мотористы Porsche разработали новый агрегат, предназначавшийся для «молодёжного» семейства V-Rod. Двигатель V2 с водяным - впервые на «Харлеях»! - охлаждением имел рабочий объём в 1131 кубический сантиметр и развивал внушительные 120 лошадиных сил, чего вполне хватало, чтобы разменивать вторую сотню через 3,5 секунды после старта " style="width: 823px; margin-right: 8px;">

Кабина самолётов Airbus

В начале восьмидесятых, когда деревья были большими, а приборы аналоговыми, Porsche совместно с Airbus разработала концептуальный кокпит, основанный на цифровых дисплеях. Со временем это превратится в тренд, а затем и в правило: когда нам снова разрешат летать, загляните в кабину любого «Аэробуса» и оцените обстановку " style="width: 823px; margin-right: 8px;">

Погрузчики Linde

Ну да, производитель одних из лучших в мире спорткаров заодно рисует облик автопогрузчиков - что тут необычного? Причём рисует давно, аж с восьмидесятых годов - и за это время техника Linde не раз удостаивалась наград в области дизайна. Потому что таскать грузы тоже можно стильно! " style="width: 823px; margin-right: 8px;">

Кабины кранов Terex

А вот это совсем тяжёлая артиллерия. О чём мечтает крановщик? Правильно - мы без понятия, потому что не крановщики! Но уверены, что им должно неплохо работаться на технике Terex, ведь кабины там от и до спроектированы Porsche - так, чтобы было удобно, функционально и в то же время стильно. Эй, а крановщики тут есть? Ваша экспертиза нужна в комментариях, поделитесь мнением" style="width: 823px; margin-right: 8px;">