VW did own Porsche for a while. Remember the days of the Porsche/Audi 917/10s. Anyway, the bought themselves back in the late '70s or early 80s so he was partially right :wink:

Did VW own Porsche?? I know they had some common sales agreements for marketing in the US and joint projects like the 914/924 and recently the Cayenne.Saw ads on race cars for "Porsche Audi"etc but never knew of any "ownership"
Dirk

Dirk's correct. There was a partnership agreement, never ownership.

Nope. Porsche has never been owned by anyone but the Porsche and Peich families. Even now that their a "public" company, they're still really owned by the Porsche-Peich families (who own most of the voting stock). That's why Ferdinand Peich is (I think) the richest man in Germany.

They has distribution partnerships a while back (hence all the Porsche-Audi dealerships), and have always had a very close relationship with VW (the 911 is the 911 because of this - it was based on a parts numbering scheme that meshed with VW's systems). But the company Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG has always been 100% independent.

The Porsche-Peich family ties run deep, Peich married Porsche's daughter.
I think another distinction is that the Peich side rules the Porsche Design part. Interesting enough Old man Porsche is the one that removed all “family“ from automatically being in the key corporate positioned. I think back in the early ‘80s?

The only real downside I see to the Porsche product line expansion is their withdraw from most racing venues to capitalize the new development. Don't forget the Cayenne sales make up a sizable portion of their sales. Just think in a few years Daddy will have have his boy racer GT2, Mom drives the Boxster back and forth from the mall, The sedan is the perfect carpool vehicle, the kids all learn to drive on the Cayman and the whole family goes to the track in their Cayenne tow vehicle.

If you look Porsche usually gets someone else to help fund R&D. VW contributed big time to 356 development, GM ponyied up for the 911 6 design exercise, VW partnered the 914, Audi financed a lot of 924/944/928 expansion, Harley Davidson provided R&D $$ for water cooled head development, VW underwrote the development of the Cayenne through the Torag (?) :!:

Which Porsche? My understanding is that it was Louise Porsche (who is the sister of either Ferdinand Porsche or Ferry Porsche and now I can't remember which) married a Piech so that was when the two families came together.

Now I'll have to go home and check out my "Excellence" books :D

Old man Porsche (FA Porsche I) was the guy that designed the VW. He had two kids - FA Porsche II (Ferry) and Louise Porsche Peich. Porsche II was the guy that actually started Porsche as we know it, when his dad was rotting in jail in France for being a Nazi (actually the French wanted some VW technology for Renault). FA Porsche III was the son of FA Porsche II, and was the designer of the 904 and 911. Ferdinand Peich was the son of Louise and helped design the 911 engine, and drove the Porsche Racing program in the early 70s (the 917 was his idea, I believe). He went to Audi when FA Porsche II kicked the family out of the business in the 70s. FA Porsche III started Porsche Design.

That sounds like what I meant to say :wink: