In 1969, facing more experienced prototypes and the new yet still unreliable 4. 5 L flat-12 powered Porsche 917s, the winners Jacky Ickx / Jackie Oliver managed to beat the remaining 3. 0 litre Porsche 908 by just a few seconds with the already outdated GT40 ( in the very car that had won in 1968-the legendary GT40P / 1075 ).

In 1970, the revised Porsche 917 dominated, and the GT40 had become obsolete.

By the late 1960s, Porsche had changed significantly as a company, and executives including owner Ferdinand Porsche were playing with the idea of adding a luxury touring car to the line-up.

This design marked a major change in direction for Porsche ( started with the introduction of the Porsche 924 in 1976 ), whose cars had until then used only rear-or mid-mounted air-cooled flat engines with four or six cylinders.

Porsche commissioned a Zuffenhausen-based company, Reutter Karosserie, which had previously collaborated with the firm on Volkswagen Beetle prototypes, to produce the 356's steel body.

The first Chief Executive Officer ( CEO ) of Porsche AG was Dr. Ernst Fuhrmann, who had been working in the company's engine development.

As of June 2006, the Porsche AG stake in VW AG had risen to 25. 1 %, giving Porsche a blocking minority, whereby Porsche can veto large corporate decisions undertaken by VW AG.

The company has always had a close relationship with, initially, the Volkswagen ( VW ) marque, and later, the Volkswagen Group ( which also owns Audi AG ), because the first Volkswagen Beetle was designed by Ferdinand Porsche.

The two companies collaborated in 1969 to make the VW-Porsche 914 and 914-6, whereby the 914-6 had a Porsche engine, and the 914 had a Volkswagen engine, in 1976 with the Porsche 912E ( USA only ) and the Porsche 924, which used many Audi components, and was built at Audi's Neckarsulm factory.

The front-engine, rear wheel drive arrangement was normal for most other manufacturers, but it was unusual for Porsche having previously only used mid-or rear-mounted engines of a boxer configuration, all of which had been air-cooled.

Internally, Porsche called it 931 ( left hand drive ) and 932 ( right hand drive ), much like the 911 Carrera Turbo, which had been " Type 930 ".

By adding an intercooler, increasing compression to 8. 5: 1 as well as various other little changes, Porsche was able to develop the 924 Turbo into the race car they had wanted, dubbing it the 924 Carrera GT.

Production was moved from the Audi plant in Neckarsulm ( where the 924 and 944 had been manufactured under contract to Porsche ), to Porsche's own factory in Zuffenhausen.

After updating the 911 line-up to include both a more powerful 911S and a less expensive 911T, Porsche executives began to feel that the 912 had become redundant, that the 911 platform was sufficiently diverse and that pricing had largely come into line with market expectations.

In training for that race, the late Stefan Bellof set the all-time lap record for the Nordschleife in his Porsche 956, which is still unbeaten at 6: 11. 13, or over on average ( partially because no major racing has taken place there since 1984 ).

To this day, no Porsche has ever used an EA827-based engine.

no: Porsche 924

With the no frills approach meaning less weight, as well as the optimising of the suspension, Porsche could focus media attention on the Club Sport variants fast road and track abilities.

no: Porsche 912

Powerful prototypes ( effectively pure-bred two-seater racing cars with no real link to production vehicles ) started to appear as the 1960s progressed, with worldwide battles between Ferrari, Ford, Porsche, Lotus, Alfa Romeo and Matra as well as other more specialist marques running on into the early 1970s.

With its improvement in traction, particularly in adverse weather conditions, four-wheel drive is no longer uncommon in high-powered sports cars, e. g. Porsche, Lamborghini, and the Bugatti Veyron.

This race weekend also saw the death of French driver Jean Behra in a supporting sports car race, as his Porsche RSK flew over the top of the north turn banking, as there was no wall or fence.

Cars such as the four-cylinder Volkswagen Beetle and the six-cylinder Porsche 911 use a flat-engine at the rear of the car, where its extra width does not interfere with the steering of the front wheels and there is a weight-saving since no prop-shaft is required.

no: Porsche 64

no: Porsche 360

no: Porsche 550

no: Porsche 695

no: Porsche 718

no: Porsche 901

no: Porsche 904

no: Porsche 906

Since the competing Henschel Tiger design was chosen for production, the Porsche chassis were no longer required for the Tiger tank project.

Glass-covered headlamps, used on e. g. the Jaguar E-Type, pre-1968 VW Beetle, 1965 Chrysler and Imperial models, Porsche 356, Citroën DS and Ferrari Daytona were no longer permitted and vehicles had to be imported with uncovered headlamps for the US market.

no: Porsche Junior

no: Porsche Super

no: Porsche Carrera GT

Although Porsche no longer needed the car to meet homologation requirements, it proved a viable platform for racing vehicles, and became the basis for the 934 and 935 race cars.

no: Porsche 804

* HIS ( automotive group ), an interest group consisting of the car manufacturers Audi, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Porsche and Volkswagen

Surprising interest in the vehicle and an influx of revenue provided from the Cayenne helped Porsche decide to produce the car, and development started on a road-legal version that would be produced in small numbers at Porsche's new manufacturing facility in Leipzig.

Nevertheless Porsche continued development, because of interest from other countries.

Indeed, for Porsche this was a personal interest since he liked to take Archduke Franz Ferdinand flying over Vienna.

With the revival of international sportscar racing in the mid-1990s, though the BPR Global GT Series ( which then morphed in to the FIA GT Championship ) Porsche expressed interest in returning to top level sportscar racing and went about developing its competitor for the GT1 category.

In 1997, due to increasing interest from manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Panoz, the FIA took over control of the expanding BPR Global GT Series, standardizing the race-length at 500 km instead of the usual four hours, liberalizing the technical regulations and leaving commercial exploitation in the hands of one of BPR's founders, Stéphane Ratel, who managed to get TV support from the pan-European TV station Eurosport.