The earliest predecessor of the GT-R, the S54 2000 GT-B, came second in its first race in 1964 to the purpose-built Porsche 904 GTS.

* Porsche 904 as Carrera GTS

The Porsche 904 is an automobile which was produced by Porsche in Germany in 1964 and 1965.

The 904 was the first Porsche to use a ladder chassis and fibreglass body, appearing more like specialist racing cars than the modified sports cars typical at the time, and was painted white.

* Porsche 904 chassis histories From Carrera GTS Club

* Picture of the Week: Porsche 904 Carrera GTS and Cayman R-Porsche Origin UK

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A successor to the Porsche 904, and designed under Ferdinand Piëch's new regime at Porsche R & D, the 906 replaced the boxed steel structure of the 904 which used the fiberglass body for extra structural strength with a tubular space frame and unstressed fiberglass body.

In order to save money, spare suspensions produced in advance for a possible new series of Porsche 904 had to be used for the 906, along with big 15-inch wheels.

* Porsche 904

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 ).

Having the engine, transmission, catalytic converter ( s ) and exhaust all cramped into a small rear engine bay made emission and noise control more difficult, something Porsche was already facing problems with on the 911 and wanted to avoid.

Unusual features were champagne gold metallic paint, matching brushed gold flat disc wheels, two-tone leather interior, a plaque containing the production number on the dash and the extremely collectible three-piece Porsche luggage set.

** ABS brakes optional for the first time in Porsche, standard on German model.

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.

Not long afterwards, on 30 January 1951, Ferdinand Porsche died from complications following a stroke.

In May 2011, Porsche Cars North America announced plans to spend $ 80 –$ 100 million, but will receive about $ 15 million in economic incentives to move their North American headquarters from Sandy Springs, a suburb of Atlanta, to Aerotropolis Atlanta, a new mixed-use development on the site of the old Ford Hapeville plant adjacent to Atlanta's airport.

Ferdinand Piëch and his cousin, Wolfgang Porsche, also seemed to be on a collision course.

On 5 July 2012, Volkswagen AG announced a deal with Porsche resulting in VW's full ownership of Porsche on August 1, 2012.

There was an Extraordinary General Meeting ( EGM ) for Porsche AG shareholders which took place on 26 June 2007, at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart, Germany to discuss the change to the company structure.

In October 2008, Porsche announced its intent to raise its stake in Volkswagen AG to 75 % during 2009, and on 7 January 2009, Porsche's holding in VW AG was raised to 50. 76 %.

As Porsche had no strategic interest in the company, on 19 January, they offered the minimum price in that mandatory takeover bid.

In its efforts to acquire a majority holding in Volkswagen AG, Porsche built up a large debt burden, aggravated by taxes due on very large paper profits from Volkswagen AG options.

A five-speed transmission, available in normally aspirated cars ( type 016 ) starting in 1979 and standard on all turbos ( type g31 ), was a dog-leg shift pattern Porsche unit, with first gear below reverse on the left side.

Porsche made small improvements to the 924 each model year between 1977 and 1985, but nothing major was changed on non-turbo cars.

Having already found the benefits of turbochargers on several race cars and the 1975 911 Turbo, Porsche chose to use this technology for the 924, eventually introducing the 924 Turbo as a 1978 model.

In 1980 Porsche entered three 924 GTRs at the 24hrs of Le Mans, which went on to finish 6th, 12th and 13th overall.

With unfavourable exchange rates in the late 1980s, Porsche decided to focus its efforts on its more upmarket models, dropping the 924S for 1989 and the base 944 later that same year.

The Porsche 924 Championship was started in 1992 by Jeff May who was championship coordinator until his death on 10 November 2003.

Shortly after the start of production of the S2 variant, Porsche engineers began working on another set of significant upgrades for the model, as executives were planning a final " S3 " variant of the 944.

In addition, Porsche installed manually adjustable lightweight Recaro racing seats rather than the standard power-operated leather buckets ( also manufactured by Recaro ), a revised suspension system optimized and lowered by 20 mm for possible track use, 17-inch wheels ( also slightly wider to accommodate wider tyres ) rather than the 16-inch as found on the Coupe and wider tires, 225 front and 255 rears rather than 205 and 245 respectively.

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.