Talking about the rear engine Porsche while riding "Porsche 356/901/959"

Porsche 911 rear engine

I watched a video by Jason Torchinsky talking about "Rear Engine Porsche" while running "Rear Engine Porsche".

Three Porsche 356, Porsche 901, and Porsche 959 are running on the circuit in California.

He says he's not that good at driving ... so he's more focused on talking about "Porsche's rear engine" than driving a car ^^

The first thing that surprised me most when I saw this video was this driving position. Isn't it close to the steering? ??

When driving these models, is it better to have a driving position this far ahead? Or is he just doing that? ??

I even wondered, "If I drive an air-cooled Porsche, does the driving position tend to be far ahead?"

No, I guess it's just his commitment (?), But ... ^^

Introducing the rear engine model

As a car with an engine on the rear, a car with a rear engine by Rumpler Tropfen-Auto appeared in the 1910s.

After that, although the development of Volkswagen's rear-engined cars progressed, most of the rear-engined cars seemed to have disappeared in the 1970s and 1980s.

Only except "Porsche".

"Then, while riding a car from here", first to Porsche 356 ↓

This Porsche 356 is manufactured with the concept from Volkswagen Beetle, so the parts used are almost the same as the Beetle. Uses the same rear engine as VW Type I.

However, while VW did not have an oil filter, the 356 adopted a full-flow oil filter system.

Also, in terms of body size, the beetle looks like this ↓

Porsche 356 looks like this ↓

The birth of the name Porsche 911

Next, switch to Porsche 901 and talk more ^ ^

The Porsche 901 is a model whose mass production started in September 1964.

I think that it is one of the common sense for those who have already come to this blog, but the original Porsche 911 was named "Porsche 901".

However, at that time Peugeot had already registered a trademark of "a three-digit model name with a zero in the middle of the model model number" and suppressed it, so Porsche was requested to change the model name 901 to another one. ..

Therefore, Porsche will change the model name "901" to "Porsche 911".

Since 82 Porsche 901 had already been produced before the model name was changed to 911 due to an objection from Peugeot, only these 82 cars are the model called "901" before the name change. It seems that it remains as a name.

Although the result theory is that the model name had to be changed, the model name of this current Porsche 911 representing Porsche was still better for "Porsche 911" than "Porsche 901" Isn't it?

I think 911 is cooler than 901 ... (I'm just familiar with it ^^?).

Of course, the Porsche 901 is still a rear engine, but it has a monocoque design, from a horizontally opposed 4-cylinder engine to a horizontally opposed 6-cylinder engine.

From this model, it seems that there are almost no parts shared with VW Beetle.

The 1960s was the era of rear-engined cars, and various manufacturers developed rear-engined cars in response to the awesomeness of rear-engined cars proved by the Beetle and Porsche 356.

The cars in the table below are the rear engine cars that appeared in many times at that time ↓

Next, I explained by switching to Porsche 959.

It is said that it is thanks to this Porsche 959 that the rear engine model of Porsche did not disappear.

It seems that the existence of this 959 has led to the survival of the current 911 (before the 959 was released, there was talk of quitting the 911).

There seems to be a story that the 911 survived without extinction because the 959 was released as a great car and the funds were raised by selling a certain number of it.

The Porsche 959 is equipped with an electronically controlled chassis, and is a great model equipped with other technologies that modern sports cars can have, such as a vehicle height adjustment system.

Rear engine cars are disappearing from the world

In the 1970s and 1980s, few manufacturers made models of rear engines, leaving only VW and Porsche.

Furthermore, even VW shifted from beetle to golf, so in the 1980s almost only Porsche continued to model the rear engine.

Even such Porsche, as mentioned above, was talking about quitting the rear engine car in 1981 ...

From such a trend, Porsche should focus on cars with front engines such as 924 and 928.

But.

Partly because of the Porsche 959, but more than that, the Porsche people thought that quitting the 911 and quitting the rear engine were "something different".

"After all 911 is good".

After all, even though other manufacturers stopped manufacturing rear engine models, Porsche was particular about the rear engine "Porsche 911", and its rear engine, horizontally opposed 6 cylinders, fly line, etc. were all " As "Porsche 911", it continues to this era.

The more I know the history, the more I am grateful that the Porsche 911 still exists.

It is because there are people who have created the current Porsche 911 without bending the belief that "Porsche 911 must be kept alive", and now I can meet the Porsche 911 that is still evolving in this era.

I am looking forward to seeing the future of Porsche 911 from now on ^ ^

Click here for the video ↓