The influence of the name Porsche on motoring history stretches back for over 50 years prior to the production of the first car bearing the family name. Dr Ferdinand Porsche was born in 1875 in the Bohemian village of Maffersdorf. His father was a tinsmith with a small family business in the village.

At the end of the war Dr Porsche was interned by the French for his involvement in these war time projects. Despite being over 70 years old and in poor health, he survived nearly two years of imprisonment and was released in 1948 to rejoin the family in Stuttgart, where his son Ferry had re-established the family business and had built a prototype of what would be their first production sports car, the 356.

From the first production model, the 356 of 1948, it was clear that Porsche's would be unlike their competitors. Initially, given the economic conditions in Germany three years after the end of the war, there was no choice but to device unorthodox solutions and to make the best use of the sparse selection of components and materials that were available. But as the range developed and the company grew, its designers produced cars that relied on lightweight, aerodynamic form and engineering ingenuity rather than following the example of the other manufacturers.

The result was a series of cars most notably the 911, first launched in 1964, which have been continuously refined with the help of modern technology developed for the company's competition cars, each of which has been instantly recognizable as a product of the Porsche factory.

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