David Rosenthal: prediction

Transcript context

…I feel that way. Every time I see a Panamera drive by, I'm like, why does Porsche make this car? I see them driving by, so that's why they're making cars. China is why they make that, but we'll get to that later. The next generation of Porsches, Ferry's son Ferdinand, known as Butzi, named Ferdinand, named after his grandfather, the founder of Porsche, was working in the company. He had been leading the body design for this larger sedan that Porsche was going to make. Ferry decides, for a bunch of reasons, to cancel the sedan project. Probably the most important reason was, I don't know how much of this was government motivated and how much of it was just a cabal of Mercedes and BMW. They were the sedan makers. Porsche maybe could have challenged them, but it was like, hey, they've got their turf, we'll keep our turf in sports cars, and everybody will be happy here. Anyway, they decided to cancel the project and double down on sports cars. At the same time, Ferdinand Porsche, Butzi, the grandson, his cousin from the Austrian side of the family, Louise and Anton's son, also named Ferdinand, Ferdinand Piech, also joined the company. These two young Turks, the grand sons, Ferdinand, are here in the company. Piech is working in the engine department. It turns out that he's a pretty brilliant engine designer. I believe even as a young kid—Doug you know more about this history—I think he really was the one that led the development of the six-cylinder boxer engine for Porsche. He didn't invent the six-cylinder boxer engine, but the engine that ends up in the 911 that is, still to this day, the model for the 911 engine, comes from him, I think. He's working on it for a racing car project that ends up not coming together. Ferry says, okay, let's take these two failed projects that the next generation is working on, let's weave them together, take the styling that Butzi has done for the sedan, take this amazing engine that Ferdinand has built for the racing operations, and let's see what happens when we put them together. This is the birth of the Porsche 901. David, I'm not familiar with that model. What is that?…

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