Vintage Sports Car Club Bulletin - No. 264 / Summer 2009

Any aspiring author setting out to write a one make history could do worse than to model it on Karl Ludvigsen's definitive marque history of Porsche. Of course it would require a brave publisher to risk producing a totally comprehensive history running to several volumes from an unknown author but Bentley Publishers are in the fortunate position of knowing that something written by Ludvigsen will be of the highest quality, exhaustively researched, entertainingly written with well chosen illustrations and, best of all, it will sell. Their side of the deal is to produce a good quality book, printed on fine paper and bound to last a lifetime of use although Porsche continues to develop and so revisions will be needed every few years.

The first edition of this book was launched back in 1977 and soon established itself as 'the' Porsche book. If you could only accommodate one book on the subject then this was it and fundamentally nothing has changed. The author covers every Porsche, be it road or racing car, up to the present day and it is not just the technical aspects but also the inner workings of the company that are described. There are failures as well as successes and the early struggles with the now legendary 917 make fascinating reading.

For readers of the Bulletin the early cars may be the most interesting but any who were at Brands Hatch in 1970 to see Rodriguez' amazing virtuoso performance in the wet will always go to that chapter first when looking at any Porsche book to be reminded of the sight and sounds, Pedro in the JW 917 exiting Druids on almost full opposite lock and the bark of the exhaust against the howl of the 512 Ferraris, and here they will find a fascinating story of the 917, a car which was almost undriveable at first but was developed into a World Sports Car Championship winner and finally a Can Am contender more powerful than any racing car ever built up to that time.

The development of the road cars is equally well covered and there are some interesting and little known backwaters that Porsche ventured into before returning to the main stream, for instance the four wheel drive Hunter military vehicle based on the 356, which it was hoped would sell to both military and private owners but failed to get support from the army because of cost and so was cancelled after about 70 had been made. Cars by individual coachbuilders are also featured including a four seater by Beutler on a stretched 356 floor pan and a Spider by Ghia which looks rather like a Fiat.

An important feature in a book of this size is an index and a comprehensive version for all three volumes is repeated in each individual volume, a very sensible feature which saves having to look at the end of Volume 3 while reading an earlier one.

To sum up this new edition is more than ever 'the' Porsche book, well researched and written, with no skimping on production values and a really good selection of photographs and technical drawings, it is a must for any Porsche aficionado but it will be equally at home on the bookshelf of anyone interested in motoring history. The price is not high, particularly when considered from a £ for lb. point of view and if you have the 1977 edition there is a vast amount of new material but even compared to the 2003 edition there are 257 new or revised pages and 230 new photographs. Karl Ludvigsen's reputation as a motoring writer rests squarely on this book and well deserved it is. Highly recommended.

Review of Porsche: Excellence Was Expected from Vintage Sports Car Club Bulletin - No. 264 / Summer 2009