Porsche - Origin of the Species: Foreword by Jerry Seinfeld

The New York Times - December 9, 2012

A Time to Turn Pages Instead of Corners

Already respected for his many automotive books, Karl Ludvigsen reaches higher yet with his new work, "Porsche - Origin of the Species." While one of his previous Porsche epics, "Excellence Was Expected," was considered the definitive history of the marque, his latest volume is crammed with new material, including first-time accounts of missing links in Porsche's evolution.

Mr. Ludvigsen details Ferdinand Porsche's work for Cisitalia, where the successful use of Fiat parts very likely played a role in the decision to base his own sports car on the lowly Volkswagen Beetle. And the book reveals a little-known Porsche rendering for the stillborn Type 370 Cisitalia coupe, obviously a warm-up act for the Type 356 to come.

Mr. Ludvigsen's precise writing style often reveals his engineering background, but he also brings to life the Porsche and Piëch families as well as the talented staff and the entrepreneurs, racers and politicos who contributed to the company's unlikely success.

In addition to a foreword by Jerry Seinfeld, each chapter includes at least one sidebar, often by another luminary. Miles Collier addresses automotive preservation, Robert Cumberford critiques the first 356, and two Porsche designers, Grant Larson and Tony Hatter, discuss the styling of the early cars and their roles in developing later models.

"Porsche - Origin of the Species" is an impressive 11-by-11-inch package, yet it is much more than just a coffee-table decoration. Even at $119.95, it's definitely a keeper for Porschephiles and all car enthusiasts.

Review from and courtesy of The New York Times

GT Porsche, January 2014

Porsche Shop - Porsche-Origin of the Species

If Karl Ludvigsen's Excellence Was Expected is not in your library, may we suggest you add a copy to it right away, and while you are shopping with the publisher - Bentley Publishers - you should also pick up a copy of Ludvigsen's Origin of the Species.

The 356 page hardback book looks into the specific influences and circumstances that brought forth the first Porsche-badged sports car. It covers every conceivable aspect from how the company was formed, the influences on the personnel involved with the company at its birth and how the original Porsche, the 356 came to be and how it evolved. Supporting the text is a magnificent set of images of Jerry Seinfeld's 356/2-040.

Review from and courtesy of www.gtpurelyporsche.com/

Excellence - December 2013

INTERVIEW Karl Ludvigsen

From zero to 356 in only 20 years: America's foremost expert on the history of Porsche looks back to the very beginning of the effort to build a real sports car
STORY BY JIM MCCRAW AND PHOTOS COURTESY KARL LUDVIGSEN AND PORSCHE AG

AUTHOR KARL LUDVIGSEN HAS WRITTEN more words and more books about the history of the Porsche family and Porsche cars than any other author. He got his initial inspiration from a report on the Porsche 356 published in The Motor in 1948, when he was only 14 years old, and has been following the family, the brand and the cars ever since.

Although he has owned only one Porsche in his life, a 356 that he sold to author and radio personality Jean Shepard, he has developed a unique rapport with various members of the Porsche family that has swung open the doors to the archives and files and correspondence that add up to the history of the company.

Ludvigsen's most recent book about Porsche, Origin Of The Species, published last year and winner of the prestigious Dean Batchelor Award from the Motor Press Guild (and excerpted previously in Excellence, May, 2013), takes the reader from Dr. Ferdinand Porsche's earliest years in the industry at Austro Daimler and Daimler-Benz, from his first projects as an independent design consultant for Zündapp, NSU and Auto Union, through the Second World War and on to the creation of the first cars to bear his name.

Ludvigsen appeared recently at the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, during the museum's three-month-long tribute to Porsche on the 50th anniversary of the 911, and spoke about the dozen or so key points in the development of the 356, first ancestor to the 911. We caught up to him after his remarks were delivered to talk more about the 356 project, the heroes of the book, and his views on the future of the company and its cars.

EXC: What was your inspiration for writing Origin Of The Species after you'd already covered so much in Excellence Was Expected and Genesis of Genius?

KL: The book dealt with the creation of the 356, and it tried to understand more fully the forces and personalities that caused it to look the way it did. The reason for that, it's such an iconic car in determining the formsprache, as the Germans like to say, of all subsequent Porsches. That was really my mission in doing that book. It's the first book I've done about Porsche where I really had a chance to bring into play the competition, and the rivals to the Porsche, in its career. That was a pretty significant part of that project, to show the places where Porsche was ahead of the competition, behind the competition, how it related to its contemporaries in what it was achieving.

EXC: You also spent a good deal of time in the book telling us about how Porsche took advantage of some of the partnerships and commissions and contracts that the company had, with Auto Union and Cisitalia and, of course, VW.

KL: That's very clear. I validated that with Rudi Hruska, who was part of the Cisitalia/Porsche effort, and he said, yes, absolutely, Porsche did get some inspiration from seeing what Cisitalia had done. There are still many untold stories, and one of my aims in the next book project is to look at Ferdinand Porsche's wars. I covered quite a bit of what Ferdinand did in World War I in Genesis of Genius, and I'll be looking at that again and Porsche in World War II. In that book, we will see a lot about Ferdinand's work that hasn't been set out very clearly in the past. That's my aim, anyway.

EXC: How you do feel about the way that Ferdinand Porsche and Anton Piëch were treated, first by the Americans and then later by the French after the war?

KL: That's an extremely good question, and I have thought about that. The grounds on which the French authorities detained Porsche and Piëch were spurious, as it turned out. They were blamed by the French for not behaving properly toward the workforce at the Peugeot factory in France, which they had responsibility for. The Volkswagen plant was given responsibility for the relationship between Germany and the factory there, which was asked to produce parts for the German war industry. That was the basis of the justification for them being locked up. As it turned out, they hadn't done that. Someone else had done some things in the plant that weren't very nice, but it was not their doing. The bizarre aspect of that was that Pierre Peugeot, during the time that this collaboration was going on, was fawning all over Porsche and telling him how happy he was to be working with him and how much he was looking forward to cooperating in the postwar years. This was the very same guy who led the effort to have them detained! Not exactly a great moment for the French industry. The detention lasted about 15 months, and Ferry Porsche said that his father was never the same after that.

EXC: Ferdinand Porsche, as described in your book, had two very long-term relationships that ultimately shaped the way the 356 looked and performed: his chief engineer, Karl Rabe, and his chief designer, Erwin Komenda, Rabe going all the way back to before World War I working with Porsche. Would you agree that these two men were the best of the best that Ferdinand and Ferry ever worked with?

KL: Rabe joined the staff at Austro Daimler in the teens of last century, and when Porsche left Austro Daimler, Rabe stayed on. When Porsche set up his design operation, Rabe was one of the people that he asked to join him, and he did. When Porsche set up his company, he told Rabe in a letter that it was his intent not just to design vehicles but also to produce them, which is not generally recognized. Ferry Porsche has said that his father saw the possibilities of being a bit like Bugatti, having the opportunity to build cars of some quality and interest, in a small volume. He wasn't really thinking about a Volkswagen-sized factory, but he was thinking of making cars all the way back in 1930. That's a fact that isn't really emphasized in the stories of him setting up his design company.

EXC: Wasn't the initial volume of the 356/2 in 1950 agreed on at 500 units? That's more than Bugatti, but less than VW. Beautiful, fast, well-handling cars for the connoisseur.

KL: Five hundred units! That was the initial volume. They figured that they knew enough people and had enough contacts around the business that they could sell five hundred cars. That was when the set-up was back in Germany. One of the themes of Origins is certainly the fact that there was a greater involvement by Ferdinand Porsche than has generally been thought in the creation of the 356. I'm not claiming that he led the effort, but he still had the ability to think through problems and get involved in the decision-making process and lend his skill, ability and advice to the project. He certainly did that in the evolution of the 356. There's no doubt about it. He spent considerable time both with Ferry and with Rabe discussing different aspects of the car and how it would be created. It's been regarded as largely Ferry's car, but my conclusion in researching the book was that that's not the case. His dad had a significant input.

EXC: Tell us more, if you would, about the incredible long-term relationship between Porsche and Erwin Komenda, which went on for decades on one project after another. This man was neither a classical designer nor an artist; he was a mechanical engineer who could draw, and draw he did.

KL: That's absolutely right. It's stunning what he did in his career in terms of generating ideas. He was the go-to guy for concepts of vehicles in the group. He suggested configurations of cars for the Swiss who wanted to build automobiles in Switzerland after the war. He cranked out front-engined versions and rear-engined versions. At Cisitalia he got the Type 370 designs going. He was an amazing combination of engineer and intuitive shapemaster and creator of intriguing designs. There's even a website dedicated to Komenda that's worth looking at. There's no question that he was a very important creative spirit in the whole undertaking. He was "Mister Concept;' and you could see that in the Type 352, the Cisitalia Type 370, and with VW. You would call him the chief body engineer of the group, and nobody else really stepped into his area. The only man who ever did was Josef Mickl, who was responsible for aerodynamics. He would do the calculations based on certain designs and constructions, and he had some patents on some record-car body designs, but Komenda was a phenomenal talent. We deal in the book with the fact that he didn't prevail in the effort to design the successor to the 356. I don't know how to describe that turn of events, but it just seemed that he ran out of gas at a certain point, and he was not able to take the 356 any further in an effective way. He made some attractive-looking cars, but they were not the step forward that Porsche really needed.

EXC: In the early Thirties, tall, wide brass radiators gave way to aerodynamic envelope bodies, and apparently Komenda always kept aerodynamic performance at the forefront of his designs for Porsche. Would you agree? With the 356, he had a rear-engined car with an air-cooled engine, a design that gave him the room to build an aero front end.

KL: I think that's right. Komenda did some rear-engined designs for Daimler-Benz before he left them. Daimler-Benz was experimenting with rear-engined, air-cooled cars, the predecessors of the ones that were produced in the Thirties. Komenda did some designs for those that were quite ingenious and attractive. The Thirties was a time of great turbulence and advances in car design in general and in the recognition of new ideas and the importance of aerodynamics-in a way, a very mixed pictures of aerodynamics at that time. Was it just for the eye? Was it seriously engineered? Komenda was part of that movement, and deserves credit as one of the creators of the modern car in the Thirties

EXC: You go into some very interesting stories and details about the men, all around Europe, who knew about Ferdinand Porsche, knew of his reputation, and were always seemingly eager to give him money. Especially the Swiss, who wanted him to design cars that would be built in Switzerland.

KL: That was a very important transitional period, and it provided the missing link, which was the Type 352 project done for the Swiss investors, Rupprecht Von Senger and his partner, Heinz Hofer. Hofer needed to scare up business to make a living, and he made the connection between Porsche and Von Senger. Hofer and Von Senger had both worked for the Oerlikon, a Swiss aircraft company, before the war, so they knew each other. Hofer, hitherto unknown in Porsche history, is the guy who kind of agitated to make something of this connection. Their ambitions early on were quite substantial-to set up a car factory in Switzerland and make passenger cars.

EXC: So they were there with the idea, and the money, at exactly the right time?

KL: Porsche started his design company in the depths of the depression, and things were very slow in 1930-31. They really struggled in the beginning to get customers. They put a lot of emphasis on torsion-bar suspension and other special designs that they had patent rights to that they could market to various people. Eventually, they started doing that, and then the Germans started throwing money at them to develop the Volkswagen car.

EXC: Karl, you spend some time in the book talking about a completely different aspect of the Porsche family-as landowners and farmers in addition to being designers and engineers. How did that come about?

KL: Porsche had done that in the First World War in Austria. He acquired some land not far from where they lived. He reasoned that if you've got a few cows and a few chickens and some other animals and some land to grow things, you've got the means of survival. They thought very similarly during World War II. During the war, they stayed on that farm (in Zell am See) and sustained themselves. It turned out to be very, very helpful.

EXC: And didn't their experience as farmers also lead to their development of wind turbines and water turbines and, later, to the Porsche tractor?

KL: They did some wartime work on small wind turbines, yes. They were quite modest in size, but it showed that if you had a wind turbine and a water turbine, you could have electric power independent of the grid. Their water turbines were quite elegant, very nicely designed and very ingenious. After the war, they had several hundred craftsmen in Austria, so they sat down and tried to design some things that would be suitable to produce and sell in Austria. All of their designs had to be approved by the British occupiers, and they couldn't really travel that much. They weren't allowed to.

EXC: Wasn't this the period when Louise Piëch came into her own as a very talented business manager, after the war in Austria?

KL: Yes. Dr. Porsche's firstborn and only daughter had married Anton Piëch, who had been detained with Dr. Porsche after the war. Ferry was the technical head, but Louise was the business mind, and she played a very important role during that difficult period. I regret that she never wrote anything or left any reminiscences. I never got to talk to her, and I very much regret that, because she would have had quite a lot to tell us, but that wasn't her style. She was a relatively introverted person, not intending to blow her own horn very much. She just got on with doing what she thought was necessary. At times, the Austrian car-distributing company, which she ran, was earning a lot more money than the Stuttgart car-producing company.

EXC: Another man with a role to play in the success of the company was the Frenchman Auguste Veuillet, who started Sonauto, the company with the license to import Porsches into France in 1950. Wasn't it Veuillet who suggested that Porsche take the 356 to Le Mans in 1951?

KL: Veuillet was the first foreign importer named after the war, and he co-drove the 356 SL 1100cc race car at Le Mans with Edmond Mouche.

EXC: That was the very first postwar entry at Le Mans by a German-made car, but apparently it was well accepted because both drivers were French, and it started a long tradition at Le Mans, because the car came in 20th overall and won the 1100cc class first time out!

KL: Yes, and Sonauto was later acquired by the Porsches, along with a number of other independent distributors around Europe.

EXC: Your personal relationship with the Porsche 356 and the Porsche family goes all the way back to their first year in business, 1948, when you were only 14 years old. Can you tell us how that happened?

KL: The first reports in the press about Porsche cars came in 1948. I started reading [the British magazine ] The Motor in 1948, and I clipped out the article that they published about the car for my own files. I thought, "Well, that's very interesting." Gradually, after reading Lawrence Pomeroy and other people, I started to learn a little bit more about Porsche. There was an interval in the early 1950s when my father, who was vice president and general manager at Fuller Manufacturing, made a deal with Porsche to design synchronizers for their transmissions. I worked several summers at Fuller as a designer, and I worked in the machine shop of the research department. So, there were some family connections, and when I went to Germany in 1958, I had a high-level contact at the factory in Leopold Schmid, who had worked with Fuller on the synchronizers and was one of the leading engineers there at the time.

EXC: And your fascination with Porsche continues to this day.

KL: They do interesting things and they make interesting cars, and they've had a fascinating history. And, of course, not until I did the Genesis Of Genius book did I really understand what Ferdinand Porsche had done. It was a great privilege and pleasure for me to have the opportunity to do that, thanks to Ernst Piëch, whose idea it was to write that book. From about 1911 to about 1923, Porsche ran Austro Daimler. He wasn't just the chief designer or the chief engineer, he was the managing director of the factory. When he went to Mercedes, it was a bit of a step down for him, because he didn't have the ultimate responsibility. But he nevertheless was willing to undertake it, because he had a lot of respect for the Daimler company.

EXC: Dr. Porsche seems to have been a man who was incredibly talented as a designer, an engineer, an engineering manager and a project manager, but also a man who had a persistent, continuous way of making the best of whatever the circumstances were, a man with a yes-I-can attitude that lasted his entire life.

KL: If he felt that he and his team could do a job, he would undertake it. Some of the jobs he was given were outrageous in the Hitler era. Making a 200-ton tank was not a wonderful job, but he went back to his team, told them what was wanted, and asked them to do it. They were versatile, able and very ingenious, and every once in a while he would bump up against the board of a company he was working for, like Austro Daimler in 1923 and Daimler-Benz in 1928, and he would say, "Sod this for a lark! I can't fire 3,000 people, so so long." He wasn't willing to put up with management that he didn't consider was properly directed and had a suitable vision of the future. So he ran out of patience with both Austro Daimler and Daimler-Benz on those occasions. But he was extremely ready to take on tasks that he felt he could get his arms around. The one time he turned down a project was when the Russians brought him in to control all of their industrial activities in the 1930s. He told them it was too far from his comfort zone and the people he knew and was comfortable with.

EXC: Jumping past the 356 to the 911, did you ever think that the 911 would go on to have a 50th anniversary?

KL: Unthinkable. Unthinkable. It's absolutely extraordinary. No one could have imagined that, least of all the people at Porsche. They were dedicated to improvement and advancement, and they tried different ways of improving and advancing, but they didn't manage to put the 911 on the trailer. It's quite a story, really, told many times, but they were convinced at various times that it had run its course. It's beyond imagining, really, that it has survived as long as it has in its various guises. It has been updated in various ways, needless to say, and brilliantly. There have been some awkward steps in its evolution, but it's managed to come through all that and it's still around. The 914 and the 924 were projects in which VW was very much involved, so they don't quite represent pure Porsche efforts. That isn't true, of course, of the 928, which was the first completely new car that Porsche ever designed, really, since the 911. The front-engined era was a fascinating one in its time, and now we have another front-engined era that seems to be working out pretty well, all in all.

EXC: Do you see any possibility that the 911 will see another 20 years?

KL: I've said in print that I do really appreciate what they're doing, but I would really like to see Porsche put one or two concept cars that would show people their idea of what could be done that would be different. Otherwise, if I were Michael Mauer, I would get pretty tired of just constantly retweaking the same bits of sheetmetal and sort of making haste slowly in different directions, although with certain elegance and aerodynamic effectiveness. I really would like to see Porsche put out something that suggests a possible different direction. Maybe it's the 918, maybe it's something else. The Boxster came about because it was displayed as a concept car, and it's a good example of what I'm talking about-a new direction for Porsche. The Cayman is a car for people who don't want a 911 and who don't need a space behind the seats to put things in.

I'd still like to see them do a concept car that perhaps shows the way to a 911 that does not have the entire engine behind the rear wheels. The last time that was done was the Panamericana concept car, which turned out to be a very effective concept.

EXC: Thank you very much, Karl, for being so generous with your books, your time, your thoughts, and opinions.

Review from and courtesy of Excellence Magazine - December 2013

http://www.excellence-mag.com/issues/215

WELL EQUIPPED Fresh Gear for the Vintage Enthusiast
by D. Randy Riggs

Vintage Motorsport - July/August 2013

What a fascinating book and author Karl Ludvigsen calls it a deep dive into the creation of the 356 Porsche. This is a new telling of the history of the oldest Porsches and it is Jerry Seinfeld's Porsche 356/2-040 that is the touchstone of the story about how these cars came to be. This background - both prewar and postwar - had far too many gaps and inconsistencies, which the author has rectified in a very precise and methodical way. One cannot love Porsches without diving into this superb effort, both current and rare photos making for a handsome delivery.

Article from and courtesy of Vintage Motorsport

Christophorus - #359 - December 2012 / January 2013

An impressive book that illustrates the early days of the Porsche company through exclusive photographs

Porsche books from the pen of renowned American automotive historian Karl Ludvigsen are not only bestsellers. They also set new standards for the portrayal of Porsche brand history. Ludvigsen's most recent work Porsche - Origin of the Species (available in English only), has a special treat in store: one-of-a-kind pictures of the newly restored, original 356 Gmünd Coupe (356/2/40) that belonged to motor racer Otto Math&#0233 and which now forms part of Jerry Seinfeld's collection. The comedian and avowed Porsche enthusiast contributed the foreword as well. Over the course of the volume's 356 pages (no coincidence), Karl Ludvigsen traces the development of the sports car manufacturer, with a special focus on those automobiles built before and during World War II that influenced the design of the 356. It also takes a look at how Porsche came to build its first series-produced sports car in a sawmill in the Austrian town of Gmünd.

Article from and courtesy of Christophorus

Speedster - Novembre - Décembre 2012

Origin of the Species (translated from the original French)

Karl Ludvigsen is famous not only for his reference works in the world of the Porsche. It comes from being a true automotive historian who researches his subjects with scientific rigor. After his three volume work Excellence Was Expected which retraced the history of the marque, after Genesis of Genius which concentrated on the debut of the career of Ferdinand Porsche, he now focuses on the genesis of the first model to carry to Porsche coat of arms: the 356. The work compiles a series of previously unseen archival documents on an exemplary example: the 356/040 once owned by Otto Math&#0233, now owned by Jerry Seinfeld (who wrote the preface). We found ourselves with the author with whom we exchanged a few words on his work.

Speedster: Origin of the Species is full of details that cover more than just the history of the marque. It comes back to the developments of the Beetle and all the sports cars originating from the spirit of Ferdinand Porsche, and the context of these creations. When did you start researching information and writing this reference book?

Karl: I started work on this particular book toward the end of 2009 when I was asked by Bentley Publishers to create a work that would feature the wonderfully original Gmünd survivor of Jerry Seinfeld. I said that I would undertake this task if I could address in the book the way in which the first Porsche, the 356, came about. I wanted to understand fully all the many influences that affected the design, starting with the pre-war designs of the Porsche office - even the sports-car versions of the Auto Union Grand Prix car. Also I wanted to place the Porsche designs in the context of their contemporaries and competitors, the cars that were being built and sometimes raced at the same time. Only in this way was it possible to understand the evolution of the unique Porsche DNA, which is so powerful that it still influences all the cars that the company produces today. This is unique in the history of the auto industry.

I wanted to answer such questions as these which are in the minds of Porsche enthusiasts: What really took place before the war in the designing and building of sports cars by Porsche? How, when and why did the Porsche designers find themselves in Gmünd during the war and what was it like there? What were the actual connections with Cisitalia and what was their influence? What was the role of the Swiss in the creation of the first Porsches and how did that come about? Why was only Porsche successful after the war in building a VW-based car when so many others - including Volkswagen - tried to do the same?

Speedster: We currently believe that all has been written about Porsche. Are there details that can still be found about the Porsche story? Did you search the information from the 'official' source at Porsche? Could you freely access the archives, or did you feel some resistance to access some secrets?

Karl: Sorry but there is still very much more to learn about Porsche! People even thought the whole story was known before I wrote Excellence Was Expected, which of course revealed very much more about the Porsche cars and their creators. The same is true of my book Genesis of Genius which describes Porsche's personal career from the beginning to the 1930s.

I did conduct new research at the Porsche archives where I found them very helpful. People who had key information to impart were Hans Rabe, son of designer Karl Rabe, and Marco Martinello, the Swiss researcher of the events in that country. Over the years of course I met many people who had information of value, such as Ferry Porsche, Rudolf Hruska, Ghislaine Kaes and Leopold Schmid. I also had help from Prof. Porsche's oldest grandchild, Ernst Piech. I have mentioned them all in my introduction to the book.

And there is more to write about Porsche! For example I plan to learn more about the work of the Professor in his two World Wars and put this in book form.

Speedster: You worked as an automotive historian on many other car brands. In your view, what is different, particular or exceptional in the Porsche history? Is which way is Porsche unique?

Karl: For me personally I have the feeling that I 'grew up' with Porsche, ever since I saw the first articles about their new cars published in 1948. My first visit to the works was in 1958 when I was in the US Army in Germany. I got to know the Porsche people, who have such a high profile in the creation of their cars. This is an important factor. You had the feeling that everyone was involved, that each had a personal interest in the cars and their constant improvement, that decisions were made in the interest of the customer and the enthusiast and not always on the basis of 'market research' or the financial result. Of course the racing effort, deriving so directly from the road cars, is another appealing aspect of Porsche. The fact that I understand German was of course also helpful in forging good links with Porsche in those days that paid off when I began more serious research into the company starting in the 1970s. Having lived in Europe since 1980 has greatly eased my travels to Stuttgart and other places of importance to the Porsche story.

Article from and courtesy of Speedster

The Automobile - December 2012

Dangerous book, this. Its 24-carat authorship lulls you into a false sense of security, for no one is better placed than Karl Ludvigsen to tell the tale of Porsche's early years as a manufacturer in its own right. Here, expressed with his usual limpid precision, the defining trope is Porsehe genomics rather than the creationism of his earlier Genesis of Genius. Jerry Seinfeld, whose battered and achingly desirable 356/2 - the last Austrian built aluminium example - inspired this account, is clearly as sympathetic and well informed as his public pronouncements about cars suggest. Respect for the 356 is of course hard-wired for the Jenks generation, but this account delves deeper: Seinfeld captures its playfulness, and Ludvigsen the character, relationships and circumstances of the men whose thinking underpins its longevity as the archetype of subsequent generations of the marque.

Its prewar antecedents are predictably fascinating, because the smooth envelopes Erwin Komenda penned for these cars set the vocabulary for the distinctive Porsche Formsprache. They include the KdF-based projects at Zuffenhausen, the VW Type 64 Sport design, the swoopy Berlin-Rome streamliners and the remarkable F-Wagen Type 114 concept of 1939, with its mid-mounted 1.5-litre V-lO. Equally illuminating is a chapter on Porsche's work for Cisitalia in 1947, on the twin-blown flat-12 Type 360 GP car and the stillborn but similarly mid-engined Type 370 air-cooled four-cam V-8 coupé. Although the acuity of all these designs is emphasised by reference to contemporary streamliners, the focus is on the seminal work undertaken at the deliberately anonymous little sawmill just outside Gmünd that served as the fledgling company's base from 1944-50. In addition to many military, agricultural and other engineering projects, this mainly concerns the 'missing links' between VW and Porsche proper: the tube-framed Type 356 roadster in the summer of '47 and the first 356/2 coupés the following year.

With help from Heinz Rabe, Ernst Piëch and the factory archive, the detail is fastidious, and underpins both the authority and the immersive nature of this definitive account. And like all good books on old cars, it's visually sumptuous. More than 200 evocatively informal snaps from the period are interspersed with dozens of plans and working drawings (rarities for the most part) and peppered by Michael Furman's tenderly lit studio shots of Seinfeld's 356/2, number 040. The energetic career of this ex-Otto Mathé lightweight is chronicled, along with the conservation work required for the owner to use it as its creators intended.

Vivid, varied and episodic, the format includes thoughtful contributions from Miles Collier, Robert Cumberford and Tony Hatter, and a more general discursive section unravelling the strands of Porsche DNA. Those whose German is as bad as mine may cavil at the 40-page coda devoted to a reprint of the 1949 owner's manual, rare as it is, but by then it's too late: you're hooked. So unless a 356 already lurks in your motor house or if money is no object, beware of this seductive tome. Because within days of reading it, you may find yourself, as I did, asking your bank manager to borrow the means to get one. Only a 'B', but as Ludvigsen says, Gmünd thinking permeates the experience. Turns out that the real thing is as reliable - and almost as much fun - as this truly excellent book.

Review from and courtesy of The Automobile

Classic & Sports Car - December 2012

BOOK OF THE MONTH

It's hard to imagine that there's a Porsche stone unturned for respected marque historian Karl Ludvigsen. But, inspired by an early 356 - comedian Jerry Seinfeld's treasured Gmünd coupe 2-040 - the American historian set out to reveal the story of the landmark 1950s sports model. And top studio photographer Michael Furman provides a superb set of the historic survivor.

Ludvigsen's journey of fastidious research took him from factory archives to owners and specialists while unravelling this fascinating tale. This hefty, 344-page title covers the evolution of pre-war streamliners through to the early operations in the wooden sawmill in Gmünd, Austria. Putting Porsche's development in context, the book also covers VW Beetle-based specials and coach built variants.

Ludvigsen's writing style is a captivating joy to read, plus the main text is accompanied by fascinating panels including Robert Cumberford on styling, Miles Collier on preservation and Alex Finigan on ownership. The final pages are devoted to a complete reproduction of Porsche's trial reports on '040', and an early 1949 356 Betriebsanleitung (operating manual).

Review from and courtesy of Classic & Sports Car

Porsche 356 Registry Magazine - November / December 2012

Book Reviews

There being no shortage of Porsche - centered books on the market, enthusiasts may well wonder about yet another weighty (6#) volume with big red letters on the dust jacket and a $159 price tag. But for anyone who knows the work of Karl Ludvigsen, and especially for those who may not be so familiar, this book is a must have.

I was first struck by the title, which plays on Darwin's "Origin of Species". Here, Ludvigsen narrows the "origin" quest to just one species and considers just about every relevant aspect of the beginnings of Porsche sports car manufacturing.

The company was founded in 1931 in Stuttgart after Prof. Ferdinand Porsche decided to strike out on his own. It is generally understood that he intended to operate as a provider of engineering services and act as an independent consultant, after so many years serving as an employee whose creative scope was limited by his employer. But that is merely a jumping off point, from which the author incorporates and inter-relates literally dozens of thoroughly researched stories. He shows the reader how actual Porsche cars came to be and why there is still that strong and recognizable DNA in the cars we know today. Along the way, he traces the contributions of people whose names we may have heard, but whose effect on Porsche success has not generally been well understood. What sounds like a potentially over-complicated narrative became for me a completely engrossing story I couldn't put down - and will return to again.

For example, I had long since heard about Piero Dusio and the Cisitalia race car commission. But Ludvigsen points out that the whole matter of designing the Type 360 came about at the instigation of Tazio Nuvolari. The famous Italian driver was looking for a way to get back to the front in the premier form of racing which was about to resume after WW II. Nuvolari was in no position financially to act alone, but knew how to get the help he needed. He had obviously made a huge reputation driving Professor Porsche's Auto Unions before the war and was highly respected still. Enter Dusio, the well-known Italian industrialist whose fortune came from making boots for the war effort, among other things. He dreamed of building racing cars and was already successful as the constructor of the 500 cc D46 single-seater sold to many European privateers. Nuvolari was the "straw that stirred the drink" , writing directly to Ferry Porsche ,working on Dusio and cajoling others in the Italian racing community.

Porsche was very much aware of the advances in race car development and aerodynamics in Italy, even from before the war. His body specialist Erwin Kommenda incorporated many of those concepts in projects like the 1939 Berlin-Rome car, the sport car derivation proposed to Auto Union based on the GP car of 1935 and many others revealed here. The chance to go racing with access to the people who designed the silver arrows, and with passionate Italians to fund the effort, must have seemed a heaven-sent opportunity. That he secured contact with people like Carlo Abarth and others would prove to be of lasting value in subsequent years. Even in the short term, the Cisitalia contract was huge - it provided enough cash to liberate Professor Porsche from French captivity. Readers will find a complete and very nuanced account of what actually transpired and the pivotal help given by Dusio and Louise Piech.

Along the way, Ludvigsen points out that the move to Gmünd was not a simple escape from the bombing in Stuttgart, that Professor Porsche was the key to negotiating that deal in some very surprising ways and that some 300 people were involved in the relocation. The Porsche firm was a substantial employer of skilled engineers and the effects of the war are laid out in terms not well understood by most Porsche enthusiasts. Already, Austrians were vocal in their "anti-German" attitudes and the little sawmill we all know from grainy pictures and quick descriptions is shown to have been anything but an easy, foregone conclusion. Porsche father and son prove to be not only the great engineers we think we know, but also the determined, creative entrepreneurs concerned about not only products but the people who designed and built them for the company. The crucial role of Karl Rabe finally is revealed in some real detail. And if you ever wondered why Wendelin Wiedeking was so interested in Porsche tractors, you'll read here about the central role their design and manufacture played in the survival of the company right after the war ended.

Of course, Volkswagen features prominently in the narrative. Then, as now, proposals, completed projects, royalties and joint efforts marked the early years of Porsche. The real origins of Porsche No. 1 are detailed in a separate chapter. The inspiration for the car came as a result of Ferry Porsche wondering how he could make a sporting vehicle from VW parts in a fashion similar to that of Dusio and Cisitalia who were basing their cars on simple Fiat parts. He had done some work in this vein before the war (think 60K10) and now saw real opportunity.

There is so much more to discover here. There are pictures from the author's own archives as well as from Porsche. So many have not been seen before nor so thoughtfully presented as both inspiration and support for the narrative. The author acknowledges the contributions of Jerry Seinfeld, whose car is the focal point for the book and much more besides. Additionally included are drawings of the significant Porsche designs, along with an explanation of how Porsche Type numbers were really assigned.

What emerges in total is a sense of the magnitude of the struggle to establish and maintain the company, keep its many employees working in wartime and after, and create so many advanced designs for tractors, water turbines, Grand Prix cars and sporting cars. Ludvigsen also sheds some new light on the company's wartime activities. Such an immense and varied body of research is presented in as clear and concise a body of writing as I have lately encountered. Factor in the truly fine reproduction of photos, quality of paper and binding, great choice of type faces - and what we have is ample proof that books are in fact not a dying media. A splendid read by any calculation!

Review from and courtesy of Porsche 356 Registry Magazine

Classic Porsche - October 2012

THE BOOK OF THE YEAR!

Within Jerry Seinfeld's renowned Porsche collection resides an unassuming yet extraordinary piece of Porsche history: Porsche Gmünd coupe 356/2-040. Captured exclusively for this book in a series of evocative portraits by acclaimed automotive photographer Michael Furman, 040's unsullied originality conveys with startling immediacy the combination of artistry, innovation and determination that went into its improbable creation.

This cornerstone of the Seinfeld collection serves as the inspiration for Porsche - Origin of the Species, an in-depth exploration by automotive historian Karl Ludvigsen into the specific influences and circumstances that brought forth the first Porsche-badged sports cars.

Have you ever wondered how and when did the people of the Porsche firm find themselves in a sawmill in Gmünd? What was the influence on the 356 of the cars and engines built by Porsche before and during the war? How and why was the first 356 shaped as it was? What was the real relationship between the tube-framed Type 356 roadster and the first 356/2 coupes? Questions like these deserve answers because the resulting DNA is so powerful, so robust, that it still influences the shape and style of Porsches well into the twenty-first century.

Karl Ludvigsen, author of the award-winning Porsche: Excellence Was Expected and Ferdinand Porsche - Genesis of Genius, tackles these questions and more in Porsche - Origin of the Species.

The saga that emerges encompasses mechanical revelations, human drama and the turmoil of world war. This book is quite possibly the best book published this year and we are certain it will appeal to all enthusiasts who are eager to know what events really ignited the spark from which all other Porsches evolved.

Article from and courtesy of Classic Porsche Magazine - October 2012

911 & Porsche World - October 2012

Book Review

A new Porsche book from Karl Ludvigsen is always eagerly awaited and this is no exception. Porsche - Origin of the Species tells the story of how Porsche's work, firstly as an engineering consultancy and then post war as a fledgling sports car manufacturer, has influenced every Porsche that has followed.

Obviously the Porsche sports car story starts with the 356 - firstly the roadster and then the 356/2 Coupes, which were the first production Porsches. Used and pictured throughout the book is Jerry Seinfeld's own 356/ 2-040 Coupe - 040 signifying its production number and its origins as a Gmünd car. That is significant in itself, but it's also a very original car, receiving only sympathetic restoration. The photography, by acclaimed automotive photographer, Michael Furman, captures its time worn patina perfectly.

But before the 356 was the Beetle and the other projects that Porsche undertook. There are pieces of all these in the early Porsche cars, often out of sheer necessity. Just building a sports car out of the ruins of WW2 was something of a miracle and Origin of the Species conveys this remarkable story. The move to Gmünd from Stuttgart, the immediate post war years when Ferdinand and son Ferry were held by the French as war criminals (and asked to advise on building post war Renaults), their return and the start of Porsche as a manufacturer in its own right after failing to interest Volkswagen with the original mid-engined 356 roadster.

It is a remarkable story and it's one that is ongoing to this very day. That the 911 is still rear-engined, and that its shape still owes much to the 356 is part of its enduring appeal. The fact also that Porsche is still linked seemingly umbilically to VW also makes this a book of the moment, despite dealing with events of 60+years ago.

It is a fascinating read and one that we would put in the Top 10 of Porsche books. At 356 pages, with a great deal of unseen archive material, and some genuine revelations, its asking price seems a genuine bargain. Oh, and it should be mentioned that when Ludvigsen was researching and writing this book, he was also contributing his column to 911&PW and some of the fascinating material that he uncovered was previewed in these pages first. An honour indeed.

Rainy Day Magazine - December 17, 2014

Rainy Day Gift Guide

eBooks may be the future, but there will always be a place for physical books on our shelves. The reason is not just that a physical book doesn't need batteries, software updates, or could break when dropped. It is that swiping to turn a page on a tablet will never replace the tactile satisfaction of turning an actual page in a book. Plus, you can't (or at least really shouldn't) read an eBook in the tub...

Books for Porschephiles: The recognized expert on all things Porsche is Karl Ludvigsen. His writings on things Porsche-related are well-researched, informative, and illuminating. We have three suggestions which will sure to delight any Porschephile on your list.

• Porsche - Origin of the Species: An in-depth exploration by Ludvigsen into the specific influences and circumstances that brought forth the first Porsche-badged sports cars. Sure to appeal to all who are eager to know what events really ignited the spark from which all other Porsches evolved.
• Ferdinand Porsche - Genesis of Genius: As early as 1900, when he was just 25, Ferdinand Porsche pioneered hybrid technology to power his automobile designs. Once gasoline gained dominance (over electricity) as the power-source of choice, Porsche became relentless in his goal to design the fastest and most durable automobiles in Europe. The dynamic young innovator who helped to chart the course of the automobile through the first decades of the twentieth century is brought to life by Ludvigsen in this in-depth look. A "must have" for every Porsche admirer.
• Porsche: Excellence Was Expected: Remarkable both for its breadth of coverage and its technical depth, Porsche: Excellence Was Expected covers every Porsche road and racing car from the company's beginnings through the development of the 2009 Panamera. Adding dimension to the Porsche story is Ludvigsen's assessment of the company's designers, chief engineers and top managers over the years. This definitive work on Porsche history is the ultimate gift for the Porschephile.

Review from and courtesy of Rainy Day Magazine - December 17, 2014

http://www.rainydaymagazine.com/RDM2014/Home/December/Week3/RDMHomeDec1714.htm#RainyDayGiftGuide_Books

Gear Patrol, October 14, 2013

Petrol Pages - 10 Essential Automotive Books: Porsche-Origin of the Species

This book by author and car historian Karl Ludvigsen and photographer Michael Furman focuses on a single Porsche: Jerry Seinfeld's Porsche Gmünd coupe 356/2-040. It covers the 356's undeniable influence on the 911 and all of Porsche design for decades, as well as the inspiration for its unique design that has stood the test of time above and beyond any automobile in history. In fact, just about the only thing it doesn't cover is why we're jealous of comedians with garages full of the world's greatest automobiles.

Review from and courtesy of Gearpatrol.com

http://gearpatrol.com/2013/10/14/petrol-pages-10-essential-automotive-books/

Designers & Books: About Books That Inspire Creativity, Innovation, and Invention

Phil Patton's Notable Books of 2012

A Venn diagram of designers and Porsche fans reveals a major overlap. Sober, businesslike design academics or executives turn into positive Bieber buffs when the subject of the quintessential German sports car comes up. As respectably modern as a Braun coffee mill or Vitsoe shelving system, a Porsche 356 or 911 possesses the additional advantage of being speedy and sensual. These are the people who will enjoy Karl Ludvigsen's latest Porsche book, from Bentley, the auto book publisher. Ludvigsen is highly regarded by automobile collectors and historians; his three-volume Porsche history, Porsche: Excellence Was Expected, is standard. One such collector is comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who is very serious about his sports cars. (He constructed a special garage for them, at great expense, in Manhattan.) Seinfeld has written a foreword to Porsche: Origin of the Species. The book, arriving in the year that F.A. Porsche died, tells of the early days of the Porsche company, in Gmund, Austria, and the birth of the mythic 356.

Review from and courtesy of Designers & Books

http://www.designersandbooks.com/designer/booklist/phil-patton/notable-books-2012

SPEED READS

Black Ink - Spring/Summer 2013

Thumbing through stunning photos of a Porsche 356 can be just as stimulating as sitting behind its wheel - as Jerry Seinfeld might know. His carefully restored Gmünd coupe was the inspiration for former motor industry executive Karl Ludvigsen's Porsche: Origin of the Species (Bentley Publishers), which gathers archival photos, drafts and original operating manuals to provide an intimate look at the company's storied Austrian heritage.

Article from and courtesy of Black Ink

Rainy Day Magazine - June 3, 2013

Summer Reading List

Summer will soon be upon us. For many of readers, that means vacations and road trips. To make your travels more enjoyable, we have put together some recommendations which we hope you will find entertaining...

If we HAD to sit quietly AND enjoy ourselves, this is what we would do: we would get Karl Ludvigsen's latest book Porsche: Origin of The Species, take a week off, and flip through it at a leisurely pace. We guarantee that no Porsche-philes will have a better time doing anything else.

We looked at Ludvigsen's three-volume set, Porsche: Excellence Was Expected, in 2009. Because of its breadth of coverage and its technical depth, the set is considered by most Porche enthusiasts the definitive work on Porsche history. This new book, Porsche: Origin of the Species, has a different focus. Actually, the book has a singular focus. All 356 pages, with over 400 photos and illustrations, are devoted to the Porsche 356 (356 pages, Porsche 356, geddit?).

Of course, in talking about the Porsche 356, Mr. Ludvigsen interweaves all kinds of interesting Porsche history, twists and turns, and other stories in a way unique to a historian who truly loves his subject. For anyone who is interested in how Porsche evolved to it present form, Porsche: Origin of the Species is a must-read.

Review from and courtesy of Rainy Day Magazine - June 3, 2013

http://www.rainydaymagazine.com/RDM2013/Home/June/Week1/RDMHomeJun0313.htm

Ferdinand: The Cult of Porsche - April 24, 2013

Bentley Publishers has very kindly sent a review copy of Karl Ludvigsen's latest book, Porsche: Origin of the Species.

A bigger review will follow once I've read a bit more, but an hour of leafing last night and this morning reveals a wealth of previously unseen images: photographs, blueprints and scans of archive documents. All fascinating material, and hats off to Karl for maintaining such detailed and diligent research standards.

Chapters include a section devoted to Otto Math&#0233, previous owner of 356/2-040. This illustrious car is now owned by Seinfeld, and inspired the creation of this reference work. Mathé's story - the one-armed ice racer who towed his competition car behind one of the earliest Porsches - will surely inspire the Porsche-curious to connect with the marque and its heritage.

Other contributors include renowned CA Porsche mechanic, Adrian Gang, on the importance of 'missing link' early Porsches, and noted artist and collector, Miles Collier, on the importance of bringing much-enjoyed classics back to rude health, without damaging the fabric added by years of faithful devotion.

First impressions of Origin of the Species mark it as a must-have book for enthusiasts. RRP on the work is about $120, but Amazon resellers have new copies on sale at £58. There is no doubt that anyone interested in the early years of Porsche would consider this to be excellent value for money.

Article from and courtesy of http://www.ferdinandmagazine.com/porsche-origin-of-the-species-in-books

Flatsixes.com - April 22, 2013

A Night at the Museum With Karl Ludvigsen: Interview and Pictures

There is likely nobody more knowledgeable in regard to the historically relevant moments of Porsche than Mr. Karl Ludvigsen. Having spent several years of his life chronicling these moments in the form of several literary works, from the beginnings-to-present historical epic "Excellence Was Expected", to the most recent "Porsche - Origin of the Species" depicting the details of the Gmund-built 356 models, from how they came about, to how they changed the future of the company. Ludvigsen's familiarity with Porsche factory employees, and members of the family, as well as his familiarity with the products that the company has churned out over its history has given him an opportunity to tell these stories to the rest of the world. Read our full account of the evening after the picture gallery below.

Article from and courtesy of http://flatsixes.com/porsche-culture/porsche-car-shows/aaca-karl-ludvigsen-interview/ - April 22, 2013

Flatsixes.com - November 18, 2012

10 Porsche Related Christmas Gift Ideas Under $100

5. Porsche - Origin of the Species

If you're interested in Porsche and their early days of production than this book is for you. In typical Ludvigsen style the book delivers facts, photos and details in a well thought out manner. There's a forward from Jerry Seinfeld and many wonderful little sidebars with those most familiar with the Porsche marque. Really a must have for your Porsche library.

Article from and courtesy of flatsixes.com/porsche-products/gift-ideas/porsche-christmas-gift-ideas-under-100/ - November 18, 2012

Speedreaders.info

"When on board H.M.S. Beagle, as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species - that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers."
- Charles Darwin, 1859

That mystery of mysteries. . . . Applied to Porsche cars, it turns out there is still today plenty of mystery, or if not mystery then new interpretations and new connections. That a book brimming with such newness should come from the pen of the selfsame author who has advanced the state of the collective Porsche knowledge more than any other is rather astounding. It would be entirely erroneous to extrapolate from this statement that Ludvigsen's unimpeachable previous work was deficient; it merely means that knowledge never stands still.

Ludvigsen is not the sort of scholar to have chosen the title for this book just to be clever. The whole concept of evolution implies not just a specific point in time when out of nothingness a first is created, but a subsequent fundamental linearity in which incremental advances result in improvement by degrees. Unlike other automotive nameplates that have survived long enough or been reanimated often enough to be perceived as iconic (Corvette, Thunderbird, Jeep etc.) Porsche is alone in always having a model in its line-up that remains in unbroken technical and philosophical continuity to its forebears. What any one iteration of car on this evolutionary ladder does is picked up and carried forward by the successor and improved upon - and on, and on, and on. Intellectually, if for no other reason, this is a most satisfying state of affairs because it means that Porsche got it right, back in the day when their world was young; so right that their initial understanding of what a sports car is and how it should behave has been improvable only by degrees and never needed a wholesale "out with the old/in with the new" wiping of the slate.

If you're the thorough sort of reader you will have internalized Ludvigsen's previous Porsche must-read opus, Ferdinand Porsche, Genesis of Genius. That book brought the story up to 1933 and develops fundamentally important engineering and biographical themes without which the topics this new book covers are devoid of backstory.

It is a cruel truism that the very reader who is himself a subject-matter expert and is blessed with photographic memory and instant recall will be the one who struggles hardest with a book that reshapes the canon of established wisdom. Certain things must now be unlearned but that requires guidance as to exactly what it is that is altogether new or, harder still, just slightly differently nuanced. Wouldn't it be convenient if the text called out all such nuggets in color?! This would surely look peculiar, and might well be seen as self-aggrandizing so the publisher has posted a list of the "new & improved" bits on their website. While helpful, you'll still have to chew on every word in the new text and compare it to what you already know. (Examples: it used to be said that Ferdinand Porsche objected to being moved to Austria. Wrong. Was Dusio the driving force behind Porsche taking up F1 racing? Did the 356's frame get better or worse after being reengineered for series production? The July 1948 race meeting at Zell am See is not Porsche's first competition success.) Looked at differently, the reader who will most comprehensively benefit from the new book is the one just starting out, not only in regards to Porsche specifics but engineering and automotive history in general!

In simple terms, this book examines the 1930?1950 influences (early Porsche-designed VWs, the Type 64 and Type 114 F-Wagen, the Type 60K10 Berlin-Rome-Berlin coupes, wartime projects etc.) that led to the Porsche 356, the one that has influenced all subsequent ones. Ludvigsen can rightfully claim to have been close to Porsche history from 1948 onwards and to have an organic familiarity with and understanding of its people and products. As an industry executive and later commentator he also has a catholic grasp of automobildom as a whole and thus one of the first themes he develops here is to put Porsche history into the context of its peers, specifically the pioneering role of the French and Italians in the area of streamlining. New research into Swiss sources (re. the Type 352 the Swiss hoped to build ca. 1946) and even heretofore untouched material at the Porsche Archive shed new light on old matters. Even such well-explored topics as the Cisitalia relationship receive massaging. US comedian Jerry Seinfeld who owns the famous ex-Otto Mathé 356/2 Gmünd Coupe factory test car and ice racer also owns the diaries of Ghislaine Kaes, Prof. Porsche's nephew and secretary, and they too yield new interpretations on the micro detail level.

Porsche connoisseur Seinfeld's car (he also wrote the Foreword) is neither the first nor the oldest surviving but it is in exceptionally good unrestored condition and thus ideally suited as the book's banner car, here suitably captured in Michael Furman's excellent photos. A number of modern-day luminaries - Freeman Thomas, Miles Collier, Robert Cumberford and Tony Hatter - share their thoughts on matters Porsche and important names from the days of yore - Walter Glöckler, Ghislaine Kaes, Erwin Kommenda, Otto Mathé, Petermax Müller, Louise and Anton Piëch, Karl Rabe, the "English Patient" Laszlo Asmasy - are given due consideration.

Even on the illustration front there's much new here. Appended are factory docs for chassis 040, a facsimile of a 356 handbook in German, and a Bibliography. The Index is most commendably layered.

Even if you have no specific interest in the "bathtub Porsche," this book is desirable because it casts a wide net, connects new dots, represents a superlative research and writing accomplishment, and is a properly beautiful book.

Review from and courtesy of http://speedreaders.info/9949-porsche-origin-species

VSCC Bulletin - No. 278, Winter 2012

Many readers will be familiar with Karl Ludvigsen, perhaps as a Club member seen in recent years on the Tour of Norfolk in an 800 Series Cord and, more recently, in a rather elegant Talbot Lago T120 Coupé, but, more likely as a motoring historian and almost certainly as an author. Karl's specialities include the history of Porsche and, back in Bulletin 265, his book "Ferdinand Porsche - Genesis of Genius", also published by Bentley Publishers, was reviewed and highly recommended. This latest work almost follows on from that earlier work, which was awarded the Cugnot Award in 2009 as the best automotive history book published in the previous year. 'Genesis' described Porsche's work before he made cars under his own name whereas 'Origin of the Species' is a thorough examination of the cars that led to the Porsche 356 including the pre-war Volkswagen based designs of the 1930s, three seater, sports car versions of the Auto Union Grand Prix car and the intriguing Type 114, a mid-engined coupé powered by a 1500cc, 72 degree V10, using roller bearings on a Hirth-type assembled crankshaft, this mechanical complexity to be clothed in an aluminium alloy body that clearly incorporated some of the ideas that would later result in the 356. Of these designs, only the VW based sports cars actually made it the prototype stage or beyond but the original drawings of the Type 114 Porsche and the Type 52 Auto Union are a truly fascinating insight into what might have been and will be of immense interest to the engineers amongst readers. What did see the light of day was a VW based design of streamlined coupé, the Type 60K 10 using an almost standard floorpan and suspension with a mildly tuned engine but clothed in an aluminium body by Reutter of Stuttgart. This would result in a top speed of 94.5 mph at 3500 rpm and the intention was to enter a team in the proposed Berlin-Rome road race but, before the three cars were completed, war intervened and the race never happened.

Much changed for Porsche during the war including a move, with most of the family, to Gmünd in Carinthia. Ferry Porsche, now taking more control from his father, moved two thirds of the machine tools from Zuffenhausen, one third to Gmünd and one third stored nearby, and also moved one of the Type 60K 10 coupés there. At the war's end the whole family and, indeed, all those working at Gmünd, went through a very difficult time but, by July 1946 Ferry Porsche was back on site and working on new designs. Then, with help from Nuvolari, he signed a contract to design a Grand Prix Car for Cisitalia, the Type 360, which was followed by a sports car design, which proved to be an important stepping stone in Porsche's progress towards the 356.

And so the team at Gmünd moved inexorably towards the first production Porsche via Volkswagen based sports cars and the whole process is described in detail and illustrated using original drawings and contemporary photographs.

One visitor who called at Gmünd and tried the first 356 was well known VSCC member, David Scott-Moncrieff, who found himself "...absolutely shattered by the roadholding." Of the 50 or so cars apparently built in Austria only the first Roadster and the first Coupé were actually completed there the rest being completed and trimmed by other companies from panels made at Gmünd.

The author has done a fantastic job of bringing much new information together and presenting it in an informative and entertaining way that makes this a most enjoyable book to read. That, together with detailed research that has clearly gone into its production make this a most important work and, once again, Karl Ludvigsen has produced a book that must be in the running for another Cugnot award and will certainly become one of the 'standard' works on Porsche. Bentley Publishers also deserve credit for the high quality of production, a book to give pleasure for many a year. Highly recommended.

Article from and courtesy of The Vintage Sports-Car Club (VSCC) Bulletin - No. 278, Winter 2012

Mesh New England Magazine - Fall 2012

Book review

"I invite you to join me as we turn back the clock to the late 1930s and the 1940s when the Porsche sports car DNA was created. That's how far back we need to go to grasp the influences, the ideas, the men and the machinery that made up the Type 356. Some of the saga will be familiar, but much will be new even to the most seriously shriven Porsche fanatic. It begins before World War II, when the Porsche men created the car the world knew as the Volkswagen . Crude and humble though it was, it gave them plenty of ideas." - Karl Ludvigsen

Within Jerry Seinfeld's renowned Porsche collection resides an unassuming yet extraordinary piece of Porsche history: Porsche Gmund coupe 356/2-040. Captured exclusively for this book in a series of evocative portraits by acclaimed automotive photographer Michael Furman, the 040's unsullied originality conveys with startling immediacy the combination of artistry, innovation and determination that went into its improbable creation. This cornerstone of the Seinfeld collection serves as the inspiration for Porsche - Origin of the Species, an in-depth exploration by the eminent automotive historian Karl Ludvigsen into the specific influences and circumstances that brought forth the first Porsche-badged sports cars.

How and when did the people of the Porsche firm find themselves in a sawmill in Gmund? What was the influence on the 356 of the cars and engines built by Porsche before and during the war? How and why was the first 356 shaped as it was? What was the real relationship between the tube-framed Type 356 roadster and the first 356/2 coupes? Questions like these deserve answers because the resulting DNA is so powerful, so robust, that it still influences the shape and style of Porsches well into the twenty-first century.

Karl Ludvigsen, author of the award-winning Porsche: Excellence Was Expected and Ferdinand Porsche - Genesis of Genius, tackles these questions and more in Porsche - Origin of the Species. The saga that emerges encompasses mechanical revelations, human drama and the turmoil of world war. This book will appeal to all car enthusiasts who are eager to know what events really ignited the spark from which all other Porsches evolved.

Ludvigsen's research into the origins of the Type 356 overturned many longheld beliefs about this crucial period in the creation of the car that established the classic fingerprint of the Porsche sports car for all time.

Printed in lavish full color and richly illustrated, it will appeal to all car enthusiasts who are eager to know what really happened at the turning points of Porsche's history.

Article from and courtesy of Mesh New England Magazine - Fall 2012

Karl Ludvigsen: An Interview

themostlyporscheblog - May 13, 2013

For those of you unaware, Karl Ludvigsen is among the most influential automotive historians in the world. Having produced the informative and entertaining prose found among the pages of "Porsche: Excellence Was Expected", among dozens of other titles, Mr. Ludvigsen has proven himself to be the genuine article. A true enthusiast, an educated mind, and a compelling personality; Karl is all of these things.

Through serendipitous right-place-right-time happenstance, we found ourselves in a position to cover an amazing Porsche centric exhibit at the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania for FlatSixes.com. The event was entitled "Porsche: Style and Design", and brought several of Zuffenhausen's greatest creations into the spotlight. As the closer of the event, Mr. Ludvigsen delivered a speech on the history of how the Porsche 356 came into being, and afterward we were fortunate enough to be afforded a few minutes of his time for a short interview. With a flood of information having been gathered for his most recent book "Porsche: Origin of the Species", his speech was absolutely phenomenal. Having heard that we would be in attendance, we were politely asked by fellow Porsche historian and hobbyist Chuck Stoddard to deliver a small gift to Karl on the behalf of Chuck and his wife.

The following audio file is posted [at the link below] for your listening pleasure: our interview with Mr. Karl Ludvigsen. The first three minutes are slightly noisier than the rest, as this is the time in which Mr. Ludvigsen opened his gift and presented the contents to us. It was an excellent experience, and Karl could not have been a nicer guy to speak with.

A special thanks to the AACA Museum for hosting the event, Bentley Publishing for facilitating Karl?s involvement, and to FlatSixes.com for creating the opportunity for our involvement.

Article from and courtesy of themostlyporscheblog - May 13, 2013 - http://themostlyporscheblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/karl-ludvigsen-an-interview/

PorschePurist.com - October 3, 2012

Porsche Book Review

Karl Ludvigsen, author of the award-winning Porsche: Excellence Was Expected and Ferdinand Porsche Genesis of Genius, tackles questions around the origin and DNA of the 356 in Porsche-Origin of the Species. The saga that emerges encompasses mechanical revelations, human drama and the turmoil of world war.

Much of the book focuses on Porsche 356/2/040 shown in the accompanying picture.

How and when did the people of the Porsche firm find themselves in a sawmill in Gmünd? What was the influence on the 356 of the cars and engines built by Porsche before and during the war? How and why was the first 356 shaped as it was? What was the real relationship between the tube-framed Type 356 roadster and the first 356/2 coupes?

Those questions, and more, answered
1930's DNA survives to the 991

The questions posed deserve answers because the resulting DNA is so powerful, so robust, that it still influences the shape and style of Porsches well into the twenty-first century.

The book covers (in Karl's unique style) an amazing and interesting spectrum of early Porsche evolution.

Some of the more interesting facts are highlighted in the next few paragraphs. For the full story you will need to read the book.

356 not Austrian???
Where did the bloodline originate?

The Porsche designers felt safe in Austria during World War 2 but Gmünd was not the original home of the 356...

Porsche's Erwin Komenda began designing sports versions of the Volkswagen-to-be in Germany during the 1930s.

The first 356 was created as a "VW Sports", a car that the Porsche men hoped would lead to a closer connection with the VW works and perhaps be produced by them.

356 first race success
Not as commonly thought

Many think that the first success in competition of the 'Porsche' brand was on July 11, 1948 when Herbert Kaes won a race at Innsbrück with the original mid-engined open 356.

But, in fact, the appearance of the Porsche at Innsbrück was in demonstration laps only (between races). It didn't compete in any races that day or on any day while still in the hands of Porsche.

Buy this wonderful book in the US or UK Amazon store from here.

Article from and courtesy of www.PurelyPorsche.com - October 3, 2012

Porsche Fahrer - January 2014

Book review

Mit schlichten Beiträgen zu herkömmlichen Serien-Porsche gibt sich Karl Ludvigsen nicht mehr ab, der Grande der Porsche-Historie bohrt tiefer, schaut schärfer, schreibt umfassender. Wenn alles passt, kommen Bücher wie "Origin of the Species", die Herkunft einer Art, heraus. Ludvigsen schildert die frühen und frühesten Jahre der Unternehmung Porsche, deren technische Basisarbeit im Erschaffen von Käfer und 356, ihre Wanderschaft von Deutschland nach Gmünd und zurück nach Stuttgart, die Menschen, die an ihr teilnahmen und sie begleiteten und wie sich aus der Gemengelage die Firma Porsche zusammensetzte. Als besonderes Highlight darf die Schilderung des Werdegangs des Alu-Gmünd-Coupés gelten, das über Porsche zum einarmigen Rennfahrer Otto Mathé und schließlich zum Porsche-Maniac Jerry Seinfeld kam. Wer einmal sehen möchte, wie historisch wertvolle Autoauslegeware beinahe archäologisch nachgeklöppelt wird, kann sich hier an den Bildern dazu ergötzen. Das englischsprachige Buch endet, wo andere Porsche-Bücher meist noch nicht einmal beginnen: mit dem Abdruck einer deutschsprachigen 356-Bedienungsanleitung von 1949.

Review from and courtesy of Porsche Fahrer - January 2014

http://www.pf-magazin.de/aktuelle-ausgabe.html

Austro Classic - 6/2012 - Dezember / Jänner

Nach dem Buch "Genesis of Genius", wo Ludvigsen die Arbeiten Porsches vor dem ersten Porsche behandelt, kommt jetzt der zwei Prachtband - 340 Seiten im Format 27 cm x 27 cm - über die "Jugend" des Porsche 356, auch bekannt als Gmünd Porsche. Prominent wird der legendäre 356-er "T 2222 präsentiert, der einst Otto Math&#0233 gehörte und sich heute in der Sammlung von Jerry Seinfeld befindet, der auch das Vorswort spendiert hat.

Der exquisite Text wird von prächtigen historischen und aktuellen Bildern begleitet und die (Druck)-Qualität des Buches rechtfertigt den stolzen Preise. Briefe, Tagebuchauszüge, Werkszeichnungen und eine komplette Reproduktion des Handbuchs des Gmünd-356 sorgen für die nötigen "Stimmung" - ein Buch, das nicht in Regale von Porsche- Enthusiasten gehört.

Article from and courtesy of Austro Classic

Ring1.de - September 21, 2012

Entschlüsselt: Die DNA der Porsche-Sportwagen

Bei der Porsche Parade 2005 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, trafen sich der große schon mit zahlreichen Auto-Literaturpreisen ausgezeichnete Automobilhistoriker Karl Ludvigsen und der amerikanische Schauspieler und Comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Dies war die Geburtsstunde des hier vorliegenden, schlichtweg überwältigenden Buchs "Porsche - Origin of the Species". Ludvigsen, selbst mit einer Ausbildung zum Maschinenbau-Ingenieur versehen, hatte sein vorangegangenes Werk über das Schaffen Ferdinand Porsches bis 1933 - "Ferdinand Porsche: Genesis des Genies" - gerade fertiggestellt; Jerry Seinfeld berichtete von seiner eindrucksvollen Sammlung klassischer Porsche, die von den Anfängen des Unternehmens bis zum letzten luftgekühlten 911, dem Typ 993, reichte.

Ein besonders wertvolles Exemplar der 47 Porsche umfassenden Seinfeld-Collection ist der Porsche 356/2-040, der aus der frühesten Zeit der Porsche-Produktion stammt. Ludvigsen, der sich in früheren Jahren auch in leitenden Funktionen bei General Motors, Fiat und Ford Europe einen Namen gemacht hatte, war von diesem Fahrzeug so angetan, dass er sich an die "Ahnenforschung" für den Sportwagen machte und schließlich unendlich viele Details zusammentrug, aus denen sich die Ursprünge des betagten Porsche praktisch lückenlos nachvollziehen lassen. Das Ergebnis von Ludvigsens Recherchen stellt den Ausgangspunkt für den Inhalt des vorliegenden Buchs dar. Er nahm den 356/2-040 zum Anlass, die Geschichte von Porsche von 1933 bis zur Produktion des 356 aufzuschreiben und das automobilistische Leitbild, das den Porsche-Konstruktionen zugrundelag und bis zum heutigen 911 reicht, zu rekonstruieren und zu verdeutlichen.

Da der 356/2-040 jedoch nicht der Beginn dieser Historie ist, findet sich seine Dokumentation auch nicht am Anfang des Buchs, sondern erst in den Kapiteln sieben und acht.

Nach einem Vorwort von Jerry Seinfeld und einer Einführung zeichnet Karl Ludvigsen im ersten Kapitel überaus knapp die Zeitschiene des Porsche-Designs von 1948 bis zum 996 nach und belegt die trotz aller konsequenten Weiterentwicklung doch unübersehbare Kontinuität der Formensprache der Sportwagen von Porsche. Im zweiten Abschnitt mit dem Titel "Automaking Ambitions" wird der Leser mit den ersten Sportwagen-Projekten des Porsche-Konstruktionsbüros vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg vertraut gemacht, die unter den Typ-Nummern 64, 114 und 60K10 bekannt geworden sind. Zugleich erfährt man viel Neues zu den unternehmerischen Ambitionen Porsches und der Entstehung des Firmensitzes in Zuffenhausen. Hochinteressant ist auch die Reproduktion eines Organigramms der neu gegründeten Dr.Ing.h.c.F.Porsche KG, die von einer straffen Führungsstrategie und zielorientierten Delegationsfähigkeit durch klare Aufgabenverteilung Zeugnis ablegt. Ergänzt wird dieser Abschnitt durch einen Einschub über die unter Porsches Federführung entstandenen Sportwagen der Auto Union.

"Turbulent War Years" beschreibt sehr differenziert die Porsche-Aktivitäten während der Kriegszeit. Das ist die Entstehungsgeschichte des Volkswagens, das ist aber auch die Konstruktion militärischer Technik - so wie sich die Nazi-Schergen die ingeniöse Genialität Ferdinand Porsches zu Nutze machten, so profitierte dieser große Konstrukteur auch von den zur Verfügung gestellten finanziellen Mitteln durch die Reichsregierung. Zugleich war sich Porsche durchaus der aus der weltpolitischen Lage herrührenden Gefahr für sich und seine Familie bewusst; nicht zuletzt diese weise Voraussicht veranlasste ihn, sich in österreich zwei "Dependancen" aufzubauen, nämlich in Gmünd und Zell am See. Gerade Gmünd bekam für folgenden Fahrzeugkonstruktionen große Bedeutung. Der Autor arbeitet sowohl die Wirkungsstätte "Gmünd-Karnerau" als auch die Rolle der wichtigsten Entscheidungsträger im Porsche-Gefüge - Ferry Porsche, Ghislaine Kaes, Karl Rabe - heraus. Bemerkenswert auch die Spannungen zwischen Ferdinand Porsche und Albert Speer, der Porsche schon wegen der Bewunderung, die er durch andere Nazi-Größen genoss, mit großem Misstrauen begegnete.

"Sawmill Survival" als nächstes Kapitel behandelt die Situation Ferdinand Porsches und seiner Familie nach dem Krieg. Porsche selbst geriet in französische Gefangenschaft, deren Bedingungen dem inzwischen nicht mehr jungen Konstrukteur gesundheitlich schwer zusetzten. Ungeachtet dessen führte das Konstruktionsbüro auf österreichischem Boden seine Planungen fort. Neben den eigenen Projekten hatten ja bereits zu Kriegszeiten die überlegungen für die Produktion des Volkswagens in Wolfsburg konkrete Formen angenommen. Ein Unterabschnitt zitiert aus den Tagebüchern des Porsche-Neffen Ghislaine Kaes, die sich nun auch in der Sammlung von Jerry Seinfeld befinden - ein tieferer und authentischerer Einblick in das Leben der Familien Porsche und Piech zu dieser Zeit ist bisher meines Wissens noch nicht gewährt worden.

Großen Raum nehmen die Geschichte von Cisitalia und die Rolle, die Ferdinand Porsche für dieses Unternehmen von Piero Dusio spielte, ein: "Italy to the Rescue". Die kurze, abwechslungsreiche und aufregende Historie, in die auch so namhafte Persönlichkeiten wie Tazio Nuvolari und Carlo Abarth verwickelt sind, ist ein erneuter Beleg für die schier unglaubliche Schaffenskraft und Vielseitigkeit des großen Konstrukteurs.

Nach diesen ersten fünf Kapiteln des Buchs gelangt man zum eigentlichen Auslöser für die Erstellung dieses - was die Porsche-Geschichte angeht - Grundlagenwerkes: Die drei Abschnitte "A Volkswagen Sports Car", "Miracle of Production" und "Saga of a Gmünd Porsche" widmen sich der Planung, Entwicklung und Entstehung des 356, beginnend mit der Vorstufe 352 und dem 356-Roadster, dem 356-001. Dem schließt sich die "Werdens-Dokumentation" der ersten 356 Coupés an, wobei auch die Wettbewerbsversionen eine angemessene Würdigung unter der überschrift "Type 356 Sports Leicht" erfahren. Den krönenden Abschluss dieses Teils des Buchs bildet die Darstellung von Seinfelds Sammlerstück 356/2-040 - von der Beschaffung dieses "Gmünd-Porsche" bis zu seiner wundervollen Instandsetzung. In diesem Kontext erzählt Ludvigsen auch die Geschichte von Otto Mathé, einem der ersten Porsche-Kunden, der den 356/2-052 im Wettbewerb einsetzte und auch Eigentümer des 356/2-040 war, mit dem allerdings Renneinsätze nicht festgestellt werden konnten.

Nach der Entlassung Ferdinand Porsches aus der französischen Gefangenschaft begann die Rückverlagerung der Konstruktions- und Produktionsaktivitäten von österreich nach Zuffenhausen, wo 1950 die Herstellung des 356 anlief. Bereits im März 1951 wurde der 500. Porsche 356 ausgeliefert. Zuvor war am 30. Januar 1951 Ferdinand Porsche gestorben, sein Sohn Ferry trat in die Fußstapfen des Vaters und bewies nachdrücklich, dass diese insbesondere auch auf unternehmerischem Gebiet nicht zu groß für ihn waren. Im Kapitel "Why Porsche?" werden diese Entwicklungen nachgezeichnet und zahlreiche andere auf Volkswagen-Basis entstandene Sportwagenkonstruktionen vorgestellt, wie zum Beispiel die Fahrzeuge von Hebmüller, Fritz Rometsch, Petermax Müller, Walter Glöckler oder Wolfgang Denzel.

Das zehnte und letzte Kapitel führt unter Wiederholung des Buchtitels "Origin of the Species" den überzeugenden Beweis, dass sich die Konstruktions- und Designgrundsätze des 356 als DNA der Porsche-Sportwagen bis zum modernen 911 fortsetzen und somit auch dessen einzigartigen Erfolg mitbegründeten - der Elfer feiert 2013 schließlich sein fast unglaubliches 50jähriges Jubiläum! Am Rande werden auch die Typen 914, 924 und 928 mit ihren Alleinstellungsmerkmalen, die für den 911 nie eine ernsthafte Konkurrenz darstellten, gestreift. Diese Feststellung wird auch durch die überaus interessanten Ausführungen von Ludvigsens Landsmann Peter W. Schutz gestützt, der als Vorstandsvorsitzender von Porsche in der Zeit von 1981 bis 1987 zum Glück das überleben und die beispielhafte Fortentwicklung des 911 sicherte und für die wirtschaftlichen Voraussetzungen des einzigartigen Siegeszuges der Typen 956/ 962 die Verantwortung trug.

Zwei Anhänge ergänzen das Buch inhaltlich: Auf sechs Seiten wird die Werksdokumentation für den Porsche 356/2-040 wiedergegeben, über 41 Seiten ist die Betriebsanleitung des Porsche 356 aus dem Jahre 1949 reproduziert. Den Abschluss bilden eine knappe Bibliografie, ein ausführlicher Index sowie ein Quellenverzeichnis der Fotografien.

Das auf hochwertigem Papier gedruckte und in bester Verarbeitung präsentierte Buch reiht sich nahtlos in die Reihe der überragenden Bände von Karl Ludvigsen über Porsche ein - "Porsche Excellence was Expected" und "Ferdinand Porsche - Genesis of Genius", ebenfalls in der englischsprachigen Originalausgabe bei Bentley Publishers verlegt, haben die Messlatte schon sehr hochgelegt, zählen diese beiden gewichtigen Werke doch zur unverzichtbaren Standardliteratur über die Porsche-Historie. Mit "Origin of the Species" wird Ludvigsen den eigenen sehr hohen Maßstäben nicht nur gerecht, er hat mit diesem Band wiederum ein wahres Meisterwerk geschaffen. Das Erstaunliche an seinen Recherchen sind die Tiefe im Detail und die Breite des Themenkreises, den er durchdringt. Wer dieses Buch liest, muss sich sehr viel Zeit und Muße nehmen; man kann nicht so nebenher nur darin blättern, man sollte mit ordentlichen Englischkenntnissen Stunden und Tage darin studieren. Natürlich wird die Porsche-Geschichte als Ganzes nicht neu geschrieben, aber Ludvigsen wartet mit so vielen Einzelheiten, Ursprüngen und Entwicklungen auf, dass auch der profundeste Porsche-Kenner teilweise neue Erkenntnisse gewinnen dürfte.

Einen zusätzlichen Reiz bezieht der Band aus den jedem Kapitel hinzugefügten so genannten "Sidebars", die nichts anderes sind als punktuelle Zusatzinformationen, zum Teil von anderen Autoren vermittelt. Beispielsweise äußert sich Thomas Freeman zu "The Legacy of Erwin Komenda", Miles Collier über "The Art of Restauration", Robert Cumberford stellt "Thoughts on the First Porsche 356" an, Alex Finigan beschreibt "My Experience with 356/2-040", Grant Larson würdigt "The Gmünd Porsches", Peter W. Schutz beschreibt - wie schon erwähnt - trefflich "The Power of Porsche's DNA". Weitere interessante Themen dieser Einschübe sind "The Auto Union Sports Car", "Gmünd in Carinthia", "Petermax Müller's Opportunistic Racers", "Ghislaine Kaes and his Diaries", "The Private Life of 356-001" sowie "The Otto Mathé Story".

Nicht weniger eindrucksvoll als der Text ist die reichhaltige Illustration des Buchs. Neben den zum großen Teil erstmals veröffentlichten Fotos begeistern auch zahlreiche Schnittzeichnungen von technischen Details, Aufnahmen aus den Anlagen in Gmünd-Karnerau, Ablichtungen von den ersten Versuchsfahrzeugen des 356 im Einsatz und Bilder aus dem engeren Umfeld Ferdinand Porsches.

Die bestechenden Großaufnahmen vom 356/2-040 werden keinen Porsche-Fan kalt lassen, sie verdanken wir der fotografischen Kunst von Michael Furman. Die meisten Fotos stammen aus den Archiven von Porsche und Ludvigsen, aber auch zahlreiche kleinere Sammlungen und Privatarchive haben ihren Anteil zum Gelingen des Buchs beigetragen.

Dieses Grundlagenwerk von Karl Ludvigsen hat in überzeugender Weise die Wurzeln von Porsche erforscht und wiedergegeben und erklärt den Zusammenhang zwischen der aus dem Konzept des 356 ausgelesenen DNA und der heutigen Gestaltung der Porsche-Sportwagen in Form des unsterblichen 911. Dieses Buch ist für den wahren Porsche-Kenner und -Fan nicht nur eine Empfehlung, es ist fast schon eine Verpflichtung.

http://www.ring1.de/news/single-news/article/2012/09/21/entschluesselt-die-dna-der-porsche-sportwagen/

Article from and courtesy of Ring1.de - September 21, 2012