Porsche prototype building and testing Updated 23.11.2010 Testing the aerodynamics of a 356 Ferdinand Porsche's grandson and Ferdinand Anton Ernst (Ferry) Porsche's son, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche designed the best sportscar of the 20th century, the 901, later to be renamed 911. F.A. Porsche later established his own design company called "Porsche Design". Before the Weissach development and test center was created, the cars were tested in various and sometimes even strange methods. Before the setting up of modern crash facilities, crash tests such as the one shown here for front, rear and roof structures on the 904 were carried out. In this first crash test in 1966 the performance of a Porsche 904 in crash conditions was tested. In order to simulate a front impact at a speed of 50 km/h, a Porsche 904 (530 kg empty weight, glass-fibre-reinforced plastic body) was dropped from a height of 10 meters. Before the first crash facility was developed in Weissach, 72 crash tests with impact speeds of up to 80 km/h were carried out in this manner. In 1971 Porsche purchased land and built its Research & Development Center in Weissach, just 20 km from the factory in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. Porsche development center in Weissach 924 in a wind tunnel Preparation for a 924 roll test The 924 has been draged up to the hill to be released for a roll crash test Making of the 928 clay model 944 prototype. Note the door handles and wheels that never went to production "944" embossed on prototype wheels or actually they look more like plastic covers on steel wheels. Fortunately, all production models came with aluminium wheels. 986 Boxster in a front end crash test. Note the strange door mirror. And a 986 facelift Boxster in a back end crash test. Please note the different air intakes. This tells us that the car on the upper photo is the original Boxster which was launched for sale on 1996 and the Boxster on the lower photo has the newer deisgn air intake of the 986 Boxster facelift model (it came out in August 2002 as a 2003 model). Strange thing is that the facelift 986 Boxster had real rear glass and no polyurethane anymore which we can still see on this photo. Of course, no prototype is exactly the same as the production model. This is a trick photo from Porsche. The car on the photo is the first watercooled 911, the 996 which was launched in late 1997. The trick with the photo is that it is made using real car. This is acted photo. As you can see the front bumper is not made of clay but a production bumper is covered with clay-color decal. On the photo the guy finishes the shape of front fender - how stupid is that - the fender in a 996 came from a Boxster which was released a year before the 996. The front fenders in 986 Boxster and 996 911 are exactly the same. Also the front lamps are the same, but on this photo they show how they are still developing the lamps. At the closer look you see that the right front lamp is the production version (hidden by the hand of the man in blue T-shirt). This car seems to have full interior also, so it is probably a car from the production line which was covered with a clay-color decal and the whole scene was a set up for a photo shoot. By the way, the guy behind the car on the right is the head designer Harm Lagaay. He has been involved in designing 924, 968, 911 993, Boxster, 911 996, Carrera GT and Cayenne. 911 996 in a rear end crash. Note, the brake supports have Brembo logos (production models have Brembo brakes also, but with "PORSCHE" scripts. Note the Boxster dashboard in a 996 prototype Testing of the 911 996 Carrera Coupé in Canada Rain test 911 996 Targa prepared for a crash test. 996 Targa was released together with 996 facelift Carrera in 2001 as a 2002 model. Many true Porsche fanatics think that driving a Cayenne to a wall is the right thing to do. Note the wheels that never went to production. Carbon-composite body panels of a Porsche 980, a Porsche Carrera GT in other words. Crash test is the necessary part of the car development, although you don't want to see a supercar crashed, neither accidentally nor on purpose. With Porsche's first supercar, the 1987 Porsche 959, the car was not available in USA because US officials didn't accept the Porsche crash test results and demanded 4 ready-made production 959's for themselves to be crashtested in USA. Porsche didn't agree to that and the 959 was only allowed for street use in USA after the law changed in 1999. Cayman prototype Note the 996-look camouflage made to the front lights and Boxster-look side air intakes. Note the camouflage made to the rear of the car - 911 996 Turbo-look exhaust pipes. The actual smoke comes from the pipes in the middle. Testing the noises of a 911 997 918 Spyder