Happy Birthday Prof. Dr. Ing h.c. Ferdinand Porsche

On this day, 133 years ago in 1875, Ferdinand Porsche was born.
By 1905, when he was only 30 years old, he was already a famous engineer in Europe because of his work with Jakob Lohner & Company. For years after that he worked for various different firms, always responsible for the cars that dominated racing. He eventually worked for Austro-Daimler and Mercedes-Benz, built the Mercedes-Benz SSK and the prototype for the Volkswagen Beetle.

In 1931, he founded the consulting firm that would go on to become the Porsche motor company, Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH, Konstruktionen und Beratungen für Motern, Fahrzeug, Luftfahrzeug, and Wasserfahrzeugbau (Constructions and Consultation for Motors, Vehicles, Aircraft, and Watercraft). The famous Dr. Ing h.c. comes from an honorary doctorate from Vienna Technical University.

He died on January 30, 1951 after suffering a stroke a few months earlier. He was a completely self made man, with almost no formal education, who became the greatest automobile engineer of all time.

In 1999, he was given the posthumous title of Car Engineer of the Century.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Porsche.

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