Walter Röhrl quotes a sentence from his brother from his youth: 'If you're going to buy a car, then buy something clever.' You guessed it, it can only be a Porsche. And although his role model died in an accident with the 356 when Röhrl was just getting his driver's license, there has always been a Porsche in his garage since he first bought a used 356 at the age of 21.

According to him, it is the ingenious concept of the Beetle that has done it to him. The rear engine as the shortest connection from the engine to the drive wheels, which was common at the time. In addition, these are more and more loaded the steeper it goes up the mountain. In any case, Röhrl is an unconditional fan of all-wheel drive, which is probably also due to his unbreakable connection to the Audi quattro S1.

Of course, he can also indulge this passion at the Porsche company, for which he first drove in 1981. In 1993, after his time as a test driver at Audi, he became a brand ambassador for Porsche and since then has had the opportunity to test as many of the company's models as possible at regular intervals during their development. Röhrl is skeptical about the modern regulations of rallying.

His assessment of the Porsche brand was completely different. They sell there a kind of all-rounder with the 911. The car is more suited to both everyday use and the racetrack than any other. He is not so enthusiastic about a Boxster or Cayman because they are only expressly suitable for two people. Anyone who has ever tried to trace the myth of the 911 may already find the basics here.

Porsche is also fundamentally concerned about durability. He drove his first Porsche for three years without a defect, which, by the way, he actually couldn't have afforded. In addition, Röhrl raves about the slimness of the construction. Thus one won against opponents with a much larger cubic capacity because you were driving the lighter car and, for example, on was processed faster at the pits.

Porsche would traditionally be a brand for people who are somehow more agile and drive more dynamically. But that has changed in the last few decades, where customers of this brand are also demanding more comfort. As a test driver, he has to take this into account, but he still mourns the somewhat older, more 'poisonous' models with incredibly much less weight. This roughly sums up the views of the man who was once voted the best rally driver of all time by 100 journalists.

At least that makes clear the connection between the brand and motorsport. The attitude that was once intended as advertising has long since become more than just a mainstay. While the engine for a 356 was always a compromise of what was intended for the VW Beetle, that of the 911 is clearly a solution that is also suitable for racing. From here at the latest, series production and racing develop in parallel.

Hans Mezger says that some things have changed in the racing versions, but the crankcase and its ingredients have remained basically untouched. Incredible considering the huge performance gains. Perhaps this is the only manufacturer where really new developments flow from one division to the other.

Mezger cites the development of turbocharging as an example. The had become necessary for the 917 when the rules were changed at the FIA. In the search for a new field of activity for what was, after all, an expensive development, the American CANAM series came into consideration, where, however, you had to compete against vehicles with significantly larger displacements. Then, probably after an odyssey with even more cylinders, turbocharging was introduced at Porsche.

And since the regulations required 400 cars, that was the starting signal for the far superior 911 Turbo. Again as with the 356, a small series planned and subsequently sold by the thousands. Nevertheless, Walter Röhrl says that if you had fully accelerated with the first vehicles of this type, nothing happened for two seconds but then you would have had the feeling that someone drove onto the car from behind.

Porsche as a developer, already always for its own products and for VW, should then at some point be extended to other manufacturers in a marketable manner. The way in which the center was created in Weissach may also be somehow typical of the brand. As before when they returned to Stuttgart, you first had to deal with two roundabouts and wooden barracks, which are gradually were enlarged and into which more and more departments were moving, first in part and then in full.

Everything was still in proportion and hopefully hasn't changed too much since Porsche became a holding company and even owns a majority of VW. It is said of the time under Ferry Porsche that it was never a problem to speak to the boss directly in special cases. No, let's not kid ourselves, the company has long since outgrown the middle class. Here, too, 70 people and more are now only involved with the design of a new model.

Maybe that's where the image was formed that the vehicles were built and operated with particular precision. However, Ferdinand Piech contradicts this when he says, albeit in the Audi part of his book, that in Garmisch- Partenkirchen, which has a particularly high number of Porsche 911, the rear bodies were literally rusted through after two winters with lots of snow and road salt. Hot galvanization was only introduced after angry protests.

No, perfection can be a goal, but you shouldn't take it for granted. Maybe a problem of a little richer people. With the complex products that this clientele can afford, it was and still is difficult to find out about the quality of a product to be bought, even with the help of the Internet. There is a metaphor among each other as a recommendation: 'You can't go wrong by buying a Porsche.' 'And certainly not with a 911', one would like to add.