Journey into the Known
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Journey into the Known
911 kilometers. Driving the new 911 from Zuffenhausen to Austria. A journey into the known. From where the car is made to where its roots live on. Every stop along the way is an experience, every meter a discovery. Every minute an insight. Exit, approach, arrival—culminating in a meeting between the future and its origin. The story continues.
Continuity arises from hindsight. No other car consistently offers so much innovation yet mysteriously seems hardly to differ. Transition—yes. But radical change—no. Fast, but not hurried. Always the best, without diminishing what came before. Not tradition and innovation, but tradition from innovation. Porsche has made more than a million 911s. And people still turn to look at them as if George Clooney had walked by. The 911 is a phenomenon of contemporary, cultural, technological, and design history. It will remain the “quintessential individualistic utopia,” as it has been called. Yet it has never been taken for granted.
Christophorus is older than the 911. It predates the car by eleven years. It has been at the heart of the 911 community right from the start. A true believer.
Dr. Josef Arweck
EditorA printed testimony to individuality and collectivity, to the special qualities of each one and the value of the community as a whole. This special edition, dedicated entirely to the new 911, expresses that beautifully: eight stories that highlight the extraordinary in the familiar, the essence of place, and the compelling reference to Porsche.
Explanations, impressions, explorations. All manner of questions—and of answers. What’s new about what’s proven? Is the car at home among the Friends of Air-Cooled Flat Engines? How do students at Pforzheim University and Porsche designers interpret its idiom of design, and how much of the transition from sports cars to sporty mobility can the experts at Porsche Digital predict? In addition, how do pedestrians on Munich’s Maximilianstraße react to the car? What can Angelique Kerber learn from Mark Webber and vice versa? What does freedom mean on the road up to the Turracher Höhe pass?
“Porsche has made more than a million 911s. And people still turn to look at them as if George Clooney had walked by.” Dr. Josef Arweck
And finally—how is renewal possible without a loss of identity? Driving up to Schüttgut in the town of Zell am See means driving home to the family estate of the Porsches and Piëchs. According to Dr. Wolfgang Porsche, “the key to innovation is the ability to keep questioning everything without losing one’s identity.” A red 911—the oldest 911 in Porsche’s possession—greets us in front of the house. A legend in its own right, as fresh as it was back then, radiating the splendor of the past and powered by nothing more than fifty-five years of vibrant and consummated expectation. By the year 2025 more than 50 percent of Porsches will have an electric drive. There may also be a hybrid 911 by then. It’ll be a 911 through and through.
Wherever you have come from, wherever you are going, our Christophorus will accompany you.