This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 911 Turbo, but few people outside the Porsche family know the story of the very first blown elfer.
Car number one was still a prototype when Ferry Porsche presented it to his older sister Louise Piëch as a 70th birthday gift on August 29, 1974. Unlike the three-litre production cars Louise’s turbocharged 930 model was powered by a 2.7-litre flat six. It also wore standard bodywork, devoid of the car’s trademark wide arches, although the rubber-lipped “whale tail” spoiler did make its first appearance.
Under her right foot she had 270 hp, compared to the 260 horses of those sold to the public, and she liked to use them all at every opportunity. “I like to drive fast, and I enjoy it, too,” she reportedly said, while her son Ernst recalls, “She didn’t like to have anyone in front of her, she wasn’t keen on being second.”
The oldest child of Aloisia and Ferdinand Porsche, Louise was literally born into the automotive industry. In 1910 after her father won the 1200-mile Prinz-Heinrich-Fahrt race, six-year-old Louise joined him in the passenger seat for a lap of honor. In 1914 Porsche would pay tribute to his daughter with his Austro-Daimler AD 35 Louise Wagen. Appropriately she received one for her 16th birthday, by which time she was already a skilled driver.
“Everything revolved around cars in our grandfather’s house,” says Ernst Piëch, “and she was fascinated by them, too.” Louise took part in local motorsports, but hung up her helmet when she married Anton Piëch. She would go on to play a pivotal role in the family business, first working at her father’s design office and then founding Porsche Konstruktionen GmbH with her younger brother Ferry in 1947. The first sports car to bear the family name – the 356 – would arrive a year later. “I would say she was perhaps the more resolute of the two, whereas my uncle was more focused on balance,” remembers Ernst Piëch, “so they complemented one another very well.”
When Porsche moved production to Stuttgart, Germany, Louise stayed in Austria taking on the role of Commercial Councillor of Porsche Salzburg and growing it into the biggest automobile trading company in Europe.
By the time of her 70th birthday and the delivery of 911 Turbo No. 1 the siblings had taken a step back from the day-to-day running of the Porsche companies, but Ferry could still pull a few strings and was able to gift the landmark car to his sister as a thank you for all her years of commitment. It wouldn’t be her last Porsche either and she continued to drive until her 90s. “Up until old age, she liked to drive the 911 the most,” says Ernst Piëch, “but by then she knew her limits.”
Louise Piëch passed away on February 10, 1999 at the age of 94, but her legacy will live forever.
