Porsche 911 Forever Young
Written by Tobias Aichele
These two books present different approaches to the same story. Aichele worked for Porsche’s Presse department and his history of the 911 incorporates countless quotes from interviews done with company engineers and designers. Technical information, while not the primary purpose in the first 284 pages of text, is detailed in an appendix from page 285 through 392. Aichele’s English-language translation begins with prototypes from the late 1950s and ends with Typ 993 model year 1994, making it a thorough and insightful history of the air-cooled 911s. As readers can imagine, Aichele’s job within Porsche Presse gave him access to the company’s fine photo archive and the book is heavily illustrated with what were, at the time, dozens of images never seen before.
Porsche 911 Forever Young – First published in German by Motorbuch Verlag, 1993. Published in English in 1995 by Beeman Jorgensen. 392 pages. Find it here: www.amazon.com, or www.abebooks.com
Porsche 911 Story The Entire Development History, Ninth Edition
Written by Paul Frère & Tony Dron
French journalist and racing driver Paul Frère issued the first edition of Porsche 911 Story in 1976. Since then he, and now his collaborator, fellow journalist and racer Tony Dron, have updated and revised this history every three to six years. This latest edition takes readers through introduction of the 911 Typ 911, the most recent iteration of the sports car. Where Aichele’s Forever Young is anecdotal in nature, revealing inside stories in the words of the participants themselves, Frère and Dron take an engineer’s approach with detailed facts, data, diagrams, and graphs that match in number the quantity of “coffee-table book”-type beauty shots of cars.
This new collaboration remains true to Frère’s work following his death in February 2008. Tony Dron takes over on page 498 at the start of Part V and he gets right to the matter at hand, explaining the origin, engineering, and design of Porsche’s 991. His writing style blends seamlessly with Frère’s, and his work suggest that this essential reference will continue through the next several 911 generations to provide information and insight.
Taken together, Aichele’s book and this latest Frère/Dron project provide enthusiasts a well-rounded history of Porsche’s 911.
Porsche 911 Story The Entire Development History, Ninth Edition – 2013 Haynes Publishing. 552 pages. Find it at www.amazon.com.