Porsche, with over 12,000 employees in 2008, is the smallest German automobile builder, but the largest sports car specialist in the world. The company was founded in December 1930, when Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, with 12 close associates, established an office in Stuttgart for “design and consultation on engines and vehicles.” By 1932, Porsche’s design office had developed the torsion bar suspension element that is still in use in automobiles around the world. In 1934, the Porsche Company was commissioned by the manufacturers association to design “a utilitarian car of normal dimensions but relatively low weight, to be achieved by new basic measures.” Prototypes of this car were on the road by the end of 1935 but World War II postponed mass production of the vehicle. After the war, Volkswagen started production of the car, which came to be known as the VW Beetle. In 1972, when the 15,007,034th unit left Continue reading