Karl Ludvigsen’s newest book, Porsche – Origin of the Species, launches on Saturday, August 18th in Danvers, MA as part of the Porsche 356 East Coast Holiday. Karl will be present at the event to give the keynote speech. He will also be available for book signings and autographs.
Jerry Seinfeld’s Porsche 356 Gmünd Coupe
In conjunction with Karl and the worldwide launch of “Porsche – Origin of the Species”, Jerry Seinfeld’s Porsche 356 2/040 (the very car that forms the inspiration for this new Ludvigsen book) will be on display. This particular Porsche Gmünd is one of the oldest, original condition Porsches still on the road today. It is considered by many to be the car from which all Porsche 356s and 911s trace their lineage.
Books will be available for sale at the launch and then available world-wide on September 3, 2012. You can pre-order a copy from Amazon if you would like to be amongst the first to receive it. We’re still waiting for our press copy and will publish our review just as soon as we get to read it. For more information on the Porsche 356 Registry and their events please view http://www.ech2012.com/
Excerpt from Introduction to Porsche – Origin of the Species
Karl was kind enough to send us some information about the book and included the following excerpt. I think it does a fantastic job of setting the stage for exactly what to expect when reading.
What has been the secret of the species Porsche? What has given it such strong survivability? Indeed it has been adaptable as well, elements of its strain being incorporated in such sharply differing models as the Cayenne and Panamera, making them visibly and identifiably members of the extended Porsche family. In part we can credit the continuity of Porsche’s styling chiefs, from Erwin Komenda and Butzi Porsche through Tony Lapine and Harm Lagaay, not to mention such key interpreters as Dick Soderberg, Wolfgang Möbius, Pinky Lai and Grant Larson.
Yet these men and others had to have something to work with, some starting point that could be identified as the origin of the species Porsche. Divining that origin is the purpose of this book. We know what the first Porsches looked like, the 356 variants of 1948 that established the lineage. But why did they look the way they did? What underpinned their design? What are the roots of the DNA that caused the 356 to be born with a configuration that departed so radically from the sports-car status quo?
I invite you to join me as we turn back the clock to the late 1930s and the 1940s when the Porsche sports-car DNA was created. That’s how far back we need to go to grasp the influences, the ideas, the men and the machinery that made up the Type 356. Some of the saga will be familiar but much will be new even to the most seriously shriven Porsche fanatic. It begins before World War 2 when the Porsche men created the car the world knew as the Volkswagen. Crude and humble though it was, it gave them plenty of ideas.
Other Porsche Blog Posts You Should Read
Interview with Karl Ludvigsen on Porsche: Excellence was Expected
Book Review: White Racers from Zuffenhausen by Karl Ludvigsen
Karl Ludvigsen: Porsche Spyders 1956-1964
The Lost Spyder Book Review
This book about Porsche Sounds great!
Jerry Seinfeld’s 1997 Porsche 911 Turbo S
[Source: Karl Ludvigsen and Bentley Publishers]